Favourite slide #1: The Hedgehog

I agree, this is the most compelling and succinct view of successful company strategy that I have read. One important aspect of this view is that it typically takes time and you need to allow time to come to your hedgehog. RedBubble has been going for three years and only now are we beginning to be very clear about our hedgehog. But we have also actively worked to form it. In a sense the dream of the hedgehog has been a steadying force but we also have not attempted to get their too quickly or artificially.

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Agree. The hedgehog concept is truly powerful and should be applied more often (and with more rigour) by companies. It sets a tough standard of course but “great” isn’t a title you get for just showing up. Well chosen Nigel.

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Nigel, I was curious as to why you’d chosen to illustrate the Hedgehog Concept without the circles being interwoven?

Maybe it’s just a stylisitc thing and I’m probably being pedantic but my understanding of the Hedgehog Concept is that it’s power lies in all 3 circles working together to form the focus of the enterprise – making the cente where they’re represented as interwoven integral.

What do you think?

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Hi Lesley-Ann – yes purely a stylistic thing, or lack of it, in my case! but yes you make an extremely good point of how the visual you have described would better reflect the hedgehog… perhaps I subconsciously chose not to overlap as it looks like another favourite slide.. soon to come… stay tuned!

Thanks for your comment – same to Xavier and Martin.

Nigel

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I’m loving this slide but it’s starting to do my head in.

When looking at most media organisations (like Anthill), the revenue model is usually not directly related to what the organisation is best at (and vice versa). For example, The Australian Newspaper might be the best at publishing national news but it is unlikely to be the best at delivering an ROI to its advertisers (the core of its revenue model). These two elements don’t relate to each other in the same way that a company that is the best at making… say… sandwiches is likely to also take revenue from selling these awesome sandwiches.

So… In our case, we’ve had to create two things that we are ‘best’ at – one to ensure that our editorial team understands its role in the business and the other to ensure that we also don’t neglect our commercial function as an advertising and marketing platform. We have two client/stakeholder sets.

For example…

What’s Anthill’s passion: Educating/Inspiring business builders and fostering a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in Australia.

What we’re best at: While we rarely ‘break the news’, we have excelled at creating a vibrant community of proactive business builders AND we are also among the best in Australia at providing measurable, ROI driven digital marketing services to our sponsors and advertisers. (We are one of few media outlets able to provide ‘reach’ and ‘intelligence’.)

What’s the revenue model: Advertising and digital marketing services.

Nigel – Do you know how other organisations that make their money from a ‘back-channel’ navigate this beautifully succinct structure? Any suggestions?

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Mmm, James, would love to hand- over to Jim on this one! However this would be my take on your situation…

Passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship

Best at building a vibrant community of proactive business builders

Revenue: measurable ROI driven digital marketing services

That’s the beauty of the hedgehog it makes you distill it down to the bare essence, and why it does your head in! It’s not easy to find a focus for a business. It’s far easier being a fox!

Remember if you don’t have the community, doesn’t matter how measurable your ad services are?

Doesn’t mean you have to ease up on the sales team but their number one selling factor will always be the value of your audience…

But maybe your “Best at” should be:

Best at building a vibrant (quantified & qualified) community of proactive business builders

Just thinking out loud, winging it…
but great comment, hope it inspires a few responses better than mine!
Bottom-line: if it got you thinking about your business focus, then mission accomplished

Oh, and other organisations that make their money from ‘back-channel’… plenty, google for eg – I’ve got their mission/vision statement somewhere, I’ll dig it out and see how it applies to the hedgehog…

Nigel

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James Tuckerman Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 9:23 am

Great feedback Nigel.

Gotta say that each of your posts has “got me thinking” and TALKING… with the Anthill crew and anyone who’ll listen.

Keep ‘em coming!

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