Aikido is a Japanese martial art in which the strength of an attacker is used against him or her. As a business model, Aikido allows a company to offer something diametrically opposed to the image and mindset of the competition. This new value proposition attracts customers who prefer ideas or concepts opposed to the mainstream.
Swatch
How they do it: Swatch’s brand image mirrored off its name, a contraction of ”second watch”. Watches were intended as casual, disposable accessories – diametrically opposed to the mainstream industry’s approach. The Swatch product line was developed as a response to the ”quartz crisis” of the 1970s and 1980s, in which Asian-made digital watches were competing against traditional European-made mechanical watches.
Nintendo
How they do it: When the video console market was dominated by Sony (Playstation) and Microsoft (Xbox), Nintendo introduced the Wii console with totally different attributes and features than the two successful products from Sony and Microsoft. Instead of targeting serious gamers, the Wii targets a broader target group allowing them a more interactive and fun-focused game experience. In addition Nintendo first introduced a wireless controller with a movement detector, creating a totally different product than its competitors.
Below, the top industries for the pattern "Aikido" are displayed, in order to get insights into how this pattern is applied across different industries. We've collected data from 2 firms using this pattern.
Below, the pattern "Aikido" is analyzed based on co-occurrence, in order to get insights into how this business model pattern is applied in combination with other patterns within the firms we studied.
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Inventive problems
The product of company should be equal to the products of competitors in order to woo customers away from the competitors.
The product of company should be different from the products of competitors in order to attract non-customers.
The product should be targeted at a small group of customers in order to fully meet the needs of customers.
The product should be targeted at a large group of customers in order to attract more buyers and get the maximum revenue.
Application examples
In the realm of business one of the first companies to apply the Aikido model was Six Flags, an American corporation that currently operates 21 amusement parks in the USA, Canada and Mexico. In line with the Aikido business model, the focus lies on regional themes and an accessible structure for customers, a strategy that contrasts with nationally oriented theme parks such as Disneyland. The regional proximity of the parks facilitates more frequent visits by local customers, creating higher revenues with less marketing effort. Another plus is that in the low season such parks continue to attract local customers
Founded in 1976, and now part of the L’Oréal corporate group, The Body Shop International plc (known as The Body Shop) is a chain of cosmetic retail stores. True to the Aikido business model, the company adopts a radically different approach within the cosmetics business. Its founder, Anita Roddick, summarised her strategy as follows: ‘I watch where the cosmetics industry is going and then walk in the opposite direction’. A major difference characterising The Body Shop is the absence of glamorous ad campaigns, making do with a marketing budget of no more than a fifth of the cosmetics industry standard. In addition, The Body Shop believes in selling environmentally friendly containers that can be reused wherever possible, also putting natural ingredients into its products and championing an ethical approach by not testing them on animals. All these choices make The Body Shop something of an oddity in the cosmetics industry, but has also enabled it to carve out an entirely new market for natural and environmentally friendly cosmetics for itself.
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Business Aikido: Gaining Strategic Advantage Through Leverage
In Aikido, martial arts students study and practice katas—pre-arranged movements that enable them to deal with an opponent successfully. The centuries-old art teaches practitioners to use the force of an opponent against the opponent. This strategy gives the student a definite advantage if attacked.
In a similar way, what were strengths in Web 1.0 have become weaknesses in Web 2.0. Remember when companies had to have legions of developers, dozens of people manning the help desks, and big was best?
In Web 2.0, the flip side is what's important. Agility and intellect are critical. Co-creation provides leverage and risk is shared. Knowledge flows easily, resulting in faster development. Collaboration is pervasive and there are no enemies—just partners.
There are several things a small-to-midsize business (SMB) needs to pay attention to if it's going to gain competitive advantage in Web 2.0. Because flexibility is important, SMBs can beat large enterprises by adding value and making their internal and external environments extremely collaborative.
Some Evidence
The main point is that people tend to move toward ideas.
You can see this in a comparison of two companies: Microsoft and 37signals. One is a software juggernaut that jealously guards its intellectual property (IP). Microsoft still takes an assertive stance toward customers and markets. Its new Windows Vista, large and late, has received mixed reviews—though its contribution to revenue is staggering.
37signals is almost an exact opposite. The company appears interested in attraction and creativity, building software as a service (SaaS) applications that do just enough for the user—not more. Its Basecamp is product management with a collaborative style. Instead of time-consuming, difficult-to-use software, 37signals uses a simple font, open space, and tabs that increase ease of use and productivity.
Adobe Photoshop has been accused of being one of the most difficult applications to use. As a result, Adobe Photoshop Elements was developed—it could be called a "lite" version of Photoshop. A boxed edition of software can have difficulty competing with a great hosted idea.
Shutterfly is a site that allows users to upload photos, share them, and create items with them. With Shutterfly, there's no such thing as just a static individual album. Users are able to create a photo collage and get it printed on a mug, or build a photo album online then have it printed and delivered. It's the completeness of the services that differentiates Shutterfly—so much is possible.
Software development continues to undergo a tremendous shift away from closed platforms by Microsoft and others to the openness typified by Linux, Opera, and Ubuntu.
Corporations have seen the shift and are using open software themselves—often slashing their expenses in the process.
Implications
- Companies need to look more deeply at how customers might like to use their products. Maybe the company sees the product as a tissue, but the consumer sees it as a health care item, a decorative item, a short-term emergency bandage, an item to use in art projects.
- Crafts, knitting, sewing, quilting, and art are all enjoying renewed popularity. People are discovering that they like to make things. There's even a magazine called Make.
- There is a love-hate relationship with mass-produced anything. And people want craftsmanship, the unique, the unusual, and things that make them think and are interesting. While selling mass-produced items is not as attractive as it was, there's still a place for that kind of item—but maybe now it should be personalized in some way.
- Early customer feedback is important. Waiting until prototypes are done to ask for customer opinions on fit, finish, packaging, flavor, texture, perceived value, or price is too late. Build customer feedback into the product cycle as early as possible.
What to Do Now
- Find new uses. New uses for products create new markets. Expand your perception and see with new eyes what you've been producing. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer. Come up with additional uses—go out on a limb.
- Be part of the trend. Find ways your products or services can work with new trends.
- Personalize it. Find a way to make your product unique to the purchaser. Deliver it the way users want. Make it available on all platforms. Let them adapt the user interface. Give the consumer the ability to change things.
- Listen to a customer today. Establish systematized customer interaction as a cultural norm within your company. Make sure associates at every level get involved.
Start practicing your own Aikido moves, and use your opponent's strength to your benefit.
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