Superpower #6: Niche-Building for Innovation

What is a niche?

There are several descriptions or definitions. A historical description is of an indented portion of a wall where someone would put a vase. There is also something known as a biological niche, which is defined as the role an organism plays in its community.

But, there is also the business niche, the market niche, which represents a specialized sector in the sector. Starbucks represented one of those specialized sectors in the sector: coffee. Another example would be UPS, when it appeared (or maybe it was FedEx … which company provided rapid shipping first?).

While it may seem like the business or market niche is for standalone or boutique sorts of business ventures, R-Leaders look for the niche in their markets.

Say you are a consultant for small business professionals: what sets your business apart from others? That\’s your niche.

Even if you aren\’t the CEO of your own company, you are a leader and thus must make decisions that keep the organization you work for in the green, budget-wise. To do that, you make choices that advance your products and services in the market. Every leader and their teams use creativity to identify where they can make a difference.

If they don\’t, the business is likely faltering. Every day, business tactics must change. For example, in this lifetime, we could see the movement from human to A.I. regarding writing and teaching. Don\’t believe it? There is an article that just came out in the New York Times about Large Language Models (LLM) in machine learning and how one such computer can answer open-ended questions and write unique clear responses. Such a device could put teachers out of business one day (or worse: Terminator, anyone?).

The idea of a super computer taking the place of our school leaders is extremely unlikely, but put in other contexts, it\’s easy to see why every leader has to consider innovation as the key to staying relevant.

What are you doing to build your business niche?

R-Leadership is here to help you find it.

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