People, Place, Program

OK, so now that I've finally finished Genius at Work it's time for the next project - to re-release my two books Change Magic and NLP in Business. I found these books to be very popular and well received, but I felt that they were too out of date with what I think people will benefit from, based on my day to day experiences.

I've just been reading up on the thoughts of a couple of well known business 'gurus'; Michael Gerber and Seth Godin. Every now and then, someone comes along who turns conventional thinking on its head

Here's a good starting point to find out what they were both up to.

So Gerber says systemise and Godin says innovate.

Many years ago, a wise man told me a story which a wise man had told him. And now I'm telling you. Does that make me wise? He said that in any business or organisation, there are three parts:

The question is; where would you start?

With the people?

With the place, the actual office space or location - or maybe the culture in this day and age?

Or with the program, what it is that you actually do, the product or service?

Just take a moment to answer that question before reading further...




What he said was that the correct starting point is Place.

Why not start with some talented People who can do clever stuff? Because then you become utterly dependent on those specific people. When they decide they want to do something else, you no longer have a business. Or if they have an accident. Or get bored.

Why not start with Program, then? Surely, if you start with a business that does training, or sells home appliances  or runs taxi services, then you just have to hire people who can do that, right? Wrong. If you start with Program, you become tied to what you do and unable to change direction when the market changes. It makes you inflexible.

Start with Place.

When you build the right Place, it will attract the right People, and the right People will run the right Program.

Place - People - Program 

What does all of this prove? Only that the fundamental assertion behind Change Magic is right - that it isn't what you do that makes you successful, it's doing something different to everyone else. Gerber's and Godin's ideas spoke to people who were dissatisfied with the status quo and were looking for something different. Godin's ideas weren't the only ones out there, and they may not even have been the best, they were simply the best marketed.

So if there's a concluding message from this, here it is:

1. Look at what everyone else is doing
2. Do something different
3. Market that difference
4. When other people start to copy you, rinse and repeat