Baked In

What happens if you did things wrong? Are any of your competitors doing it wrong, too? If not, think about how you would do things if you wanted to do them perfectly wrong. You can design your product the wrong way, like the Uglydoll, or have the wrong ingredients, like Frutels. Or you could do something even more radical. Bruce Mau helped Shaw Industries turn the carpet business upside down by focusing on a new system to implement the company’s values in everything it does. The system, Shaw Green Edge, has given the company not only a different philosophy, but it has also helped identify some of the inherent flaws with the way the entire industry has been run. Similarly, Patagonia has taken the wrong position in the clothing business by calling into question many business-as-usual practices that have been done for decades.