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Focus on one thing ... is that fact?

by Scott Ames
25 replies
We've been told over and over to focus on one thing. Get good at one thing. I am speaking of business focus here, not individual work focus.

Starbucks should focus on coffee. What if they built a computer? Would that sell?

The Video Professor should focus on selling computer training. What if he started selling shampoo, would that sell?

It sounds obvious that companies need to focus... but....

What about McDonalds? They should focus on hamburgers. What if they sold chicken or salad or coffee? Well they do. Perhaps McDonald motorcycles would not sell well, don't know.

What about Microsoft? They should focus on software obviously. I thought they had gotten out of hand when they branched out from just the operating system into every other known form of software, then hardware and games.

To me the ultimate is Virgin. Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Condoms ( I kid you not ) , Virgin mobile, on and on.

So what makes the difference? Why can one company like Virgin do almost anything successfully while conventional wisdom says to "tend to your knitting" and don't do anything you are not experienced with?

I believe I know the secret as told by Sir Richard Branson, but I would like to hear what you think. You can use that secret in your business. The first person to get the right answer gets a gold star. If no one gets it I'll post the "secret"
#fact #focus #thing
  • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
    Didn't they all start out by focusing on one thing and then building that (and their brand) up?

    They didn't jump into all those things on Day One.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    Focus on one thing at a time. Depending on the objective, get it done or good at it.

    That doesn't take forever in either case.

    Then focus on something else and get it done or get good at it. A business or an individual can be good at multiple things at the same time.

    Do this and you'll always get a lot done and you'll become good a lot of things.
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  • Profile picture of the author michael_nguyen
    Simple really, you hire people that know the business to do the work for you. Branson probably doesn't know anything about aerospace or flying but I bet he knows people who do.

    Its called "outsourcing"
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  • Profile picture of the author Lisa Gergets
    Master one thing, then expand. Master that thing, then expand. Ad infinity.
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    • Profile picture of the author yukiyenster
      Originally Posted by Lisa Gergets View Post

      Master one thing, then expand. Master that thing, then expand. Ad infinity.
      Great advice Lisa, short and sweet. Straight to the point.
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  • Profile picture of the author coolnori60
    "You are going to have to get out there and use yourself. Make a fool of yourself. Otherwise you won't survive'."

    of course I cheated

    talentdevelop.com/articles/RBSS.html

     but at least I stretched myself 1% today and did this!

    Enjoy
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Ames
      Originally Posted by coolnori60 View Post

      "You are going to have to get out there and use yourself. Make a fool of yourself. Otherwise you won't survive'."

      of course I cheated

      talentdevelop.com/articles/RBSS.html

       but at least I stretched myself 1% today and did this!

      Enjoy
      Good stuff, but that's not the one I had in mind. That refers to being successful in general. What I want to bring out is being successful while having so many different areas of business.
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  • Profile picture of the author Toots
    Focus is the most important thing. Stay committed to one task or learning one skill at a time. The reason most people don't make it on the internet is due t the fact that jump all around the place following the latest get rich system. They gather every program they can and don't take action with any of them. Stay focused on your goal.
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  • Profile picture of the author RentItNow
    It is not about "expanding your business" it is about your customer's perception of you (brand). In other words, Virgin can expand because their customers relate to that brand (a brand of many brands). In other words, they expect it. However, I don't expect McDonalds to begin making big yellow and red jumbo jets with a clown on the side!

    I read a book about how dangerous it is to do this as well. I think it was the Must Have Customer. I talked about how a few business failures (I believe HP was one) that just didnt get it that you should stay in the business your customers know you for, otherwise you are smacking them in the face.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lee Wilson
    I think when most people say focus on one thing they aren't talking about expanding, they are talking about working sensibly within the limits of a single human being. If you can't afford to outsource or take on staff then you have to work within those limits until you are ready to branch out. Common sense really but it's also human nature to get sidetracked. Bring that under control and we'll reach our goals quicker.
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  • Profile picture of the author marcdonovan
    The way Branson is able to do this where other CEOs fail is in his delegation. He gives his team personal interest in each venture and he has created a bunch of multi-millionaires in the process. He never lays off staff and he allows his team to take full control of their side of the universe.

    I prefer running my business in the same fashion. It empowers people and they remain loyal and grateful. Basically, let your employees run their own businesses and you stand back and watch them sink or swim. Throw them the life line right before they go under, then haul them back, dry them off and do it again. The ones that have success will stick with you forever.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mukul Verma
    Focus on one thing when you start.., once you master it then move on
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    • Profile picture of the author marcdonovan
      Originally Posted by Mukul Verma View Post

      Focus on one thing when you start.., once you master it then move on
      The problem there is that a person can only focus on so many things in a day. If you are not delegating then you are having to micro-manage and you can't do that while expanding, since you need to sleep at some point.

      You can't delegate effectively unless you give your delegate complete control with a fire-and-forget and give them a real stake in the outcome. That is really hard to do. It takes nerves of steel to trust people to do the right thing without jumping in and helping out when it is your money on the line.

      99% of all executives maintain control and do just the opposite of what I'm talking about. Most are afraid that the board will fire them from their 10 mill paycheck if they let their teams run amok.

      It is really a libertarian philosophy at it's core. As long as you are not causing me grief (losing money, and long-term at that) you can continue to do whatever you like since it makes both of us happy and wealthy.

      A very good way to run a business, but it takes some getting used to since it is very counter-intuitive.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mukul Verma
        Originally Posted by marcdonovan View Post

        The problem there is that a person can only focus on so many things in a day. If you are not delegating then you are having to micro-manage and you can't do that while expanding, since you need to sleep at some point.

        You can't delegate effectively unless you give your delegate complete control with a fire-and-forget and give them a real stake in the outcome. That is really hard to do. It takes nerves of steel to trust people to do the right thing without jumping in and helping out when it is your money on the line.

        99% of all executives maintain control and do just the opposite of what I'm talking about. Most are afraid that the board will fire them from their 10 mill paycheck if they let their teams run amok.

        It is really a libertarian philosophy at it's core. As long as you are not causing me grief (losing money, and long-term at that) you can continue to do whatever you like since it makes both of us happy and wealthy.

        A very good way to run a business, but it takes some getting used to since it is very counter-intuitive.
        Great point here.

        Use the McDonalds approach. Systemize it, automate it and have your team working on it. Now if you master the system to make your business work, it is harder for people to mess up , of course spot check work and keep testing and tweaking the system.

        -----

        When I state focus on one thing. I dont mean to focus on sales copy, article marketing, video marketing etc... what I mean and I think others is one business model (Affiliate marketing, CPA, website) and use the tools mentioned (video, articles, whichever) to expand that one you are focused on.

        Cheers,
        Mukul
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  • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
    He provides products and or service where people are unahppy with the current service / price or product being offered.
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    • Profile picture of the author emaildeliverypro
      Banned
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      • Profile picture of the author marcdonovan
        Originally Posted by emaildeliverypro View Post

        I believe those who are successful in different types of business follow one rule. They master the process. The person behind these successful companies must have mastered business process in their first business, must have learn from their mistakes, then once successful, they implemented same process on next business and next and next, irrelivent of how much they know about that new business. They can always hire quality people who know what they are doing and just make sure they follow the process and give them freedom to do what they do.
        That is often true, but it is not the case with Virgin. Branson has no idea what process his people use. He only cares about results. And his delegates do the same with their delegates, and so on. They are free to choose whatever process suits them at the time.

        That's why he has a life where he can fly balloons around the world and forget the business. When he comes back to work, his only question is "How's it going?"
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    • Profile picture of the author VeitSchenk
      You beat me to it: that's exactly what Virgin specialize in: they figure out
      where people get screwed by existing providers and then use the one
      thing they stand for, namely 'trust' and do it.

      check out this short clip where Rowan Gormley (who is one
      of the CEOs who made it big with Virgin) talks about setting
      up Virgin finance:

      What?s it like to work with Sir Richard Branson? | Drayton Bird's Commonsense Marketing

      btw, it's on Drayton's blog, worth checking out the rest,
      he's one of the top copywriters, (I also did an interview
      with Drayton on "the one secret" of direct marketing,
      let me know if you're interested)

      so, summary: all these big companies specialize in one thing,
      even if on the surface they provide different products and
      services. (McD is about convenience, not burgers, Starbucks
      about the third place, not coffee, Virgin about "trust and standing
      up for the little guy" etc etc)

      Veit

      Originally Posted by tryinhere View Post

      He provides products and or service where people are unahppy with the current service / price or product being offered.
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      • Profile picture of the author marcdonovan
        Originally Posted by VeitSchenk View Post

        Virgin about "trust and standing
        up for the little guy"

        Veit
        Right, that is the external view, but there is also major trust internally. The video shows that in a big way.

        "What do you think we should do?"

        "Financial services. Nobody trusts banks and Virgin is all about 'trust.' Should I do some research?"

        "No, just do it." <<-------- That's the real trust and the real difference.
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  • Profile picture of the author amitjain
    I personally do not believe on stay with one thing only. To do something great you must first be uncomfortable. If you feel relax after getting one thing done you can not go for further expansion. Stretch yourself for regular new ideas.


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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by Scott Ames View Post

    So what makes the difference?
    Size.

    Once you have several hundred people working for you, it's not all that hard to go out and swallow the expertise necessary to start a new business.

    Just like you can start a new company with about a dozen people, you can hire about a dozen people to enter a new line of business yourself. Once a given line of business is self-sustaining, you can focus somewhere else.

    Or you can do what Microsoft does and buy entire existing businesses. When they needed the best minds in the industry to work on Bing's mapping engine, they went out looking at other companies and snapped up Caligari - the makers of TrueSpace 3D. When they needed a web page editor, they went out and snapped up FrontPage. When they needed the browser technology that would later become IE, they went out and snapped up Spyglass.

    Arguably, Microsoft aren't leaving their focus at all - just slapping a "Microsoft" banner onto yet another business. Just like Danger's next generation of the Sidekick mobile platform is going to have a Microsoft logo on it in the future. Microsoft didn't actually turn away from their core focus... they just added someone with a new core focus to the family.
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  • Profile picture of the author Scott Ames
    Great job everyone. Ok.. the first to get it right was michael_nguyen . While the others are all good, the one I was trying to bring out was the fact that Sir Richard gets the right people in the job and lets let run with it.

    He was interviewed by Joe Polish. It's a very long interview, and Sir Richard was reading most of it, but you can get some gems of insight from it.

    Joe Polish Interviews Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Empire
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  • Profile picture of the author badboy_Nick
    Specialization is the KEY to survive in todays market environments. I dont see many walmarts and jack-of-all-trades around ... do you?

    Although a Google Cheeseburger sounds very appealing
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  • Profile picture of the author MaverickWil
    Technically, Virgin is not ONE company. The group as a whole is made up of several companies (separate entities) that each specialize in their own field.
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Ames
      Originally Posted by MaverickWil View Post

      Technically, Virgin is not ONE company. The group as a whole is made up of several companies (separate entities) that each specialize in their own field.
      Yes true. He talked a bit about that. When a group gets too big he splits them. He is really smart to let people do their thing and do it well.
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