Collapse of Distinction
Stand out and move up while your competition fails
By: Scott McKain
Published: March 31, 2009
ISBN: 1595551859
ISBN-13: 9781595551856
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
"Being different, standing out, getting noticed in a sea of sameness is vital to an organization's sustained growth and profitability". writes best selling author Scott McKain in his brilliant and business saving book Collapse of Distinction: Stand out and move up while your competition fails. The author takes the familiar concepts of differentiation and customer service to an entirely new level that create the power of being truly distinctive in the marketplace.
Scott McKain applies the fundamental, yet absolutely crucial, business lessons learned from success and failure of business in his hometown in rural Indiana. He added to those truths through his years of experience in consulting to major corporations. The lessons he gleaned from companies large and small were simple yet powerful. Businesses, over time, tend to become less distinctive, and follow strategies that stress incremental change based on the actions of their competitors. Instead, the author says the focus should be on creating a distinctive and unique experience for the customer. By creating and enhancing that distinction, what the competitors choose to do is not important.
Scott McKain (photo left) understands that companies of all sizes and industries not only tend to focus on the activities of their competitors, but also fail to recognize the challenge of new competitors. The new competition will not be presenting the usual incremental change, but revolutionary new products and services. The disastrous approach for an unsuccessful business is attempting that same failed incremental approach to meeting the new competitor. Unless a business, facing a new challenge, reaffirms its distinction, the familiar business will be taken for granted and die from customer neglect. Taken together, this triumvirate of problems cause the the undifferentiated business to descend to the death spiral of competing only on price.
For me, the power of the book is Scott McKain's strong metaphor of how a small town diner failed to meet the challenge posed by mega-corporation McDonalds. On the other hand, the lessons provided by another small restaurant, in the same town demonstrate the importance of creating a unique customer experience. The author's own family grocery store applied the same principles of distinctiveness when competing successfully with a national grocery chain store. Scott McKain takes the concept of differentiation to a higher level, in the form of distinctiveness, and why it's crucial for business survival and prosperity. His analysis of the decline of distinctive business, and also its potential for revival, is important for any business owner or manager.
I highly recommend the must read business survival guide Collapse of Distinction: Stand out and move up while your competition fails by Scott McKain, to any business person seeking to rise above the competition through focus on the customer, rather than being a weak copy of the competition. The author challenges the reader to ignore what the competition does, and be the best at creating distinction in your own business. As a result, a company of any size can compete successfully in any industry.
Read the important and insightful book Collapse of Distinction: Stand out and move up while your competition fails by Scott McKain, and become truly distinctive in your industry. Through true differentiation in the marketplace, and by developing and practicing a truly unique customer service experience, any company can achieve success.
