I meet lots of would be entrepreneurs who want to start a business, but are just waiting to have an original idea. I have covered idea generation before (see STEEPL) and I have worked with a guy I consider to be a creative genius - check out his blog www.creativityintheboardroom.com who is always generating new ideas for his clients. But I also want to talk about the strength of simply ‘reversing’ an idea.

I met the founders of Café Nero a few years ago and was struck by how they had come up with such a strong brand and vision for their business. Café Nero is a large chain of coffee shops based primarily in the UK which is doing very well at the moment. The founders explained that their idea came simply by looking at Starbucks. They realized that for every Coke, there is also a very profitable Pepsi. They decided, in their own words, “to become a Pepsi to Starbuck’s Coke”.

They looked at all the things Starbucks was and made a list

• American
• Milky coffees
• Played jazz type music
• Non smoking
• Heavily machined - so low skilled staff could work there
• Mainly a cake/ muffin play with your coffee
• Prime locations

They then simply made Café Nero opposite from all of these characteristics. (The smoking one now no longer applies as it is now illegal to smoke in places of work).

The point from the above is that you can create a very successful business model by simply differentiating yourselves from an established operator. Providing there are enough customers in the market place, this is a great strategy to pursue. And if those differentiators are what customers want, they will pay a premium over the existing provider. The PC v Apple computers are a great example of a profitable niche.

I passionately believe (simply believing doesn’t appear to be good enough these days!) that great ideas exist all around us. The challenge is to think big!

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