Kogi!!!

When you converge Korean bar-b-que, a taco truck and twitter, what do you get?

A radically new and cool idea.

Radical t-shirts (no threads attached)

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, standing out from the crowd is out.

Radical differentiation is in.

In 2009 the internet allows EVERYONE to jump into the market and compete. You may want to seriously consider adding to your repertoire of business tools (should you want to really impact the market) a convergence strategy. This will position you  to merge business, culture and technology in unique ways that allows you to create remarkable products, services and experiences in today's dynamic environment.

I've mentioned on a number of occasions the gents at Threadless as an excellent example of convergence - t-shirt design meets retail, meets competition meets crowdsourcing.

Well if you want a little radicalization in your world, here's a few pointers from Jeffrey and Jake to get you started:

• If you don’t know how to do it, work it out

• Be 100% reactive: Listen to your customers or your online community

• Get proactive

• K.I.S. & D.I.Y. (Keep it simple and do it yourself)

• Get realistic, but stay scrappy

• Brutal prioritization, maniacal focus

• You have to take the first step in action

Fried Chicken, Playrights, and the Harlem Renaissance

For some time now we have been talking about how thinking outside the box is dead and the new frontier for creativity and innovation is at the inter-section where Convergence happens.

As a shining example of this idea, I've discussed Busboys and Poets, which in a very unique manner, fuses the ideas of a restaurant, bookstore and theater. 

The restaurant, which is owned by Andy Shallal, embodies the spirit of the cultural icon Langston Hughes, who was a busboy at the Wardman Park hotel in DC in the 1930's prior to gaining recognition as a poet, playwright and novelist.  The restaurant is a DC hangout for local freelancers, activists, creatives and the like.

So now, Andy is opening up a new spot right across the street called Eatonville. He dubs his new enterprise as DC's "new southern cuisine restaurant" and uses it as a platform to pay homage to another cultural legend of the same time period, Zora Neal Hurston.

He injects some innovative convergence thinking to both market the business and to help find its head chef!

When you tap into your creativity and merge business, culture and technology in new ways, you can get some pretty rockin' stuff - check out the video!

Standing out will no longer suffice

Doing something better or cheaper than the competition so that you stood out among your peers allowed you to be a market leader in 1999.

In 2009 10 short years later where the market is now really beginning to harness the power of the internet and everyone can now have a 'brand' that competes in the marketplace, standing out will have you coming up a day late and a dollar short.

In order to leverage "the new landscape" and compete with the millions of ideas jockeying for position, solidifying your place as a brand with staying power means doing something . . .

. . . radically different.

Need an example list?

The Masdar Initiative

The Obama Presidential Campaign

Ning

Vator TV

Green Depot

Next New Networks

. . .to name a few.

Design, Social Change and Brands