When James interviewed for a senior sales leadership position, the COO commented, “you aren’t from our industry; why would I want to hire you as an outsider?” James replied,
…”you should hire me because I’m NOT from your industry.” And, my superpower is that I am the most curious person you have met in a long time. So, I’ll keep asking challenging questions because I have an insatiable appetite to learn, question, and dig a little deeper. You should hire me because my greatest asset is that I have a naive mind. I can see opportunities others within your industry have missed.”
The Naive Mind
When you hire from outside of your industry, it is like bringing oxygen into the corporate corpus. The curious new hire asks many stupid questions – that turn out to be challenging. They turn over the stones lying on the ground to uncover topics no one wants to discuss.
Seven Reasons to Hire Outsiders
- They don’t buy into the framework and structural rigidity of your industry. So, the outsider might see an entirely new way to pivot your business model based on what worked in another category. Their naive mind isn’t weighted down by the baggage from the past.
- With shovels in hand, they dig deeper and never accept, “we always do it that way.” By being willing to plunge into the depths of a problem, they don’t take the obvious answers. Instead, they search for the unknown or unspoken needs of clients and customers.
- A fresh pair of eyes sees alternative patterns in the marketplace. They wonder about data that often is neglected or just not as meaningful to your business plans.
- Seasonal behavior is challenged as they ask uncomfortable questions like – why can’t we have a Xmas in July promotion? Why can’t we rearrange a popular holiday to occur twice, like inventing a second Father’s Day for stepfather? Why can’t we sell a subscription to our HVAC services?
- Your company can benefit from borrowing new promotional or publicity ideas from outside of your industry. For example, maybe no one offers a guarantee that wows anyone – yet, when you look at how other sectors provide warranties, you find a novel hook that your industry hasn’t tried.
- Outsiders can bring unanticipated strategic partnerships to the table. For example, your company might benefit from relationships that personal human equity can be transferred to your company through your new hire.
- Someone who doesn’t know the rules of an industry, won’t automatically default to obvious solutions but find new approaches to solve customer’s challenges. For example, when Lipton wanted to understand consumer behavior, they decide not to conduct focus groups or do traditional research. Instead, they hired a cultural anthropologist to study the behavior of ice-tea drinkers as if they were a tribe living on a deserted Pacific Island.
Maybe it is time to bring an outsider into your world to help you see things anew.
Photo by Nonsap Visuals on Unsplash
