In a world that often feels like it’s on repeat, the allure of outliers—the unexpected, the overlooked, the underappreciated—beckons with the promise of untold rewards and opportunities. We tend to underestimate those who dare to look beyond the horizon of the familiar and the safe. Yet, amidst the constant hum of change, volatility, and disruption shaping our modern landscape, many of us find ourselves clinging to the comfort of the predictable. This, however, is precisely where we might be missing out on monumental growth opportunities.
Trailblazers of the Uncharted Path
Consider the luminaries who’ve left indelible marks on the canvas of history: Steve Jobs, who was ousted from his own company only to return and redefine the technology landscape; Thomas Edison, whose relentless experimentation illuminated the world; Stephen Spielberg, whose initial college rejections did not deter him from becoming a cinematic titan; Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, whose college dropout status did not prevent them from building empires. Their journeys underscore a pivotal insight: greatness often emerges from the outliers, from the willingness to embrace risk, to venture where intuition leads, even when it diverges from the well-trodden path. Seek outlier opportunities.
Capitalizing on the Edges of Expectation
The realm of outliers is not just about the people; it’s also about seizing on phenomena, trends, and opportunities that lie at the edges of our expectations. Like umbrella vendors who materialize at the first hint of rain, those who prepare to capitalize on these outlying events are the ones who often reap outsized rewards. Major corporations like Home Depot, The Red Cross, and Walmart exemplify this approach, developing contingency plans for unforeseen weather events, thereby not just mitigating risks but also turning potential crises into opportunities.
Harnessing Demographic Transitions
The most evident way to pursue outliers is to capitalize on emerging trends. One such fertile ground for outlier opportunities is the aging population. As we stand on the cusp of a demographic shift, with a significant portion of the global population moving into retirement, the potential for innovation in services designed to enrich the lives of the elderly is vast. From enhancing mental and social engagement to addressing the specific healthcare needs of this demographic, the aging population presents a panorama of possibilities waiting to be explored and cultivated.
Innovating the Financial Norms
The financial landscape is also ripe for outlier strategies. Traditional investment advice, like the 60-40 stocks-to-bonds ratio, is being challenged by the stark variances in returns, particularly highlighted by the tech sector’s explosive growth. These divergences signal a need for more nuanced, dynamic investment approaches that can adapt to the ever-evolving market trends.
Mastering Disaster with Cooperation
We need to recognize that volatility and change should be viewed as landscapes brimming with potential. Companies that have learned to navigate and even thrive in the face of disasters—be it Home Depot with hurricanes or schools enhancing safety protocols—demonstrate that with preparation and adaptability, challenges can be transformed into lucrative ventures. One major improvement is the cooperation rather than friction among agencies in dealing with disasters. For instance, Governor Hochul of New York even promotes that New York is the “Master of Disaster”.
Anomalies and Untapped Potential
Outlier opportunities also occur from anomalies that just occur. Consider the legal industry transformation led by firms like Skadden Arps and Wachtel Lipton, which, in the face of discrimination, carved out new niches in litigation and corporate takeovers, reshaping the legal landscape. Similarly, dealing with poor facilities, limited coaching and recruiting, and weak marketing all kept women’s sports in the background. Powered by exceptional talents like Caitlin Clark, women’s sports growing recognition points to the vast potential in markets and domains that have been historically undervalued or ignored.
Shifting Academic and Economic Landscapes
Other anomalies providing huge opportunities are the switches in college education from a focus on liberal arts to more employment-related majors. In particular, computer programming, design, engineering, and computer science are rapidly expanding while language, philosophy, and other traditional liberal arts majors are declining. In addition, schools like the U. of Illinois, Northeastern, Johns Hopkins, and Carnegie Melon are expanding, becoming more select and graduates are earning higher earnings.
Immigration as Economic Catalyst
While immigration has become a major political issue, it is more importantly a critical economic opportunity, and it presents yet another dimension where the narrative of challenge versus opportunity plays out. With economies grappling with labor shortages, the infusion of new talent and skills through immigration can act as a catalyst for growth, if navigated with foresight and strategic planning.
Rising from Challenge to Opportunity
Outlying opportunities also emerge from special events. The biggest barrier is that we become obsessed with the challenges and consequences rather than the opportunities. For example, we are still failing to manage the consequences of the pandemic. The nature of work and where it occurs have changed and we seem to adapt rather than manage. Working at home versus the office seems to be a political issue more than analyzing the economic, decision-making and social consequences.
Adapting Education in Post-Pandemic Times
Education seems to be making the least adjustment. While it is clear young children lost significant learning during the pandemic there seems little priority to restore the losses or ensure newer students get excellent opportunities.
Political and Economic Shifts as Opportunities
Political, social and economic events can create significant opportunities and challenges. Declining birth rates, geographic changes and climate control are also occurring and require better planning and management.
Health Innovations and Lifestyle Changes
With 39% of Americans considered obese and an additional 31% overweight, new weight loss drugs have the potential of having a major impact on diet and improving other health results like heart attacks and length of life. Weight loss programs, diet, exercise, and other programs have had limited results helping people lose weight and keeping it off. However, the new weight loss drugs have shown tremendous results in helping people lose weight and keep it off. They have even greater potential if issues like price, some side effects, and proving long term potential can be resolved.
Embracing Risks and Rewards in the Outlier Odyssey
Yet, the pursuit of outliers is not without its risks. The terrain is often uncharted, the outcomes uncertain. The key to navigating this uncertainty lies in a balanced approach—testing waters with modest commitments, being vigilant and adaptable, and never losing sight of the inherent passion and creativity that drive innovation. Exceptional customer service, the willingness to collaborate, and an open-minded approach to problem-solving emerge as critical enablers in this journey.
The Future Beckons: Will We Take the Leap?
So, where does this leave us? On the precipice of opportunity, with a choice to make. Will we tread the familiar paths, or will we venture into the realm of outliers, armed with the insights, strategies, and courage to explore the unexplored? The outliers beckon with the promise of growth, innovation, and transformation, challenging us to rethink our perspectives, to be agile, and to always be on the lookout for the next unexpected opportunity.
As we navigate this odyssey, let’s remember that outliers are not just about taking risks; they’re about understanding and managing those risks with intelligence, creativity, and a deep-seated belief in the potential that lies beyond the conventional. It’s a journey that demands resilience, adaptability, and a relentless pursuit of the extraordinary. And in this quest, the rewards—both personal and professional—can be as boundless as the outliers themselves.
In embracing the outlier odyssey, we might just find that what once seemed like distant possibilities are, in fact, within our reach, waiting to be seized and transformed into the next chapter of our success stories. The question is, are we ready to take that leap?
—Let’s start a conversation – no matter what stage you are in with your business. As an exercise, tell us how you have better managed challenges. Then, tell us what areas you to need focus on in order to see improvement.
Dr. Bert Shlensky of StartupConnection.net earned a PhD from the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T., mentored a few thousand clients at Score and his own practice, grew Sure Fit products from $50 million dollars to $150 million in sales including $60 million of direct internet sales, was President of WestPoint Pepperell’s Apparel Fabrics Business and headed the $400 million Culet Shirt Group. In short, he knows what works and can help you lead your company to greater profitability and success.
Which line is longer? You may think it’s the middle line because the arrow points jut out. But the truth is, they are all the same size! You might not have figured it out if it was not pointed out to you. We tend to hang on to our initial perception of a situation or a problem, because we believe in deciding things as soon as we can. In some things, such as the belief that grandparents are allowed to spoil their grandkids, you will run into no arguments. But in other things, a little perspective can help immensely.
The economy has several measures of progress and each of us uses the one which support our perceptions of growth or decline A current trend since the pandemic illustrates how critical perceptions can affect our opinions and policies. For instance, income inequality is increasing as evidenced by the fact that 69 percent of the total wealth in the United States was owned by the top 10 percent of earners. In comparison, the lowest 50 percent of earners only owned 2.5 percent of the total wealth. and that many Americans don’t have $400 to pay for an emergency. On the other hand, the collective net worth of the bottom one-fifth went up from $3.3 trillion in 2019 to $4.2 trillion at the end of the second quarter of 2022, indicating they can finance a better lifestyle.
What is critical is that we understand our perceptions and their impact on our decisions, activities, and behavior.
A critical factor is our perceptions of the presenter, the environment and the communication. Licensing agreements, celebrity endorsements and great environments are all designed to make the audience comfortable with presentations, but we seldom acknowledge how they affect our individual behavior. It’s great to have a convention in Honolulu to present your ideas, but if everything about the presentation is solid, it should work just as well in Dubuque, IA or Nome, AK. Environment is important but it should supplement and enhance a convincing presentation, and not be used to make up for incomplete or inadequate data. For instance, a steakhouse can have the right look, but if the meat is not tender and does not deliver the expected flavor, no one is going to dine there after a while; they might find the local diner more appealing because you get what you are looking for in a meal.
Our perceptions frequently exclude key data or are based on highly uncertain information. While they are present in our environment and affect our decisions, we usually avoid consideration of issues like religion, intelligence, politics, wealth, sex, morality, and appearance in our discussions. Part of that is simply out of politeness, but it never hurts to take that into consideration when deciding on a course of action or a strategy to take. In contrast, we may express opinions about issues like climate change, politics, immigration, electric cars and artificial intelligence with insufficient knowledge or analysis. Again, we often let our initial perceptions do the analyzing for us. Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce are great football players, but do they really know so much about life insurance that you would automatically go with State Farm? One would hope you would do as much homework on which insurance company to go with as they did as to which insurance company to endorse! After all, they don’t want to waste their time and money either.
One of the most significant aspects of behavior is our perception of information. For example, I believe people don’t take enough risk. How much freedom do you allow innovative people to break rules? When do you provide support versus challenging subordinates and colleagues? While there may be analytical solutions to some of these, our predispositions are frequently more important in determining how we respond. But thinking outside the box, stepping away from perceptions, can lead to greater clarity. Risk does not always mean throwing a dart blindfolded; it simply means going against what you consider the norm, through research and analysis. Remember what Davy Crockett said:
Bias is critical issue in perceptions. Bias is one of the greatest complications when it comes to accuracy in the scientific analysis of decisions. This includes statistical problems like sampling, measurement, and development of information. For example, assessing Covid accurately is problematic due to varying demographics such as age, race, and other factors that convolute the analysis. In many cases, these can be understood, but are still challenging.
I also believe that social bias can be more impactful than statistical bias. This includes our preconceived perceptions and assumptions. I’m always amazed that many programmed employee selection tools outperform interviews especially in jobs requiring specific skills. Such tests remove things like unconscious age, sex, and racial discrimination. At the end of the day, you want the best person to handle the responsibilities you give them, and you want to remove anything that impedes that decision. Again, what seems like a risk has been whittled down to where the risk is minimal.
Cultural and environmental factors also affect bias. Dress, demographics, weather, location, and culture all affect perceptions in the decision-making process. These can also be used to your advantage in talking to colleagues by increasing bonding with similar people. Whenever I meet someone who is also from the Southside of Chicago, agreement on differences becomes much easier.
Style and personality greatly affect perceptions. Race, sex and age are the most common factors. Differentiating personality types like “right brain or left brain” or analytical versus creative greatly affects perceptions. For example, we greatly underestimate the positive or negative impact of using math in many arguments.
We also need to consider the timing of perceptions. In general, the audience, whether on the internet or in person, forms perceptions of a presentation in the first 90 seconds. That does not seem to be much time, but the right focus and the right keywords can get the train going and make for an exciting ride. Now, as an admitted nerd, my presentations can be a little boring. Thus, I try to improve their acceptance rate through tools like editors, comedy, stories, and pictures. I have learned the hard way that my poor spelling has sidetracked some of my best arguments. Thank goodness someone invented spellcheckers!
Let’s start a conversation – no matter what stage you are in with your business. As an exercise, tell us how you have better managed perceptions, or been victim to its bias. Then, tell us what areas you to need focus on in order to see improvement.
Dr. Bert Shlensky earned a PhD from the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T., mentored a few thousand clients at Score and his own practice, grew Sure Fit products from $ 50 million dollars to $150 million in sales including $ 60 million of direct internet sales, was President of WestPoint Pepperell’s Apparel Fabrics Business and headed the $400 million Culet Shirt Group.
In short, he knows what works and can help you lead your company to greater profitability and success. Find out more at StartupConnection.net, or email Bert at:
Are you part of a successful team? As the saying goes, “There’s no I in TEAM.” However, the team also needs to give its stars the opportunity to flourish. Great entertainment groups sports teams and scientific groups are examples of excellence. In addition, teams need to encourage diversity, expertise, and disagreement to encourage new ideas and solutions.
More on that in a minute. First, let’s look at what every great team needs to even have a chance of being bold.
Traditional Bosses Are Obsolete In Most Cases
The complexity, size, and diversity of many organizations have changed the role of leadership. In particular, top-down styles are being replaced by coordination, expertise, delegation and collaboration. In particular efforts like systems. outsourcing, operations, big data, measurement, and automation are adding complexity and coordination to leadership roles.
Goals Are Becoming More Diverse But Still Need To Be Clear.
Growth, excellence, innovation profits, social welfare, etc. are all present as goals to various degrees in most organizations. However, they still need to be understood and clarified. For example, many organizations fail to change when their markets become saturated and they need to focus on profits rather than growth. Similar, research and development teams need more freedom to encourage their creativity.
I learned this early in life when I asked a fashion designer if she really needed to go to Europe for ideas. Her response was I can’t just sit in this office (it was really an awful office without even windows) and develop ideas without the stimulus and the time to brainstorm with my team. By the way, design teams should also visit operations to understand the complete impact of their designs. For example, how many colors do you really need?
Having common goals isn’t just pointing everyone in the same direction either. It’s about everyone helping each other get there. Truly successful teams see themselves as the collective whole and the individuals within.
Multiple Perspectives
So, you’re well on your way to success, getting everyone on the same page, maybe even hiring like-minded individuals to make that part easy. This is where homogeneity backfires.
The most successful teams are diverse. They bring different things, ideas, skill sets, and perspectives to the table. Things that you might not have even considered. Even the best leader won’t have a solution for every problem; they shouldn’t take all that responsibility either.
Trust & Respect On A Successful Team
The team can only work together towards that common goal if they trust each other to do so. When you have a diverse team, you especially need to build trust and respect with empathy and understanding for all those different viewpoints.
Good teamwork means camaraderie, brotherhood, and kinship. It’s a much sought-after feeling by managers, directors, coaches, and others in the leadership position. It means your team has a glue that holds them together. This is often seen as the ultimate end-goal to good group dynamics, but you’re not out of the woods yet.
Trust is key if your team members are going to feel able to express themselves. If you build your group up to speak their minds, though, you all better be able to listen too. Social informal interaction and activities are great for most groups. They can range from interesting dinners to group baseball games where everyone plays.
This can sometimes conflict with the elephants in the room that no one wants to discuss for mostly good reasons. Things like politics, sex, age, ethnic background, education, intelligence all affect the interaction of the group. On one hand, we need to understand these issues and encourage the diversity. On the other hand, we to ensure best practices even if it is not obvious. For example, it has been shown that in most cases test scores and background are better determinants than interviews in things like selection or college admissions efforts because of the underlying biases.
Positive Criticism
Feedback drives growth and everything is realistically vulnerable to criticism. There can be no precious ideas if those ideas aren’t the best for success. Ideas are morphed and molded by criticism and disagreement. For example, many cases of entrepreneurship as noted by Walter Jacobson in his book “Innovators” and others have witnessed wild conflicts between the principal parties. In many cases, one the parties even left after a few years.
This brings us back to that original point: Disagreement, conflict, and diversity are an inevitable part of growth. Bold decisions are only bold because they go against the grain; if everyone always agrees, there can be no bold decisions. The best teams are already capable of dealing with disagreement at this point because they have a clear common goal, a diversity of voices in the mix, and a respect for one another’s ideas.
So, it turns out that while there isn’t an I in TEAM, there’s a whole lot more than just T-E-A-M. A really great team brings out the best in all the I’s without sacrificing the total effort. When you find success within your team, only then do you stand a chance of finding success with it.
Starting a business is a bit like dieting, playing golf, or managing one’s health. Thousands of experts make lots of money telling you what you need to be successful. While the majority of the advice is excellent, most people fail in the execution, which is what I mean by the how in starting a business. In essence, it is essential to understand it is not what but how in starting a business. Below is a simple example.
I know everything there is to know about losing weight but still love to eat so the knowledge is useless. In contrast, my wife is the same weight as decades ago and can even forget to eat. (more…)
When you want to stand out, reach out to Bert for the tools that will build your “sticky” brand. My focus is on understanding and analyzing your dilemmas and challenges, so your company becomes profitable faster.
Call (914) 632-6977 or email me at bshlensky@startupconnection.net. Don’t leave without signing up for our useful free eBook!
Feeling stumped or overwhelmed? Contact Bert at (914) 632-6977 or Email to start the process. Thanks!
Starting a business is a bit like dieting, playing golf, or managing one’s health. Thousands of experts make lots of money telling you what you need to be successful. While the majority of the advice is excellent, most people fail in the execution, which is what I mean by the how in starting a business. In essence, it is essential to understand it is not what but how in starting a business. Below is a simple example.