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"What can you be the best in the world at? " Ridiculous and idealistic. Is Porsche the best sports car or the best selling sports car? Is Avis the best car ren

by larrys 15y ago

"What can you be the best in the world at? " Ridiculous and idealistic. Is Porsche the best sports car or the best selling sports car? Is Avis the best car rental company and on what metric? Is Burger King the best fast food? What is the definition of best? Best selling? Most profitable? Highest quality?

bmelton 15y ago
If nobody tried to be the best, there wouldn't be anything good. Porsche may not be "the best" sports car overall as that is a very subjective metric. Though for sure, they make an exceptional car. For various definitions of 'reasonable', the 911 is the most performant car in at its price point (or at least, generally is, these things wax and wane). The key isn't whether they are the best sports car, but whether or not they're succeeding at being the best at ... something. That something may not be as broad as 'best sports car', but may be much more narrow. Twitter isn't "the best website" in the world, but it might be the best way to transmit short messages to a broad list of friends. Similarly, Dropbox might do very poorly in a "best system backup" utility, but might win competitions involving ease of use, or in being convenient enough that its users actually bother (which is better than most backup providers.) The companies that try to be all things to all people are few and far between, and us, as entrepreneurs, are thankful for them because all it means is we have to beat them in one small segment and they acquire us. ;-)
officemonkey 15y ago
That's covered in the book as well. You get to pick the thing you're best at. From my own experience, Hertz has decided to concentrate on the metric "Getting regular customers into a car as quickly as possible." I recently went to Enterprise and I was appalled by the difference in customer service. They were nice, and the car was fine, but nobody _wants_ to spend 15 minutes waiting in line for a car. As far as car makers, there are many metrics as well. You could go with "per car profitability," or you could go with "lowest cost per car," or you could go with "best customer retention." The thing is, once you decide _which_ best car maker you're going to be. Once you decide, you become ruthless in pursuing it.

by larrys 15y ago

bmelton 15y ago

If nobody tried to be the best, there wouldn't be anything good. Porsche may not be "the best" sports car overall as that is a very subjective metric. Though for sure, they make an exceptional car. For various definitions of 'reasonable', the 911 is the most performant car in at its price point (or at least, generally is, these things wax and wane). The key isn't whether they are the best sports car, but whether or not they're succeeding at being the best at ... something. That something may not be as broad as 'best sports car', but may be much more narrow. Twitter isn't "the best website" in the world, but it might be the best way to transmit short messages to a broad list of friends. Similarly, Dropbox might do very poorly in a "best system backup" utility, but might win competitions involving ease of use, or in being convenient enough that its users actually bother (which is better than most backup providers.) The companies that try to be all things to all people are few and far between, and us, as entrepreneurs, are thankful for them because all it means is we have to beat them in one small segment and they acquire us. ;-)

officemonkey 15y ago

That's covered in the book as well. You get to pick the thing you're best at. From my own experience, Hertz has decided to concentrate on the metric "Getting regular customers into a car as quickly as possible." I recently went to Enterprise and I was appalled by the difference in customer service. They were nice, and the car was fine, but nobody _wants_ to spend 15 minutes waiting in line for a car. As far as car makers, there are many metrics as well. You could go with "per car profitability," or you could go with "lowest cost per car," or you could go with "best customer retention." The thing is, once you decide _which_ best car maker you're going to be. Once you decide, you become ruthless in pursuing it.