The crooked wire symbolizes the sometimes unknown nature of a value proposition.
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If you have been reading my blogs to this point, you understand by now that I encourage and embrace unconventional thinking as a starting point in all problem-solving exercises—business and otherwise.
The consideration of counterintuitive approaches is a great way to conceptualize solutions and value propositions that are not obvious to the naked eye or the casual observer. Additionally, you probably know I appreciate a good sense of humor!
These two seemingly unrelated components become inextricably intertwined in a concept called “Crooked Wire Value,” which I believe is essential to creating a sustainable competitive edge in any competitive endeavor.
The Value of a Doodle Pad
I have a whiteboard in my office. I use it for a variety of lists and for meetings. The two most common uses are as a kind of “doodle pad” to help me make and illustrate points when speaking with a team member or a client and as a visual reminder to keep me on point relative to our priorities.
The illustration I turn to most often and sometimes stays on my whiteboard for months is a simple human stick figure with an arrow entering one side of the spherical body and exiting the other.
The drawing is not glamorous—it’s a stick figure! The arrow has a point on one end and fletching on the other, kind of a cartoon version of a real arrow. Leaning into the cartoon aspect, the appearance of the arrow usually generates a chuckle when someone first observes the stick figure drawing because the arrow is obviously not straight; it is, in fact… crooked!
The arrow is not simply “bent”; it has five or six ninety-degree bends in the shaft section inside the stick figure’s body. That unique arrow is the “crooked wire” prop I have used for a long time to illustrate what I believe to be the ideal approach to value creation and value delivery.
How Crooked Wire Value Works
The stick figure represents any particular customer or a class of customers. A straight arrow might pierce our stick figure, go right through, and out the other side. The arrow could have missed all vital organs and bones based on the path it took through the body.
If that were the case, we, or a doctor, could conceivably simply remove the arrow, and with a couple of stitches and bandages, the individual or customer represented by the stick figure would be as good as new.
When presenting this illustration, I aim to help business leaders understand that if our value proposition is straight, clean, undifferentiated, and almost indistinguishable from the competition, we are a commodity.
The customer may be able to simply extract us from their business without any major consequences, damage, or disruption and easily replace us with the next “straight arrow” that takes our place. Enter the crooked arrow!
Assuming my stick figure is three-dimensional rather than how it actually appears on my whiteboard, all those crooks and bends are going to get caught up on organs and bones or whatever else we view as being inside our stick figure. That arrow is going to be hard to get out!
We want to become so valuable to our customers that they can’t imagine their businesses without us. We are so integral to their success that we can’t be extracted. When competing in any market, our objective is to provide solutions that are not simply different from those provided by our competitors but ones that deliver better results.
When we do that, we’ll never be just another straight (and easily replaceable) arrow or wire.
The Basis of Crooked Wire Value
Crooked wire value results from the provision of innovative and counterintuitive products and services (solutions) that are:
- Of utmost value to our market
- Unmatched by the competition
- Unexpected by the customer
In today’s modern business climate, with easy and open access to almost all technologies, market research, intelligence, a global supply base, etc., other than scope and scale, it can be difficult to differentiate one product, service, or business from another.
Customers have come to demand quality regardless of where or from whom they procure the product. Product quality is a non-negotiable. As a result, it is sometimes challenging to create any long-term, sustainable market and customer loyalty with product quality, even when fully embracing product innovation.
Product Quality vs. Service Quality
If product quality has been leveled across the global marketplace, the same cannot be said of service quality. Technology has largely leveled the playing field for products, forcing many of us to rely on straight arrows in our product value propositions.
By contrast, customer service presents an ideal canvas for brand differentiation. Suppose we commit to conceptualizing, creating, and delivering unique and creative solutions in our services delivery model that provide our customers with an unexpected and unmatched experience. In that case, we achieve an advantage that is hard for the competition to combat.
The Winding Road to Excellence
Now, the winding road to excellence…which also happens to be the title of my book… is akin to the “crooked wire” because it has so many twists and turns and bends in it.
The journey from recognizing the value of a concept to realizing the execution of it is long. I’ve got many examples and experiences in the book about what such execution looks like …but we will NEVER realize the value of “crooked wire value” until we ask and answer this question: “What can we offer that no one else can claim, no one else can deliver, and possibly…no one else has even thought of?”
The answer to that question becomes our “Only” statement, and it is the one thing that ensures that our customers come back again and again and, ideally, never leave.