"What if we did the opposite?"
This is a question I pose to all of the companies I work with in agtech.
There is an established order, a certain way business is done in your niche or industry; for the most part, people follow it.
And for good reason. Usually, the standard operating procedure is worth following.
It’s time-tested; it’s safe. No one’s getting fired for it.
But sometimes, those canonized truths and operating principles that everyone follows have run their course.
They’ve stopped serving their original purpose, and they need to go.
This is where the question posed at the beginning becomes valuable.
"What if we did the opposite?"
What if we stopped accepting hotels as the only option for travel and started renting our spare bedrooms?
What if we stopped trying to hail taxis in busy cities and started connecting with drivers through an app on our phones?
What if we stopped buying larger farm equipment that left our soils compacted without sacrificing farm productivity?
What if irrigators stopped babysitting numerous pieces of technology in their fields and started managing business outcomes?
There are many conversations here on LinkedIn about how to do marketing - from SEO down to story structure.
But the frameworks and different thinking developed by companies like Airbnb, Uber, SwarmFarm Robotics, SWAN Systems, and so many others I don’t have space to mention, remind me what I market for.
We sustain our companies through writing, advertising, thought leadership, and strategic execution.
But change, evolution, and the continuous improvement of society and industry is what we stay in business for.
Make something different. Make people care. Make fans, not followers.