"A US study says that just four ideas copied thousands of times account for 80% of all breakthrough new businesses created between 1965 and 1995. The four ideas are: power retailing, focus / simplify / standardize, value chain bypass and mega-branding." - via BrainMail Issue 12 via Strategy + Business
Isn't that amazing? And Disappointing? Lets look a little closer:
Power Retailing:
"Business Week first popularized the term power retailing in citing the competitive advantages of certain large chains: They "are fast and focused. Merchandise is well-selected and plentiful. Customers go out of their way to shop at power retailers' stores because they know they'll find what they want with a minimum of hassles." - about.comReal World Examples: Walmart, Gap, Home Depot
Web Examples: Amazon, Buy.com. WestElm. There aren't many big web examples because a big strength of the web is that it lets the little guys compete up against the giants.
Focus/Simplify/Standardize:
Like Henry Ford's "Any color you want, as long as it's black" quote, the idea here is to narrow your offerings rather than broaden. Make the same thing over and over. Take out features. Make it easier.Real World Examples: Pizza by the slice booths, JiffyLube
Web Examples: 37Signals, Threadless
Value Chain Bypass:
A Value Chain is typically considered to be three or more otherwise independent businesses from different segments of an industry working together to help each member in the chain meet their business goals. So a VC Bypass would be skipping one of those members (e.g. Doing your own marketing instead of hiring a firm) - gov.ab.caReal World Examples: Somebody suggest one.
Web Examples: TuneCore, Ebay
Mega-branding:
Branding out the wazoo to the point where your brand makes up a significant percentage of the value of the organization. "If you bought the organization, (the legal entity) you would destroy much of its value if you changed its name." - Marketing ProfsReal World Examples: Dell
Web Examples: Facebook, Myspace
But what about the web?
Power Retailing? How about Crank It Yourself Retailing? Etsy lets you buy & sell handmade items. Think along the same lines with artists making their own posters, shirts, music. Form a collective with groups of smaller artists to power past the power retailers.Focus/Simplify will always be a winner in my book. The niches will just keep getting smaller. Oh me? I only sell quality shoe laces, you'll have to go somewhere else for the shoes.
A big part the web has going for it is interactivity. So what about "Value Chain Addition"? Like adding comments and live chats to static news stories like NewsVine. Or the way Feedburner can automatically add amazon affiliate links and delicious/digg links into your feeds?
Megabranding turned personal. Blogging the brand was one of Business Week's best ideas of 2005 and it will only get more popular. Take the Ning Bashing that TechCrunch recently unleashed. It's easy to dislike/hate on products/services that don't have a face behind them. Ning responded and TechCrunch softened. Think cell phone customers will be slightly more understanding if they see a new post everyday about what work has been going on in thier area? I do.
So what's it all mean?
Obviously the "four pillars" of breakthrough new businesses have worked in the past, but I believe there will be a shift into these Longtailesque ideas that will account for a greater amount of success.The wonderful illustration is lawroberts from flickr.