The Three Words at the Heart of Every Great Business

Let's strip away the corporate speak and get to the absolute core of what makes a business tick: it exists to solve someone else's problem.

When you boil it down, it’s about three critical words: SOLVE… PROBLEM… OTHERS.

Unpacking that:

SOLVE – Does your product or your service actually make the customer's problem go away? Most business schools teach in terms of selling a product or service. I encourage you to think in terms of Problem vs. Solution. What is the problem you are solving for customers? And is this a problem the customer wants solved?

PROBLEM – Do your customers have a genuine, throbbing headache? If you want revenue NOW, you need a customer with a problem so urgent, so painful, that it must be solved right NOW. 

OTHERS – If there are no customers, there is no business. Sometimes the others in your orbit go away and the only solution is to find a different group of “others” with throbbing headaches.

Real-World Proof: How DoorDash Is Crushing Fraud

Let's grab a real-world example that perfectly illustrates this: DoorDash. We see them everywhere, and while they navigate their own set of challenges, a truly brilliant move they've made recently is how they're tackling delivery fraud. 

You might think, "Meh, minor issue."

But for restaurants, for the Dashers themselves, and for DoorDash, fraudulent claims of undelivered food were a massive headache. They were bleeding money and trust across the board.

What did they do? Their solution is brilliant in its simplicity: they're now requiring a four-digit PIN from some customers when food is delivered, especially if there's been a history of reported issues. This isn't just about protecting their bottom line; it's about directly attacking a critical pain point that was messing up the entire gameboard. Restaurants were eating costs, Dashers were facing unfair penalties. By implementing this PIN system, DoorDash is directly SOLVING the PROBLEM of fraudulent claims, bringing integrity and fairness to the delivery experience for all their OTHERS involved. That is innovative problem-solving in action.

Here are two quick, final thoughts for you today:

1. If you're in a shrinking market, there’s only one way to grow: you've got to take business away from your competitors. When the pie shrinks, you better grab a bigger slice.

2. And you won't do that by doing the same old stuff everyone else is doing. You have to be noticeably different to pull it off. That's how you go Next Level.