Secret Sauce: The Ingredients Of A Unique Business

Chick-fil-a, Raising Cane's, Coca-Cola, KFC and many other companies have used an amalgamation of common ingredients that when measured and mixed precisely create a one of a kind flavor.

Now am I talking about herbs and spices that agree with your palate?

No.

The secret sauce is analogous to the businesses that have developed their own business system, product, or service.

What is your business's secret sauce?

Here's a pearl. The companies that use a unique technology, product or service are the ones favored to expand the industry they are involved in. Let's look at one of my favorite examples. GoPro entered a market in 2002 that had been dominated by Sony, JVC and Panasonic for decades. Out of Southern California Nick Woodman designed and created what we know today as a GoPro. He created this product out of a problem he encountered of not being able to record his point of view experience of surfing. People saw his device and a niche was created. Now repellers, skydivers, motocross racers and other extreme sports athletes could record their experience without clunky handheld hardware. Nick created wearable recording. The technology that goes into a GoPro is always being refined to reduce shaky video images and many other problems that come with recording steady video. The idea to be presented is this.

What does your business provide that would change a market? Now this doesn't mean that your secret sauce has to be a direct consumer experience. Your secret sauce might be internet software that users don't realize they are using. It might be a unique business model that an enterprising owner conceived and implemented.

Remember this. It is the creative thinking of Harold Sanders that made KFC a household name. A million people can come up with a tasty collection of herbs and spices to batter and fry a chicken in. It was the colonel's secret recipe along with his approach to fry his chicken in a pressure cooker to cook faster, as well as selling his secret ingredient to restaurants and collecting five cents a chicken that began his empire.

The truth mediocre businesses are everywhere and defy logic on how they continue to exist. But the great ones have found their secret sauce and have thrived. You will also find that the great businesses and business owners have developed and continuously refine their business system... their secret sauce.

David Azua

www.davidazua.com

david@davidazua.com