Ryan Plesko

Lately I have felt like an ass with some of the conversations I have been having. I keep shooting down good ideas. And they are good ideas, the problem is that they are off focus from the core idea.

I’m one of the organizers of The Big (D)esign Conference and it’s shaped up to be a magnificent conference. The list of speakers is phenomenal, we have wonderful sponsors, interest has been good, promotion has been strong, ticket sales are growing higher every day, and I think we have the best team ever putting the whole thing together. How this has anything to do with focusing on a core idea is this: Our team of wonderfully intelligent and creative people come up with a ton of good ideas — and we want to do them all.

The problem lies in the second part of that sentence, though. We can’t follow through on all of these great ideas because they aren’t all exactly aligned with what we were first selling. By bringing in more features we pull focus from our core. Sure, it sounds great to be the all encompassing conference, but how much value do you get from an “all-in-one” conference? Can we put the same horsepower behind 100 things that we can behind 10? No. By adding in features that could easily stand on their own we dilute the value of the entire thing.

Think of it like the medical field. Your general practitioner is great for stuff in general, but to get the best information you go see a specialist. They only do that one thing and they do it very well (you hope). Like the phrase “Jack of all trades, master at none.”

This problem creeps up in the business world, too — sometimes in startups and sometimes with older established companies. Many times entrepreneurs want to stuff so many features into their product that it loses focus of the core function. You lose your customers/users/whatever in all the intricacies and make it difficult to use. By trying to promote too many messages you end up effectively communicating none.

In older, established companies it is a little different. I’m going to use UPS and FedEx Kinkos as the example. UPS has recently started a campaign stating “We do more.” The more that they are referring to is new services in UPS stores that include printing, copying, binding, etc. I’m guessing this is an effort to compete with FedEx who acquired Kinkos a while back. The difference in the two is that FedEx acquired a printing company and now has a convenient shipping center in Kinkos locations whereas UPS is now a printing company. I guess. Their commercials even play off the confusion of a customer in a UPS store. Why they thought this would be a good decision is beyond me. FedEx handled it the smart way. Kinkos is known for printing, copying, and all that stuff and FedEx is known for shipping. And they both still do those, just now from one location. FedEx Kinkos preserved the core business of each company while UPS diluted theirs. Hell, Walmart doesn’t even claim to have everything for everyone — their core business is having the best price, and that is what they communicate.

That might be as clear as mud, I don’t know. The bottom line is this: If you have a core business or idea, make sure you stick to it. You can branch out and diversify, but do it without losing who you are.

And apply this to everything: conference planning, software features, product features, business development, marketing, etc.

Note: The ideas brainstormed for The Big (D)esign Conference that can stand on their own are not being cast aside. We are rolling them into their own events. Expect them to be equally awesome