The importance of Crowds

For a business, the concept of going with the crowd isn't always a bad thing. In fact when we are the one leading the pack it can be a very lucrative proposition.

I'm in Santa Clara this week at CEA Connections, a conference on the digital home, and there has been several conversations about standards. Now this a plethora of high-speed connectivity options, including a variety of ways to pull it all together in the home, many companies are out there trying to differentiate themselves on the fact that they are different.

How are they doing? Most have a great story to tell but no great revenues to speak of.

Think back to the battle of VHS vs. BETA. It didn't matter that BETA was better quality... what mattered is that people were adopting VHS; rental stores, manufacturers, end consumers, all wanted a single working platform -- and VHS was eventually just that.

I don't claim to know how to get yourself in a position to lead the pack, but if you find yourself walking away from the pack, all alone and can't figure out why you aren't succeeding, have the courage to admit your vision may need some tweaking before it is too late. The crowd may just dictate that your concepts are before their time and they want a 'lite' version, or the product in blue, or a phone that just calls people...

Seth mentioned in his blog this morning that 'The last 75% of [The Davinci Code] sales were made to people who never ever buy books. They bought it because 'everyone else was buying it.''

The Crowd can be your friend and an invaluable guide -- especially if they don't agree with your business.