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June 12, 2001
Q: We’re an architectural firm always looking out for new opportunities and we’re wondering what your crystal ball says about interesting directions on the horizon.
A: Since I’m the Niche Doctor, your question concerns me a great deal. You didn’t say what your focus is, much less your company niche. No direction is good unless it’s inextricably related to your central core. Since I don’t know what yours is, I will mention a specific need that has arisen out of the ashes of exterior insulation and finishing systems, better known as EIFS. Problems with this make-believe stucco affect homes, condos and commercial structures throughout the Pacific Northwest.
With EIFS, buildings get to look like they have fabulous stucco exteriors. The only problem—and it’s a monster-size one—is that when improperly applied, EIFS result in very expensive homes having rotting walls and weakend structures in areas affected. The improper application appears to be endemic throughout newer homes built in the Pacific Northwest.
Enter the opportunity: Because of the seriousness of the issue, the level of skill required to resolve it, (not to mention the money involved) a few very savvy architectural firms are already developing special departments devoted exclusively to EIFS analysis and assistance. Once this issue hits the courts full-scale, as it surely will, you should expect to see even more architectural firms getting into the act of assessing damage and the restoration process.
Even though this is a definite opportunity for some, it can also be a land-mine for firms that get outside their niche. The expertise required is highly specialized, and it would be easy to get in over your head if that expertise isn’t there, simply compounding the existing problem, ultimately adding more lawsuits to the pile.
Overall, however, the mess is a perfect example of how problems for one person create opportunities for someone else. If you are looking for that great niche on the horizon, look around to see what issues are certain to emerge from recent or current trends.
Q: Sometime ago you said it’s important to know when to “ditch your niche.” Can you give an example of a company which has successfully done this?
A: Ditching your niche before your business runs out of steam or into a brick wall is a critical decision, requiring enormous sensitivity to the current scene and significant trends. Sealy, Inc. is a great example of a company that finally realized it was no longer primarily in the mattress business. Granted, mattresses still go out the door, and lots of them, but the real thing Sealy is now selling is “sleep wellness.”
Ron Jones, chair and chief excecutive at Sealy, explained how his company moved from selling functional springs and padding to loftier goals associated with overall health. He said,
“What’s motivating us is the higher interest that I think that we, as a culture and we as people, are paying to this whole issue of sleep wellness....It’s just now beginning to really be dawning on health professionals, the issues of the contributions of the sleep surface to the environment.”
Sealy is yet another company that had to re-think what business it was really in. In its case, mattresses are simply a means to an end, not the end in itself. The question each of us must keep asking is what is “our end?”
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