I have found most business books to contain some good theories and a few employable practices, but they require a healthy dose of reality checking on the part of the reader. In my experience, Jim Collins' Good to Great has been the anomaly. I have been able to apply virtually every concept in that book to almost any organization in my professional life and my civic life. After all, it would be hard to try to refute the universal need for authentic leadership, great people and a focused strategic plan, right?

The one lesson that I see technology companies continually struggle with is the Hedgehog Concept. Simply put, this is the concept that businesses who emulate a hedgehog (an animal that focuses on one activity rather than many, like a fox) have a greater chance of success.How do you figure out your business' "one direction?" Use the Venn Diagram below to determine the overlap between your company's deepest passions, the activities which drive your economic engine, and the offering(s) in which you are the best in the world.

Over the years, I have watched many technology companies place their passions as their highest priority. Naturally, technology startups are passionate about innovation, which often leads them in the direction of the fox. They start projects without analyzing the market to determine if their new invention will drive their economic engine. Then, they release half-coded products/features/services and move on to the next thing without ensuring quality and competitive protection.

I have worked for companies that have this mentality, and it becomes very difficult to market or sell their offerings. Prospective customers don't usually have the budget or the interest in selecting more than one vendor. They simply want to figure out which partner is the best fit for their needs, and they will enter into a contract with that provider. Thus, it is the duty of the sales and marketing organization to find businesses that have those specific needs and to establish the credibility that their products and services are truly the best in the world for those businesses. All too often, I see technology companies that wonder why their sales team isn't more successful. Certainly, it could be a question of ineffective marketing, time management, sales cycle management, partner management, or dozens of other factors. However, how many executive teams earnestly consider the fact that they just might not be the best option for their target market? It doesn't take a lot of cold calls or lost opportunities for the sales team to figure it out. Is it a question of pride or is there a lack of analytics that allow many management teams to overlook their competitive weaknesses?

The good news is that your business does not need to be the best in the world at everything. You just need to excel at something. Not just according to your website and your marketing collateral. Really, truly the best at some aspect of your industry. If you carve out your niche and dominate it, your customers will be the first to evangelize it for you. In this age of information availability, a customer testimonial in a well-measured case study is worth 1,000 claims by your sales and marketing messaging.

So, in which area of your industry are you the best? When I was in the web analytics industry, we watched a little-known company with almost no marketing prowess called Visual Sciences make a name for itself in complex modeling with large data sets. We saw Coremetrics gain market share with their focus on sophisticated retailers. Neither company was as big as WebTrends or Omniture, but they were the best at something. In the email marketing world, CheetahMail was known for the impenetrable relationship its Account Managers had with their customers and Strongmail made a name for itself in the email infrastructure appliance market while ExactTarget tried to be the easiest solution to use. In such a crowded industry, there was no clear favorite, but it wasn't impossible to be the #1 choice for a subgroup of decision makers. Notice that I didn't mention price in my examples. If your strategy is to be #2 or #3 at everything but to offer a lower price, I would urge you to reconsider that notion. You're better off charging enough to be able to offer a higher quality solution than skimping and attracting the fickle bargain hunting crowd.

If you work for a service provider and you can't truthfully explain why your company is the best at the world at something, it is time for an emergency meeting. Don't let your marketing and sales organization fight with plastic spoons...give them something compelling to say. Stop trying to be something to everyone and be the best in the world for someone. Your customers will be more loyal, your support team will be more happy and your sales team will be more successful.