Revolutionary VS. Evolutionary

A lot of people dream of building the next Google (my favorite example), Apple, Facebook, or any other “revolutionary” company / product / service. All of the media and press surrounding these juggernauts reinforces this zeitgeist.

As a result, many entrepreneurs believe that the only way to create and build a success company is to create an entirely new product or service category. So they bang their heads against the wall trying to dream up the Hoverboard or space travel company.

Unfortunately, the reality is that these aforementioned examples, and probably 98% of HUGE business successes, aren’t revolutionary at all. In fact, they are all evolutionary.

If you think of any “revolutionary” product or service - Excite.com (search engine), Diamond Rio (MP3 player), SixDegrees.com (social network), Diners Club (credit card) - you find a common theme among all of them: they are a footnote in the history of the product they created. Let’s look at each one:

Search Engines - Dominated by Google

MP3 Players - Dominted by the iPod (Apple)

Social Networking - Dominated by Facebook (or MySpace depending on your opinion)

Credit Cards - Dominated by Visa and Mastercard (Diners Club was acquired by MC)

None of these market leaders created the category that they dominate. All that they did was identify a growing market and make the existing product incrementally better by identifying a critical flaw in the existing product. It’s pretty rare that you will find a market innovator that’s still dominating the market.

So, what’s the moral of the story for the beginning entrepreneur?

Stop focusing on trying to create some kind of “evolutionary” product or service. Don’t waste you time trying to dream up the next superstar. Plus, just imagine how many “evolutionary” products or services are total flops in the marketplace? Way too much risk for the bootstrapping entrepreneur.

Think incremental improvements. This is where the money is. Think about the products and services in your everyday life. What sucks about them? Is there a way to make it a little better? Why is it made this way? Can you create a better product? Cheaper? Faster? Better? Easier? This approach is much less risky because you already know the product or service sells. Now it’s just a matter of making it a little better. The iPod made music transfer easy.

Now get out there and put this into action.

J