Page 98 - merged.pdf

CHAPTER 3 THE MILLION-DOLLAR BUSINESS IDEA

So, he developed a system for receiving, sorting and delivering
packages in the most efficient way and made the selling
proposition that FedEx would guarantee delivery of packages
by the next day. By having this competitive advantage, Federal
Express became the market leader in the industry. What’s
more, instead of beating the incumbent service provider by
offering lower prices, speedy and trusty FedEx was actually
able to charge higher prices and still beat the lumbering US
mail service.

LensCrafters…Glasses in An Hour

Let me give you a final example. In the 1980s, a group of
friends noticed a frustration in the eyeglass industry.
Typically, if you wanted to buy a new pair of glasses, you
would have to go into an optical shop, select your frames,
have your eyes tested and wait for several days for them
to be ready for collection.

The frustration was that people had to not only wait a
whole week without proper glasses but they would have to
suffer the inconvenience of returning to the shop. So, Dean
Butler, a former P&G marketing executive, together with his
ex-colleagues decided to start a shop (which they aptly
named LensCrafters) that would find a way to reduce the
whole process to less than an hour! They achieved this by
building a lab at the shop itself and systemizing the lens cutting
and fitting process, so they would not need professional
opticians to do the job.

By making the promise of ‘your glasses made and fitted within
an hour,’ they created a powerful competitive advantage that
made them stand out from the competition. Even though their
prices were higher, most people were willing to pay since they
could now enjoy the convenience of getting a new pair of

SECRETS OF BUILDING MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR BUSINESSES 89