Updated for 2011, this guide covers how to estimate, warranties and quantity discounts, an estimate form, design and engineering fees, service and installation hourly rates, a letter footage chart, and ...
Can effective marketing, aggresive sales and blind-faith risk-taking defeat this "natural" law?
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“Do right, use your head.”
— Blind Faith, “Do What You Like,” 1969
The business phrase “power-law distribution” is borrowed from the physics field, where it defines both probability patterns and particle distribution. An example might be predicting networked behavior or defining patterns on a magnetic surface that’s been peppered with steel shavings. In business terms, power-law distribution explains, among other things, why some enterprises succeed and others fail, or my favorite question — why the world’s wealth is so unevenly distributed. It’s also used to explain Web behaviors.
Economists diagram power-law distribution numbers into an L-shape graph in which the vertical (back) line represents the successful few. Theoretically, the horizontal line, the one representing less-than-stellar results, can extend outwards indefinitely. In business, it symbolizes multiple niche markets that may have a communal value — copy shops as viewed by Boise Cascade, for example.
New York magazine writer Clive Thompson, in his February 20 article “Blogs to Riches,” associates power-law distribution to blog sites and explains why some sites draw more attention than others. However, Thompson adds that the power-law theory isn’t restricted to the Web. It also inhabits social and business systems. He believes quirky human behavior fuels power-law distribution; other analysts add preternatural facets to the mix.
Curious, after having read Thompson’s article, I researched how to master the power law, to get to the top. After all, every theory has an anti-theory — so how does one leverage the power-law distribution theory? Thompson said being first to market helps, but this isn’t the only answer. And, we’ve all seen successes that include odd circumstances — the preternatural part. There’s also luck. And hard work.
In a March 27 U.S. News and World Report story, “Maxims in Need of a Makeover,” writer Justin Ewers quotes Stanford University management professors Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton’s new book, Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management. Contradicting the power-law distribution “be first” rule, the professors remind readers that Windows® is a copy of Mac, Internet Explorer followed Netscape, and that Apple wasn’t the first to sell MP3 players. Nor was Wal-Mart the first discount store. Coming in second, they said, may be the most cost-effective method.
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