Six Ways to Grow your "Business" into Adjacent Spaces

Like a corporation looking to grow, individuals in the dating world also look around to see where they should expand their business to next. The article lists five ways to grow into an adjacent space based on a study conducted by Bain & Company between 1995 and 1997.

Expand along the value chain – One of the most difficult ways to grow a business is expanding up the value chain. Fortunately it is much easier in the dating world. Call upon your most trusted family members and friends to keep their eyes open for potential good matches. Be sure to emphasize that you desire GOOD MATCHES and not simply matches. A common marital status (or lack thereof) between you and a potential date is not a compelling enough reason to spend time together. There needs to be something more i.e. common interests, mutual hatreds, or a desire to be adventurous.

Grow new products and services – In order to gain the attention of the opposite sex, sometimes you have to make improvements to the product (yourself). Examples of this include returning to school to get an advanced degree (like an MBA) or signing up for lessons to acquire or improve an area of personal interest (like gourmet cooking or voice lessons).

Use new distribution channels – When all your usual hangouts are not yielding the usual volume of dating potentials anymore, it’s time for a change of scenery. Get out of your comfort zone and find new situations to expose yourself to. Head out to that new club with your most hip cousin, or accompany your friend to their stake ice skating activity. The payoff of finding new channels to distribute yourself through will be worth a little bit of awkwardness.

Enter new geographies – When I lived in Florida, the LDS dating market was good but somewhat limited. After three years of YSA dances and singles conferences, I pretty much knew almost everyone in the area on at least an acquaintance level. After a certain amount of time, you may have “dated out” the market. In this case, in order to grow your “business” you may need to make a geographic change and actually move to greener dating pastures.

Address new customer segments – Are you of the gothic fashion persuasion and like to pair black clothes with combat boots? Way to be different! However, you may not be reaching your full potential audience. As pointed out in the article, companies spend lots of resources to discover their most desirable customer segments and appeal to them. You can do this too. I’m not suggesting you change the core of who you are; I’m merely recommending that you make some outward modifications to increase your ability to “distribute” your amazingness to a larger market. Give the people what they want! You!

*Based on the article "Growth outside the core." by Chris Zook and James Allen. Harvard Business Review Volume 81 Issue 12 (2003) pages 66-74.

Competing on Resources

This article reminded me of dating here in Provo. Some of the concepts from the article can be applied to this context. There is an abundance of individuals here, all with the same goal but each situation requires analyzing the competitively valued resources.

The test of inimitability – Can this be imitated? Under normal circumstances, being educated (especially working on a Master’s degree) would definitely be a competitive advantage. It is difficult to duplicate because getting a master’s degree is hard work and takes substantial time to achieve. However, this is not a competitive advantage in Provo. Individuals with graduate degrees are a dime a dozen here and thus is not unique in this marketplace.

The test of durability - How quickly does this resource depreciate? In the dating scene in Provo, you must act fast, because there is always some younger coming up through the ranks. Each September, a “fresh” batch of freshman arrive here culturally conditioned to be on the hunt. If you don’t keep up a regular workout regimen and rigorous beauty routine, you could find your value in the marketplace falling fast.

The test of approachability- Who captures the value that the resource creates? This concept also plays into the dating scene. As different individuals interact and date each other, their perceived value will go up or down based on who they are dating. For example, if a guy with a moderate perceived value asks out a girl who the others guys have been hesitant to approach due to her high value, his value in the eyes of the other guys and girls will accordingly go up.

*Based on the article "Competing on Resources: Strategy in the 1990s." by David J. Collis and Cynthia A. Montgomery. Harvard Business Review Volume 73 Issue 4 (1995) pages 118-128.

Resource-Based View of Dating

In order to have a competitive advantage, a firm must have valuable resources that can differentiate it from others. Due to the highly dynamic nature of the competitive arena, the firm must guard its key resources (core competencies), and continue to build and maintain them. One must be prudent with its resources. There are three ways to build a unique set of resources: “know yourself, know your competitors, and know your market.”

Our dear university is the most saturated market teeming with dating opportunities (or so it is assumed). However, there are many who are lost among the pool of potentials and remain stagnant in the market. This is because these individuals have not invested in the right resources (e.g. social skills, common sense, intelligence, hotness, etc) or they are just unaware that they have them. By studying yourself, your competitors, and the date market, you can determine whether you need to invest in, upgrade or leverage your personal resources. This may entail a whole new wardrobe, getting an MBA, learning how to play the guitar, actually using that gym pass, or just smiling more. Also, it is important not to diversify blindly among random individuals of the opposite sex—this can lead to unnecessary pain and lower your brand equity. One must be shrewd and strategic. Whether you are a Gucci type of girl/guy or a Camry type of practical person, it is crucial to know and play to your strengths. The article wisely gives the most important dating advice: know yourself, know your competitors, know your market, and build a strategy based on your core competencies.

Porter's Five Forces of Love

Michael Porter should be deified as the postmodern Venus. Little did he know that his breakthrough model would save millions, perhaps billions, of people from dire (or even fatal)solitude. My words of advice to my fellow single friends who are on the brink of falling into this pit of loneliness: study Porter's Five Forces.

Porter's five forces is the keystone of competitive analysis. According to his model, you can find your strategic position in the dating market by analyzing your suppliers, customers, substitutes, and new entrants. Enough said. Just look at the diagram. Save your love life.

Strategies to Deal with Low Cost Rivals

Once again, I would like to compare many of the concepts I learned in this article to the dating scene in Provo. The diagram “A framework for responding to low-cost rivals” from the article provides a very accurate representation of the decision process on how to react when a freshman girl moves into your ward and begins to pursue the guys you’ve spent all year admiring from afar.

First, you need to ask, “Will this freshmen take away any of my present or future customers (boys)?” If she is not very cute, then the answer is no and you can just watch her closely but don’t take her on. If she is hot, then of course, the answer is yes, so move on to the next section which recommends “Don’t launch a price war (competition) with her. Increase the differentiation of your products (looks, intelligence, sense of humor) by using a combination of tactics.”

The next question you should ask yourself is “Are there sufficient numbers of consumers (boys) willing to pay more (not go immediately for the easy target) for the benefits I offer?” If your ward is small or the guy to girl ratio is less than ideal, then you might be better off following the diagram recommendation to learn to live with the smaller company (freshman girl), i.e. be nice to her and become her friend. However, since this is Provo and the wards are very large, the answer to the question would be yes and therefore your best move is to intensify differentiation by offering more benefits (learn how to cook, go back to school and get an MBA). This should increase your value to potential ECs and not be as “price sensitive” to the easy target in front of them.

Although my comparison to the Provo dating may seem superficial, it provides a very concrete, real world example of the economy of competing against rivals with lower costs. Ultimately, it is the consumer’s decision what is most important to them: quality or price. Just as we “established companies” must survey the competitive environment we are operating in and respond accordingly, so must the “consumers” decide whether they want cheap and easy right now or quality for the long term.

*Based on the article: "Strategies to Fight Low Cost Rivals." by Nirmalya Kumar from Harvard Business Review Volume 84 (2006) pages 104-112.

Why we blog.

Business school is all about relating our classroom work to the real world. All day, every day, we spend our days analyzing cases taken from the "real world." with the promise that when we graduate, we will be able to apply our knowledge and make the right business decision.

Many times during a finance lecture or marketing group project, I've thought to myself, "Wow. This isn't just smart business strategy. This would make for smart relationship strategy." Because we attend Brigham Young University, (where if you are single and over 21, you're pretty much over the hill) and dating is pretty much everywhere you look, I feel like I'm really am earning an MBA (not a Master of Business Administration but a Master of Boy Acumen).

So MisskiM and I are taking a strategy class this semester that requires us to write response papers about the assigned readings. This blog came about as we both realized that the brilliance of our papers was not being fully realized in the hands of our professor and should be shared with the world.

Welcome to the world of Dating Strategery: Everything I need to know about dating I learned in business school. Feel free to comment on our humble observations and analysis as well as send your own contributions. Send them to datingstrategery@gmail.com.