Less as a competitive advantage
Reading 37 Signals, I came across a recent article about how more isn’t always a competitive advantage. The article begins as follows:
I want to talk about the concept of less. And more specifically the idea of using less as a competitive advantage.
While this strategy may still work for some, it’s expensive, resource intensive, difficult, defensive, and not very satisfying. And I don’t think it’s good for customers either. It’s a very Cold War mentality — always trying to one-up. ~ source
Although I agree with the article and the underlying strategy it recommends, there are two things I’d like to point out. Firstly, as more and less are relative, more of one thing means less of another. When you recognise this, it’s easy to see what the underlying reason is for less being more in some cases.
On a more practical note, I’d like to add that constraints encourage creativity. It’s this creativity from which progress follows. Thus, less can be progress.