Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd

Youngme Moon

Apr 2010 · Sold by Crown Currency

About this ebook

What if working like crazy to beat the competition did exactly the opposite, making you mediocre and more like the competition?

In today’s world of overabundant consumer choices and superfluous apps, upgrades, add-ons, and features, brands have become nearly identical, as their efforts to outdo one another have pushed them into a dizzying herd of indistinct options.

Youngme Moon identifies the outliers, the mavericks, the iconoclasts—the players who have thoughtfully rejected orthodoxy in favor of an approach that is more adventurous. Some are even “hostile,” almost daring you to buy what they are selling. 

Using her original research on companies such as IKEA and Google, Moon will inspire you to be counterintuitive and meaningfully different—to rethink your business strategy, to stop conforming and start deviating, to stop emulating and start innovating. Because to stand out you must become the exception, not the rule.

Ratings and reviews

This book is full of great illustrations. Add her unique perspective to the mix and you have gold. Each chapter was thought provoking. The concept of rushing towards dissimilar clones, very nice. The Google reader bites though. I would share my favorite highlights here but that would be a serious pain.

First part a bit of a slow, academic read. The second part really gets interesting though when she dives into specific case studies. Great insight and powerful prose.

About the author

Youngme Moon is the Donald K. David Professor at Harvard Business School. One of HBS’s most popular teachers, Dr. Moon has received the Student Association Faculty Award for teaching excellence on multiple occasions. Dr. Moon’s research focuses on innovative consumer-marketing strategies and her work has been published widely, including in Harvard Business Review.