Insights
Be More Bee: Feed the Meadow, Scout the Next One
What Rory Sutherland's bees teach about growing without losing the customers you already have.
Rory Sutherland, the longtime Ogilvy executive and one of the sharpest thinkers in advertising, has a story about bees that I keep coming back to with clients.
When a bee finds a good patch of flowers, it flies back to the hive and does the waggle dance, telling the others where to go. Most of the hive follows the directions. But not all of them. Speaking at the AANA ReSet conference this year, Sutherland put it this way:
20% of bees ignore the waggle dance and go off at random.Rory Sutherland
It sounds like waste. It is the opposite.
The idea in brief
- The 80% feed the hive today. Your current customers are the meadow you know, and most of your effort belongs there.
- The 20% find tomorrow's meadow. A fixed slice of time and money should scout new customers on purpose.
- Most businesses get the split wrong, both ways. All followers get stuck when the meadow dries up. All wanderers starve the hive.
- A stable core is what makes scouting possible. If the core needs constant firefighting, there is nothing left to scout with.
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Sources: Radio Today, "Why ad agencies should be like bees: Rory Sutherland at ReSet conference"; Rory Sutherland, TED speaker page.