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Every Great Business Is An Argument

John Battelle of SearchBlogJohn Battelle of SearchBlog | June 18th, 2008 - 01:28 PM
(18) found this useful. Do you? Yes

alexs.pngOK, so maybe that title is meant to provoke a response, but is that so wrong? This post is about arguments, after all. Or put another way: I’d like to argue that the best businesses are, in essence, arguments.

There are many definitions of the word “argument,” but the one I want to focus on is the one that comes up first when you type define:argument into Google: “A fact or assertion offered as evidence that something is true; (as in) ‘it was a strong argument that his hypothesis was true.’”

In my experience starting businesses, and in my study of other businesses that have succeeded wildly (like Apple, Google, or eBay), every great business is founded in a thesis, a statement of what should be true. It’s then the business’s job to go prove that thesis - in essence, the business becomes the argument that proves the thesis.

Wired, for example, was founded on the thesis that digital technologies were forever changing the face of human society - from culture to politics, business to pleasure. We then made a business out of proving that thesis. Every single issue of Wired, every page of HotWired, every book we published and every deal we did was an argument proving that thesis.

The Industry Standard was founded on the thesis that a new class of entrepreneurs and executives were leveraging the Internet to change the economy as we knew it. We then started a site, a magazine, a conference series, and 14 international editions as arguments in proof of that thesis. (OK, the argument failed after five years, but I do still believe the thesis!)

The Web 2.0 conference series also had a thesis: That the web post-crash (after 2001-2) was radically different than the web of the late 1990s, and that a new breed of company, leader, and philosophy had taken hold across the industry. The Web 2 Summit and its newer Expo businesses, again, are arguments proving that thesis.

And Federated Media, my current business, is founded in a thesis as well: That the economics of content creation and consumption have shifted significantly in the past decade, creating a new class of conversational media in need of a new business model. FM is our argument in proof of that thesis.

Well that’s all well and fine, you may say, but those are all media companies. This thesis/argument stuff won’t scale to other kinds of businesses.

I disagree. Consider a dry cleaning business, for example. One of the most successful new businesses in my neighborhood is a small company called Alex’s Dry Cleaning Valet. This business has a strong thesis: That it’s possible to provide high-end dry cleaning services and also lead the industry in using renewable, green, and sustainable technologies. Put another way, Alex’s thesis is even more simple: Dry cleaning doesn’t have to suck. It doesn’t have to ruin the environment, and you should be able to talk to someone who knows who you are and will respond to whatever issues you have (a broken button, a rush delivery, a question about a bill).

Alex’s is an argument for the thesis that a dry cleaner can be both green and conversational (for more on what I mean by conversational business, see here and here). When I sent an email to their site asking about pricing, I got an answer from Alex himself, and we argued (literally, but in a very nice way) back and forth over whether what he charges was fair for value given. Alex clearly is passionate about his business, his value proposition, and his thesis. And that makes his business a great argument for a thesis I, as a customer, am happy to buy into.

So the question to all of you who run or are thinking of running your own business: What’s your thesis? What differentiates your business from all the others in your market? Once you get that thesis, the rest is pretty easy. Everyone loves a good argument, after all!

Posted in Leadership, Planning & Strategy

Posted:
1:28 PM on Jun 18, 2008
By: John Battelle

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22 Responses to “Every Great Business Is An Argument”

  1. SexySEO | June 18th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

    Public must be public - Global Social Graphing

  2. Tim | June 18th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

    I haven’t been here in a while. What happened to your site? It looks like an argument that visitors will be able to find meaningful content buried in a maze of distracting ads. Doesn’t look like it to me.

  3. John Battelle of SearchBlog | June 18th, 2008 at 2:17 pm

    @Tim - distracting ads? The page on which I am typing this has no standard ads at all! It’s underwritten by Amex, which is relevant as can be to business…

  4. Ralph Poole | June 18th, 2008 at 2:20 pm

    Thinking about your argument allows you to create your elevator speech very precisely. Stating the thesis, is the very concise presentation that you would want to present to someone in a short elevator ride.

  5. Tim | June 18th, 2008 at 3:15 pm

    How funny, my bad. I followed Tim O’Reilly tweet, and thought that I was being directed to Searchblog.

    I would still argue that newshole here is way too tiny, and sponsorship overbearing, but if that is how AmEx wants to run their pub, fair enough.

  6. John Battelle of SearchBlog | June 18th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

    @Tim, it’s not nearly the amount of sponsorship space you’d see on a normal page at the NYT or Forbes, trust me!

  7. What Are You Trying to Prove? « nar·pho·ri·um | June 18th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

    […] What Are You Trying to Prove? Today, John Battel posted an interesting article on the Amex blog in which he states that Every Great Business Is An Argument. […]

  8. Robin H | June 18th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

    Great post John, so true!

  9. John Battelle of SearchBlog | June 18th, 2008 at 4:49 pm

    @Robin thanks so much love getting instant feedback!

  10. Tim | June 18th, 2008 at 10:58 pm

    @John depends on what browser and what plugin one uses, I guess.

  11. Anita Campbell | June 19th, 2008 at 11:24 am

    John, I agree.

    And sometimes it’s small, even nebulous things that make the difference in the thesis and differentiate the business.

    What I like about your dry cleaning example is they didn’t attempt to compete based solely on price, a trap so many businesses fall into. Instead they focus on principles and values they believe in and that they think the customer will share and respond to favorably. I wish more businesses would do this.

    Thanks for triggering some thoughts I am going to apply to my own business.

  12. Sarah | June 19th, 2008 at 7:11 pm

    I have to agree… my business provides some controversial copy write that sparks sales. I have to admit I use glyphius to help get statistics on my side. In any case the argument sparks lovers and haters lol and it is the lovers that become customers.

  13. Andre | June 20th, 2008 at 1:15 am

    I agree with you & Anita.

    I’m ‘all in’ with our business model: creating relevant restaurant content & contributing financially to feeding children both locally & internationally through our charitable partner.

    Instead of ‘Do No Evil’ how about ‘Feeding The Hungry.’ We argue, that the masses will eventually use our site because of our local restaurant content & and our mission of ‘Feeding The Hungry.’

    Btw, loved ‘The Search.’

  14. Tom Asacker | June 20th, 2008 at 11:26 am

    Interesting premise John, but I’m not so sure. What was Google’s “thesis” during the garage days? I would say that great businesses are built on a series of theses. Rather than elaborate here, you can read my “argument” at this link: http://tinyurl.com/4l3e2x

    BTW, love your writing.

  15. Kendyl Bradford | June 20th, 2008 at 1:05 pm

    John,

    This was a great post. I have to agree with Sarah, I also use Glyphius to improve my score and help get statistics on my side. I love your writing and keep up the great thought provoking posts!

  16. John Battelle of SearchBlog | June 20th, 2008 at 5:17 pm

    @Tom Google had a very clear thesis: It’s possible to give a relevant answer to a search query. Before Google, that was not true. After Google, it was.

  17. Tom Asacker | June 20th, 2008 at 6:10 pm

    Very true John. But a different premise is what enabled the business to get out of the garage.

  18. John Battelle of SearchBlog | June 22nd, 2008 at 8:24 pm

    @Tom- very true. that is a different story!

  19. Paul Miller » Blog Archive » Why London will never be (and should never try to be) like Silicon Valley | July 18th, 2008 at 7:22 am

    […] world debt cancellation, many of them have started or grown from here. And as John Batelle says, every great business is an argument. Umair Haque writes that the tech world needs to solve the world’s big problems. And Fred too […]

  20. Best Business For Sale » Blog Archive » Great Business | August 8th, 2008 at 8:57 am

    […] Go read MORE […]

  21. nmw | August 11th, 2008 at 12:07 am

    My Argument:

    The Internet is a distributed network that does not need a centralized authority maintaining an “authorized index” (the way the Pope maintains an index of books).

    Note that it *is* ironic the DNS is the exception to the rule. But that is not a matter of declaring something as “holy” (or “unholy”), but rather of simply registering the products are “registered” with serial numbers.

    Interesting point — much like the “thesis”, “antithesis”, “synthesis” approach. Interesting, also, to see the contrast between this comparatively “simple” approach with the “complexity of problems” which you have chosen as theme for this year’s web 2.0 conference.

    And one *more* thing: It’s also interesting to note that there is a “leading” community / web site which the site management has actually declared that arguments are a reason to censor discussion! :O See http://www.aboutus.org/Help.com#2008.2F01.2F24 However, as you may think: Everything is in flux!

    ;D nmw

  22. SexySEO | August 11th, 2008 at 11:32 am

    @NMW quite interesting point of view.
    Dear, can I know your name/nick/blog?

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