"Really Good at Not Being Bad"

Two mission statements/objectives that I think are good and should be studied by the AEC community.  The first is from ESPN.  Their mission:

"To serve sports fans wherever sports are watched, listened to, discussed, debated, read about, or played."

When ESPN inserted "discussing and debating sports" they make sports a social experience - - by doing this, ESPN acquires a very distinct reputation.  CBS broadcasts great golf and FOX does football - - but ESPN is thinking beyond this in terms of a conversational voice combined with cross-platform execution.  Look at how ESPN tells its stories - - they want their readers, viewers, and Web site visitors to have an "experience" from their storytelling.  There are many good lessons for the AEC industry in the ESPN mission + media engagement story.

The second is McDonald's.  I recently "dined" in a local McDonald's and I remember this great line about McDonald's that came from Rory Sutherland, the Executive Creative Director and Vice-Chairman of OgilvyOne in London.  According to Mr. Sutherland, the "mission" of McDonald's can be described as:

"Whatever you think about McDonald's - it's really, really good at not being bad."  And he has a great point - people pick McDonald's because it's pretty good and definitely isn't awful.  Per Sutherland:

"Why do we go to McDonald's?  Is it the best food in town?  Probably not.  The search cost of finding the best place to eat in town, given that we've only got one shot at having a meal in a strange town, would be pretty high.  But also when you go into McDonald's you know you're not going to be ripped off, you're almost certainly not going to be ill."

Some of this applies to the AEC industry.  The SOQ process has somewhat of a minimax approach.  Clients engaging in defensive decision making; the old line about "No one ever got fired buying IBM" - - our clients will always use different heuristics in order to make decisions.  No group of clients will ever behave in an identical or predictable way, nor will they always maintain those behaviors or proxies for a long time.  Remember that some will be thinking quarter pound cheeseburger during your next selection presentation. They are thinking consistency - the same "non-awful" performance on every project.

This is an interesting dilemma for the AEC industry - - the cost, time, and intellectual energy going into being like ESPN and helping your clients with the "make me smarter experience" knowing that many of our clients just want you to be really, really good at not being bad.