Doing 1 Thing and Doing It Well

Today I had the pleasure of meeting with a fellow entrepreneur who in many ways views things differently than I do, but both of us are successful with our own models. He isn't a high-tech entrepreneur -- far from it. He actually views blogs as dangerous and thinks companies should starve them for information rather than feed them by attempting to influence them. But that's a post for another day.

In any event, his company operates on the premise that it does one or two things really well and he has no desire to broaden his offerings, engage in third party deals, or even in some cases to expand the scope of his existing agreements with clients -- even if it is in their existing wheelhouse.

He arrived at this strategy because he believes it helps employee morale and boosts operating margins. He felt that going beyond his core cometency would endanger existing businees with his clients by distracting from his basic value proposition.

Now this tends not to be how I run my own companies. I love owning a relationship with a client and if I can expand my offerings to them while maintaining quality across the spectrum, then I want to do it. I fundamentally believe that clients prefer fewer vendors whenever they can find trusted ones to deal with.

Of course, maintaining quality is key. It is never a good idea to dillute your value through a half-assed attempt at serving a new need. But if you can expand successfully I think you should do it.

But the gentleman I met with today was quite passionate about his view. And it is hard to quibble with his success.

The bottom line I believe is that both models have merit and the personality of the entrepreneur and the nature of the business must dictate the path to follow.