One of the greatest enemies of growth is status quo thinking.
Imagine what would have happened if Nike and Adidas had focused solely on athletes as the target for their shoes. Granted, pro athletes buy shoes many times per year and likely own multiple pairs of shoes, but they represent significantly less than 1% of the US population.
If they reached out to college and perhaps high school athletes and coaches, plus medical personnel, they might have reached 15%. And between the two companies, who are still the two largest producers of sport shoes, it is not a stretch to imagine that they would dominate those markets.
Now put yourself in the Board room of Nike and Adidas that day in the early 80s when some young [or old] renegade came in and suggested that moms and dads and kids of all ages could be their market and that they could even expand to clothing.
This is heresy. We are focused on athletes with our sports shoes. That is where the money is.
I look at the two companies today — Nike, with its $57b market cap and Adidas with its $16.6b market cap and I think I know which board room the above statement came from.
While both companies are truly successful and Adidas did eventually branch out in 2006 with its Reebok brand to the aerobics set and later to the broader audience, their valuation still lags against industry leader Nike.
If you are from the travel industry and wondering why I’m telling this story, ask yourself how much of your US business comes from the sale of travel to the air traveler. Notice I didn’t say the sale of air tickets. Overnight trips taken by air are only 15% of total trips.
Or ask yourself how much comes from vacation travel, which is just 8% of US travel.
Or ask yourself how much is from corporate travel which is just 25% of the total market (and just 48% of the 25% is by air).
Just think of the multiple you could achieve by not limiting yourself to such a small slice of the travel market.
What are you waiting for?
Just do it…..
and if you need some help, call me.