How do you teach an old industry new tricks?

How do you teach an old industry new tricks?

A good mantra for teaching an old industry new tricks is: make the common uncommon.

Basically, redefine the industry. Make it more cool, more interesting, more fun to delight customers who’ve grown bored of existing offerings. This means shifting perspective, creating a new vector of value through a process of elimination to remove existing crap and find another core that matters.

Take Google Chrome, it redefined the browser from one focused on too much personalization (bloat made it slow) to one focused on speed (simplicity). The result is a browser worthy of our multitasking behavior, optimized for the mobile era, and accessible to anyone; no matter their bandwidth speed.

As users, we have benefited from Google’s shift in perspective as other browsers have since caught up; that wouldn’t have happened if Google hadn’t taken the initiative.

Method is another business that redefined its industry by focusing on the customer experience, not just its products; it altered how people view home cleaning products forever. Because their products are designed with fancy colors and forms, there are stories of people who would use them for show in their living room. Talk about getting people to behave differently than before, the best compliment you can give Method is they created a deeper desire for people to want to clean their house!

Anyway, teaching an old industry new tricks requires a shift in perspective. It’s like comedy, think about how you might make something that has no punch, that is boring and dull, a lot more interesting, fun and cool.