Like any proud father, I love all my six Fundamental Rules equally.
But if I absolutely had to pick one that I thought was most important, it would be Number 2: Sell "The Product Your Customers Want To Buy".
Take any industry in the world and you'll see this rule in action; it brings firms the best, most profitable, most loyal customers.
Why do they get the best customers? In the world of car rentals, Hertz get the best car rental customers.
In the hotel business, The Ritz Carlton gets the best hotel guests.
In the world of MP3 players, Apple i-Pod gets the best customers! Your best shot at getting the best customers is to give them the best product you possibly can: one that they really want.
The Japanese have known this secret for years Look at how successful the Japanese manufacturers have been over the past few decades - and I'll come to Toyota in a moment.
For years Japanese businesses have managed to get "Sustainable Business Growth" partly because they've applied a kind of Total Quality Management (TQM) and broken it down into four process parts.
But here's the thing: three of their golden business rules relate to the product itself.
Here's the Japanese product mantra: 1.
Atarimae Hinshitsu - Things should work as they are supposed to (e.
g.
a pen will write) 2.
Kansei - Examining how users apply the product leads to improvement in the product itself 3.
Miryokuteki Hinshitsu - The idea that things should have an aesthetic quality (e.
g.
a pen will write in a way that is pleasing to the writer) A lapse of product focus can be disastrous To see what happens when a manufacturer takes their finger of the product pulse we need to look no further than Toyota's recent fall from grace.
A lapse of focus on product (Prius, Yaris and other models are under recall) has resulted in tragic deaths, a disastrous hit for the business and possibly irreparable damage to its reputation.
Why some brands simply wipe the floor with the competition These are the same reasons, among others, that Dyson has become the hottest vacuum cleaner manufacturer in the world.
Dyson Vacuum Cleaners are exceptionally better than the rest.
James Dyson took a very mundane household product that had not seen any real improvement in 25 years and - admittedly via 5,000 prototypes - made it outstandingly better.
Be better or be forced to compete on price Why was Dyson so successful? Because he didn't just pass the industry standards, he surpassed them and went straight to exceptional.
If you're just meeting the industry standards then you are making a huge mistake.
Meeting the industry standards just makes you the same as everyone else and that makes you a commodity.
Commodity producers compete with other commodity producers on price and that's no fun at all.
More to the point that's not where you'll find Serious Business Growth.
Take your product back to the drawing board By making his product better, James Dyson changed the vacuum cleaner industry.
It might have taken him 5000 prototypes, but he ended up achieving $10 billion in global sales.
That equates to around $2 million per prototype, so I think Mr.
Dyson took the right approach to serious business growth and brand building.
This is why my most important Fundamental Rule is all about your product.
Take your product from ordinary to exceptional and get your customers to tell their friends "You won't believe how good this product is".
Position your product in the minds of your customers Another Fundamental Rule is inseparable from Product.
Rule Number Three is "Positioning".
Here's the first question I ask clients when I'm consulting: "What do you do?" And if they can't describe it in just a few words we have a lot of work to do.
These few words form your tagline - your positioning - and they not only tell your customers what your business is all about, they keep your employees focused too.
For example: •Overnight delivery - FedEx •The world's favorite airline - British Airways •Deliverable Technology - Dell Computers How to develop a powerful positioning statement Here is a really quick way to pin down the positioning of your business.
Fill in the blanks in this statement: "We are the only (a) that solves the (b) problem, in a (3) way", where a) is the category of company, product, service that you are competing in, b) is the unmet need of your target audience and c) is the uniqueness, differentiation or advantage, you have over your competition.