I came across this interesting interview on business week today (hat tip to Matt), with a guy talking about Steve Job’s presentation style. There were some tips, including one that I’ve been toying with for some time, having a villain.
According to the article:
“In every classic story, the hero fights the villain. In 1984, the villain, according to Apple, was IBM (IBM). Before Jobs introduced the famous 1984 television ad to the Apple sales team for the first time, he told a story of how IBM was bent on dominating the computer industry. “IBM wants it all and is aiming its guns on its last obstacle to industry control: Apple.” Today, the “villain” in Apple’s narrative is played by Microsoft (MSFT). One can argue that the popular “I’m a Mac” television ads are hero/villain vignettes. This idea of conquering a shared enemy is a powerful motivator and turns customers into evangelists.”
I believe having a villain can be a key to success. Not having a villain can lead to a lack of focus and a company’s products and messages can be all over the place.
At the same time an enemy doesn’t have to be a company, it can be a process or an industry as well. As long as the villain is defined well and easily identified. Let’s look at some examples, Nintendo saw the villain as new games consoles with more graphics, more R&D and more and more and more (think the Xbox and the PS series), they focused on what the villains were doing and flipped them with a simpler games console that appeals to more people. The villain was doing more, so the hero changed the game.
Voice mail could be an enemy for something like Google Voice. Crap notebooks could be seen as Moleskine’s villain. Whatever, just knowing who and what you’re up against helps make the message clear in side the organisation and outside, it’s just that not enough companies have that bull’s-eye up for all to see.
