Which would you rather be, the Fox or the Hedgehog? Given little thought most side with the Fox, agile and cunning rather than the Hedgehog, what could it offer and why the comparison?
Good to Great a book written by Jim Collins covers the rise of exceptional companies, highlighting the qualities that separate amazing companies from their competitors. One of those qualities is the Hedgehog Concept.
The concept gets its name from an essay by Isaiah Berlin where he compares the tactics of a fox to the tactics of a hedgehog. As an ancient Greek parable states: “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
Every day when the fox uses its cunning to attack the hedgehog, he gets put off when the hedgehog rolls into a spiky ball; the one big thing the hedgehog knows how to do, every day, every time. The fox creates lots of strategies, but the outcome is always the same.
Foxes are scattered, spread out, moving in many different directions at once. Hedgehogs are focused, simplifying their strategy to a single idea.
According to Jim Collins, “Hedgehogs see what is essential and ignore the rest.” To help clarify the Hedgehog Concept Jim creates the diagram below.
Does this help in your marketing, your content, or your social media activity?
