Collapse of Distinction

I read Scott McKain’s book, Collapse of Distinction over the weekend.  The premise of the book is that our culture has become so homogenized that everything we do, everywhere we go, and all that we see is the same.  Sameness dominates the culture to the point that we are only comfortable with things that are familiar.  The McDonald’s that I went to last weekend in Tennessee is almost identical to the McDonald’s that is in the town I live in.  The menu is exactly the same.  Walmart looks the same regardless of where I am.  

 

McKain uses two small diners from his hometown in Indiana as the thread of example through the book.  The diners were rocked when the new McDonald’s came into town and only one of them survived.  McKain surmises that the reason the one survived was because the owner kept his diner distinct while the one that failed merely tried to ‘out-McDonald’ McDonald’s.  So, distinction is the key to survival for us today. 

 

McKain explains there are four cornerstones of distinction; clarity, creativity, communication, and customer-experience focus.  Clarity, being the first cornerstone, is the key.  He thinks, and I agree, that so many businesses and organizations don’t really know who they are today.  There are so many businesses out there that are either trying to ‘out-McDonald’ their competition or that are trying (and failing) to be all things to all people.  Clarity allows a business (or an individual for that matter) to know exactly what their focus is and helps them make all of their product and marketing decisions.  

 

We are all creative, whether we think we are or not.  The issue many of us have, though, is that we aren’t clear on what we want to be creative about.  I know this is true in my own life.  The times I feel non-creative are the times that I am unfocused and I’m trying to create something that is not in my purview of focus.  Communication also depends on clarity.  We can’t communicate well what we can’t focus on.  We must be clear as we communicate.

 

A customer-experience focus is a five step process.  We need to ask a question; ‘what would happen if everything went exactly right’?  The answer to this question is a good analysis of the things we need to do for our customers to have a great experience with us.  Next, we need to engage our customer in the process.  Many times the best way to do this is to simply ask them what they think or what would make them feel like this was a great experience for them.  The next step is to sync the information that you discovered in the first two steps.  Then, we need outline the roadblocks and finally, the most important step is to execute.  Remember, the all of the steps in the world won’t be effective until we execute the plan.

 

For me, McKain’s teaching on clarity was most effective.  We must deal with the fact that we can’t be all things to all people and that we all have a mission and purpose in life.  Overall, the book is a good, quick read.  There are lots of pearls of wisdom in the book.  Obviously, not every pearl will resonate with every reader, but every reader will come away with a few pearls in their purse.