ZIPHO SIKHAKHANE: Dare to be different — before disruptors eat your lunch
As long as the one who dares to be different does so consistently, they easily gain market share from the more traditional competitors
Old ways of thinking are never enough to deliver new solutions. This is a simple saying that is easy to grasp at the mental level, but so often we fail to follow through with it when it comes to implementing it in our day-to-day business activities. We default to the ways of thinking that we have always relied on, decade after decade - more so when the stakes are high. No one wants to face the fury of the board of directors should the company lose millions from having said yes to a new opportunity that falls outside of the organisation's traditional comfort zone. Regardless of how determined we are to change how we think and what we do, when it comes to crunch time, the mind is quick to resort to the old-habit patterns of behaving it is more comfortable with. Look at retail, for example - every year it is exactly the same marketing campaigns during the festive season and other big sales periods on the calendar. If one retailer dares to try something different, and that works well, o...
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