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July 10, 2005

Reverse: Turning things on their heads

The Way of Go concept Reverse is core to disruptive innovation and thought. For every thesis, there's an antithesis. The Reverse concept turns normal sounding things upside down.

Here are some famous thesis/antithesis pairs:

* "Customer First!" and "Fire your Customers!"
* "Follow the rules" and "First, break all the rules"
* "Out of sight, out of mind" and "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"
* Put out a fire with water AND Put out a fire with dynamite

So, it's no wonder while watching the news or the latest advertising that the Reverse rule comes into play. With so many shows doing makeovers and other spruce up jobs, who would want to advertise another one. We're saturated with makeovers. Instead, the latest craze is a "Make Under!"

Sure, it's clever marketing and probably not too different from a make over in a way, but the direction is very important to throwing the dull movement toward makeovers into Reverse. You can hear the would-be customers already, "Yes, I have been trying to find the perfect makeover for years, but maybe what I needed was a make under!"

Simple, effective and bound to put a new spin on things, Reverse works. Take your favorite phrase or strategy and turn it on its head. It's bound to reveal things that were always thinkable, but under the surface waiting for a reversal of fortune.

Posted by wayofgo at 08:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack