B&T was front and centre yesterday at the ad:tech conference in Sydney, where Isobar’s chief strategy officer for the Asia-Pacific region, Sandipan Roy (pictured above), explained in detail what sets apart pioneers from the pack.
Essentially, Roy said the fundamental difference between pioneers and the rest of us is they focus on the new and different, while we focus on the better.
Roy elaborated on this by identifying five key traits of a pioneer; the first being that they focus on the purpose rather than the proposition, and innovation over optimisation.
Another difference between a true pioneer and a fast follower is that pioneers start their journey by solving neglected problems, rather than designing “melodramatic” solutions, according to Isobar’s strategy guru.
“Pioneers have found it in themselves to liberate businesses and customers from friction,” he said.
Roy pointed out that old economy companies were largely built on creating artificial scarcity before the internet brought us to the new digital economy that makes money off abundance.
He went on to say that pioneers create, not compete.
“They escape from the competition and create their own market,” he said.
“The problem with competitive advantage is that the competition becomes the defining variable; that becomes the boundary that a brand operated in.
“What that leads to is the business making its own product bit by bit better than the competition; not doing something new and different. Pioneers redraw boundaries and look at completely new markets to operate in.”