The Situation

Your product is good, as are your margins, at least for now. Your employees are competent. You’re attracting customers. But somewhere in the back of your head, it doesn’t feel sustainable. The edge you’ve clawed out over your competition based on pricing or geography or selection is slim, and feels like it’s disappearing. How do you inspire loyalty in customers, employees, supplies, and other stakeholders and turn your advantage into something that lasts

The Play

The greatest competitive advantage is to keep your word, always. That means:

1. Doing what you say you’ll do (when you say you’ll do it, for the price you said you would), while

2. Not being an asshole.

Building compounding trust is a relational way of thinking that requires repeatedly following through, even and especially when it’s hard. But it’s not enough to do it yourself, extreme reliability must be built into your company culture and processes. It’s not complicated (but that doesn’t mean it’s easy).

Go Long

New Essay: The Greatest Competitive Advantage

“What we’ve learned is that by weaving the idea of extreme reliability into our organizations and processes and recognizing that, at the end of the day, all we have is our word, we’re able to build an accruing advantage."

New Interview: On Doing What You Say You Will with Selective Search CEO Courtney Mohr

“For me, doing what you say you're going to do, it's more than just that. Are you trying to be honest and pure of intention? I think it really just has to do with whether you are equipped to deliver on your promises.”

Throwback: Our “No Asshole” Policy

“But, some people are messier than others. The messiest of them, we’ll call ‘assholes,’ because ‘jerk’ doesn’t quite get there. There are many forms of asshole, but all leave a similar, bitter taste… When we talk about assholes, we’re not talking about the person who accidentally cut you off in traffic, or who gave you a dirty look, or who hurt your feelings. Even the best of humanity has done far worse. We’re talking about someone who consistently creates, usually intentionally and maliciously, feelings of humiliation, oppression, and injustice.”

Permanent Podcast

This week on the pod, Brent Beshore reads our No Asshole Policy. A deep dive discussion episode around the policy is coming soon!

(Be sure to subscribe to get the latest episodes in your feed!)

Go Deep

Curiosity sparked? We've put together a list of resources on being extremely reliable and the accruing advantage of doing what you said you’d do. 

Building and Growing a Competitive Advantage at Permanent Equity (Think Like An Owner)

+ We’ve talked about competitive advantage before. In this conversation with host Alex Bridgeman, Brent Beshore talks reliability, feedback loops, and more. “We just try to practice extreme reliability. And it’s an accruing advantage because the more people know that you’ll do what you say you’re going to do, you’re going to treat them fairly, react quickly, be honest about things, the more people want to work with you.”

How to Turn Trust into a Competitive Advantage (London School of Economics)

+ Are you a Trust Champion, a Trust Broker, a Trust Platform, or a Trust Architect? “Trust matters because it is a prerequisite for collaboration. To trust means to make oneself vulnerable to the actions of others because one believes in their good intentions and their ability to turn these intentions into outcomes.”

Use This Equation to Determine, Diagnose, and Repair Trust (First Round Review)

+ Reliability and trustworthiness are at the root of all relationships, but these qualities are often overlooked until things go off the rails. This equation helps you gauge where you are and course correct early if some element gets out of whack. “Essentially, the amount you trust someone is the sum of how credible you believe they are on a subject, how reliable they've proven themselves to be over time, and how authentic you think they are as a person, divided by how much you think they're acting in their own self interest.”

How to Build (and Rebuild) Trust (Frances Frei)

+ Trust is essential, but it can also be broken. How to get things back on track when the foundation of trust and reliability has eroded. “There's three things about trust. If you sense that I am being authentic, you are much more likely to trust me. If you sense that I have real rigor in my logic, you are far more likely to trust me. And if you believe that my empathy is directed towards you, you are far more likely to trust me. When all three of these things are working, we have great trust. But if any one of these three gets shaky, if any one of these three wobbles, trust is threatened.”