Calloway - Be the best at what matters most: the only strategy you will ever need

Cover design: C. Wallace

Copyright 2013 by Joe Calloway. All rights reserved

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com . Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions .

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom.

For general information about our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com . For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com .

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Calloway, Joe.

Be the best at what matters most : the only strategy you will ever need / Joe Calloway.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-118-56987-0 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-61124-1 (ebk);

ISBN 978-1-118-61118-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-61119-7 (ebk)

1. Strategic planning. 2. Consumer satisfaction. 3. Success in business. I. Title.

HD30.28.C3475 2013

658.4'012dc23

2012048023

Always for Annette, Jessica, and Cate.
Special thanks to my best friend and business partner,
Kris Young, and to my friends, Matthew Holt and
the wonderful team at John Wiley & Sons.

The Only Strategy You Will Ever Need

Bill owns a hamburger restaurant called Bill's Burgers. Bill needs more customers. So Bill does what any bright, energetic entrepreneur would do: He looks for ways to build his business.

Bill has read lots of articles about the power of the Internet. Bill has decided to make a video about Bill's Burgers, put it on YouTube, and have it go viral. In the video he plans to have babies doing funny things with hamburgers; some cute, playful puppies wearing tiny Bill's Burgers T-shirts; and hopefully Jennifer Aniston enjoying a Bill's Burger burger. The video will go viral, and people will flock to Bill's Burgers in droves.

Of course, everyone knows that social media is the key to business success today. Bill is designing a Facebook page for his restaurant, and he is starting a blog. He thinks he'll call it Bill's Burger Blog. He will write about hamburgers and onion rings and the great things that happen in his restaurant. The blog will be connected to his new Twitter account, where he plans to regularly post 140-character updates on hamburgers and hamburger-related stuff.

Bill also bought some books about business. Most of them say that he should be doing things that will make his business unique and one of a kind. They say that he needs to be wildly imaginative and innovative and do things that will amaze and delight his customers. Bill goes to hamburger restaurant conventions, and the speakers there tell really great stories about hamburger restaurants that have done the coolest, most amazing things with customers. Bill wants to be amazing, too.

Bill read in one of the books that to be amazing, you have to have a wow factor. He has decided to start giving every customer a tiny chocolate candy hamburger when they leave. He thinks this will be his wow factor. Bill also plans to have a magician circulate through the restaurant, doing card tricks and cutting a rope in half, then putting it back together again. People love magicians, and Bill is pretty sure that this will amaze and delight them and make Bill's Burgers unique and one of a kind. No other restaurant in town has a staff magician.

Because he is willing to go the extra mile in differentiating his business, Bill is also going to add some wildly unique items to his menu to set him apart from his competition. He is considering adding a Vanilla Burger, a Cheese-to-the-Max Burger with 11 different kinds of cheese, a Cinnamon Apple Burger, a Volcano Burger with Trinidad Moruga Scorpion peppers, and a Really-Ham Burger, made with ham.

Bill is exhausted from pursuing all of these ideas and activities, but he's excited because he is sure that by harnessing the power of the Internet and social media, having a wow factor and a magician who delights customers, and offering flavored hamburgers that are innovative and unique, his business will boom and he'll have more customers in no time.

Some of these ideas may well be worth pursuing. But if Bill asked me for advice, I'd suggest a different approach. It's a wildly contrarian idea that flies in the face of much of what you read and hear today about what it takes to succeed in business.

I think Bill should begin by finding out what matters most to his customers, focusing there, and being the best at that. Maybe it's really all about just making better hamburgers. I wonder if Bill's thought about that.

You may be thinking, It's not an either/or proposition. Maybe Bill should make better hamburgers and have a magician. You could be right. If a lot of Bill's customers are families with small children, the magician might be just the ticket. I'm not trying to sell the idea that we shouldn't do social media or try to delight customers with a magician. As for social media, I'm all in on the social media strategy. I just hired a social media company to work with our business. I'm simply putting forth the idea that if we do the handful of things that matter most, whatever those things may be, and if we do them better than our competition, then we win. That may include social media, candy hamburgers, and magicians. I'm just saying think about it. Pick your lanes carefully.

There's no absolute right or wrong here. You need to find out what works for you in your own version of the Bill's Burgers story.

Be the best at what matters most, and you will succeed.

Part of me says that I should now just write The End and leave it at that. But the realist in me knows that such a radical, contrarian, and amazingly simple idea will be met with skepticism and thus needs some fleshing out.