Why not turn an entire industry on its head?

Why not turn an entire industry on its head?

Some of the most successful businesses and acclaimed entrepreneurs have achieved that recognition because they have gone against the grain. You only have to think of some of the highest profile business brands in the UK – Virgin, EasyJet, Egg, lastminute.com and dozens more – and the common ingredient is that they’ve all looked at what everyone else in the market place is doing and have then done almost exactly the opposite.

Sticking your neck out is not easy in any environment. This is particularly so in a business environment where failure is largely seen as shameful.  It's risky to stick your neck out.   But if you are clever about the way you do it, doing things differently, sticking your neck out, breaking the mould – call it what you like – is one of the most brilliant business strategies you can adopt.

Think about it. Why do what everybody else is doing, in the same way that everybody else is doing it, thereby becoming just another business in the marketplace providing the same thing to the same pool of people? Isn’t that creating a rod for your own back? Why not take the bold step of turning industry paradigms on their head and get some real attention?

I got thinking about this because two nights ago, I drove into London ahead of the Institute of Directors convention. For various reasons, I needed to stay at or near Heathrow Airport the night before. And the thought of staying at a dire airport hotel overnight filled me with dread. The other viable option was staying at the delightfully modern and comfortable Heathrow Hilton Hotel at Terminal 4, but the cheapest room they had available was more expensive than most reasonable hotels in central London. But then I remembered about a brilliant hotel concept which would absolutely meet my needs and which I was sure would be a very pleasant experience.

Enter Yotel. The brainchild of serial entrepreneur Simon Woodroffe – Founder of Yo! Sushi, acclaimed international public speaker and an original ‘dragon’ on the popular show, Dragons’ Den.

Yotel is a brilliant concept based on a combination of the podular hotels found in Japan and business class cabins on British Airways. Take a look at the image below and perhaps even click on the photo to take a quick look at the Yotel website. You’ll very quickly see that Yotel offers a very different service to the highly saturated accommodation market.

I’m pleased to report that I arrived at Yotel on Tuesday night sometime after midnight, swiftly checked into my pod (I should mention that booking was absolutely painless and swift online), and after finding my very comfortable room I was fast asleep in a very comfortable bed in a quiet environment within minutes. At the other end of my sleep I got up, got showered and got dressed was on the road into London for my meetings before most Londoner's alarms had gone off.

Interestingly, this whole experience cost me a third of what it would cost me to stay for exactly the same amount of time in the Hilton Heathrow Hotel, literally just 200 yards from Yotel. With my Yotel experience, there was no concierge, there was no fancy art work in the big foyer and it’s located inside an airport terminal rather than on its own plot of land.

By turning the concept of hotels almost completely on its head, Simon Woodroffe has created a business which he is now going to expand in multiple locations. And if it’s anything like his Yo!Sushi concept (which started with just one sushi restaurant in London and has just opened its 50th restaurant in the global chain), it will be highly successful.

I also stayed there again last night - same deal, same experience, and I'll be back because it met my needs perfectly and it was a delightfully easy, completely comfortably, and "design-ily" cool experience.

So, why not turn your industry on its head?

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