Competing on Design

As a start up it is impossible to compete on price.  Attempting to compete on quality or service is purely delusional.  The only thing left is to compete on design.

The customer is the most important thing in business, and getting the product right is the hardest.  In any event, you work closely with designers to get the product right for your customers. But once you figure out how to get the product right for the customers, it gets easy.

Indeed, you start making the designers do most of the work, like NIKE and Apple.  And James Patterson, the # 1 Bestseller writer in history (outside of God, who wrote the Bible).

My friend James Patterson is a big believer in the importance of a great outline. These days, in fact, the outline may be the main thing he actually writes, while he turns over the actual writing to his stable of co-authors. This is how he manages to turn out three or four novels a year, and still fit in a few holes of golf most days.

He just outlines a good book, and hires hacks to write the bestseller.

Patterson started in advertising, and in Ogilvy's book her says the ad men just write a great headline and then let hacks write the ad copy.  Probably where he learned to do this.

This is how it is done, folks.  Get your biz going so you can do it.

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