John PHI⑊PIN

Another Gaping Void nails it. Full piece here, though they don’t use the phrase 'business bifurcation'.

For a long time, it has been clear that business is bifurcating. The two models are either;

• the 'pile-em-high-and-sell-em-cheap' model to borrow from Tesco's Jack Cohen's business strategy
• the 'totally-high-end-special-and-niche' model - think $20 dollar pints of beer, $300 bottles of wine, handcrafted artisan wafers ...

Gaping Void's piece brings you right up to date with stories form Saville Row - a set of businesses you might expect to fail in thelight of (say) Brookes Brothers collapse. But no - business bifurcation.

To be fair - those high-end examples aren't the only way to be in that niche space. Business that scale and deliver low price, do so at the cost of service, value, the personal touch, sometimes quality ...

If you are a small business - don’t wonder how to compete with Amazon ... work out how to differentiate from Amazon. What worked 20, 30 years ago - still works. It's just that the 'what' is different.

And the first 'what' is 'what business are you in'. It might not be what you think. The business you are in is your 'core'. Everything else is context. (To borrow from my 'old' friend Geoffrey Moore.)

It's arguably too true to be funny, but not why I am sharing. Rather because in the accompanying post (here), reference is made to a post by Ribbon Farm's Venkatesh Rao. (This post specifically.)

The Gervais Principle (I wonder where he got that name from) also introduces us to The MacLeod Life Cycle, which seems to be very closely modelled on Sakar's life cycle.

You see - it is all connected.

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Thinking Allowed

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