Does abnormal define the entrepreneurs and market leaders who refuse to play safe? Are the businesses that question every assumption unusual? Abnormal market leaders, don’t just think outside the box, they tear it apart.
Look around the Kenyan corporate scene — normal is overrated. Why? Because normal keeps companies stuck. Normal settles for slow growth, tired plans, predictable outcomes, responding to the easy stuff.
Abnormal is different, asking hard questions. Abnormal sparks new models, fresh markets, bold moves. Abnormal is where the future is built. Abnormal are the outliers at the refreshing edge of the normal curve.
To stand out in a crowded market, should one take three steps to abnormal achievement with a focus on creating value by problem-solving, quick adapting and competing on time?
It’s a question of whether one is content with the status quo. There is a risk in hoping that an infusion of fluffy business jargon will be all that is required to survive another day. Not everyone is ready to break patterns, create new habits.
For those that are done with the average, hovering around the mean, to ignite real change requires a step into the abnormal. Normal solves yesterday’s problems. Abnormal creates tomorrow.
Your boss wants you focused, productive, not distracted. Business model of social media wants you scrolling, not thinking. And schools? They may be still busy preparing students for jobs that may no longer exist.
The world isn’t just changing. It’s accelerating. Blink, and you’re already behind. That’s why smart managers don’t spend their time glorifying stuff they learned back in the day.
Smart managers, at the edge of the normal curve, the abnormal, the outliers, are mastering a different set of skills that are much more likely to compound into unfair advantages.
We crave the Plato’s Cave of familiarity - believing the shadows on the wall are the reality. We don’t see the business world as it is, we see the events we want to see.
One – create value, solve a problem
At its essence, business is about creating and capturing value. It’s about noticing a problem, a need a customer has, and being able to solve it. Solving it with a product – service that they are ready to pay for. That’s the greater differentiator, ready to pay for.
Participants in Y Combinator, a legendary start-up incubation unit, are encouraged to sell their product, the customer solution, online to see if anyone is ready to pay for.
It may not even exist yet, they are taught to just test the waters to see if the market demand is there. After all, does it make sense to create a product that no one wants?
Wicked problem of university graduate unemployment is depressing. Parents have spent their hard-earned money, scrimping and saving, investing in four years of education that is designed to provide young Sarah with job that allows her to demonstrate her learned knowledge, skills and ‘can-do’ mindset.
Yet, the World Bank now reports that it can take up to five years for the typical Kenyan university graduate to obtain formal sector employment.
Reframe of the issue is asking: How can the young graduate obtain work experience the employer craves? How can they be taught to solve problems? If an applicant can demonstrate they can identify and come up a solution to a pressing problem an employer has, they would likely be hired on the spot.
Aim of education should be to inculcate a sense of curiosity, a love of learning, that allows the student to see the world through the eyes of their discipline.
The risk of AI is that it may stifle creativity, encouraging what has been described as ‘brain rot’. It shouldn't be a replacement for critical thinking.
To be fair, research shows it’s a mistake to equate paper qualifications with intelligence. Some of the smartest, most productive Kenyan’s never attended university.
Two – adapt and evolve
Nothing stays constant. Even in business problem-solving, when one applies inductive logic, setting a [scientific method] hypothesis about what is happening, and goes about proving, or disproving, the best guess hypothesis shifts things, usually in unexpected ways.
Facts and figures one thought were true, often don’t turn out that way. Normal approach might be blame the data, saying this can’t be true.
While some managers chase normal, the astute abnormal leader bends, twists and even breaks things — until something new emerges.
In fast adapting, they see possibility where others see problems. Ever-evolving, they ask questions that make people uncomfortable. They refuse to follow the linear because the future isn’t drawn in straight lines.
Three – time is the message
"The medium is the message" coined by Marshall McLuhan, means that the way information is delivered—the medium itself—has a greater impact than the content of the message. The properties of the medium, like the linear structure of print, or the visual nature of film, shape our thoughts.
Reality has at least two dimensions: physical space and time. Responding to a customer’s frustrating issue right away, sends a very different signal, in contrast to ignoring it.
Or, what may be for some, the ‘normal’ way of just letting something fall through the cracks, hoping that annoying problem may just evaporate.
Paying attention to responding, competing on the basis of time is the habit of market leaders. Conscientiousness remains a strong predictor of business success.
“You can't be normal and expect abnormal returns" advised Jeffrey Pfeffer.
David J. Abbott is a director at aCatalyst Consulting.
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