by: Sigurd Rinde
Good quotes often come from unexpected sources. Yesterday one of my sons came home with a sheet setting out the teaching philosophy of his drum instructor, in which I found the following gem about the importance of passion:
"And with passion comes creativity. When we create, we have no competition. We need not worry about someone being better than us, only different."
From percussion to business; allow me to add how Michael Porter conveys a definition of strategy:
"What value are you to deliver to what customers and how are you going to be different."
For those concerned about this ‘forget about competing’ attitude allow me to suggest that:
"The best way to beat your competition is to make them irrelevant."
There is no way around ‘being different’ – the core of creativity, an unavoidable part of business strategy and the source of success in a competitive market.
Creativity has to start at the top, and not so much by focus on the usual ‘how to create a creative organisation’. The leaders must be extremely creative themselves and dare to be different.
Go and be different.
