Lowest Common Denominator

Most businesses are consumed with one question:

“How can we sell more widgets to more people at less cost to us?”

This single question has driven scale, innovation and profits since the start of the Industrial Age and inevitably leads to a second Industrial Age question:

“What’s the lowest common denominator that appeals to the masses that we need to cater for?”

This second question ignores ‘edge cases’ – people who have extreme, weird, unusual widget requirements – since edge cases can’t scale.

The problem is the new Connection Economy that we live in today means:

1) There are no ‘masses’ to appeal to that guarantee us scale anymore, and
2) We are all edge cases in one area or three and can connect with other edge cases just like us

Today, in attempting to appeal to the masses, we appeal to no one.

Rather than appealing to the lowest common denominator, better to appeal to the highest uncommon numerator.

Deliver the best for the least for the most.

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