In January of 2024, I wrote The Insight is the Edge: Why CNH Struggles to Keep Up. This wasn’t intended to be a negative take on CNH, but use them as an example to illustrate that a unique insight and point of view is crucial to establish a vision for a thriving business— following the herd, or waiting for your customer to demand something, often means you are too late or that you are competing in a low margin game.
In the article I stated:
World-class companies lead their customers.
These companies lead their customers based on unique insights.
In most industries, the businesses with the insights have the edge.
In the article I didn’t highlight specifically what an insight is, or where they come from which I want to elaborate on.
Insights are fundamental for the success of any business.
An insight is defined as:
the capacity to gain an accurate and deep intuitive understanding of a person or thing.
This can be into a customer, a technology or a market for example. An insight that is actionable is what differentiates a business. Acting on an insight allows a company to be different and an insight is core to having a unique strategy. As Michael Porter said in Competitive Strategy:
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