Creating Legacy: How to find Hedgehog Concept

‘Look and you will find it – what is unsought will go undetected.’ Sophocles

Here are 6 key points to finding your Hedgehog Concept:

1. The key is to understanding what you can be the best in the world at, and also what you cannot be the best at – not what you want to be the best at. The Hedgehog Concept is not a goal, a strategy, or intention; it is an understanding.

2. If you cannot be the best in the world at what you are doing at the moment, then what you are doing at the moment cannot form the basis of your Hedgehog Concept

3. The ‘best in the world’ understanding is a much more severe standard than a core competence. You might have a competence but not necessarily have the capacity to be truly the best in the world at that competence. Conversely, there may be activities at which you could become the best in the world, but at which you have no current competence

4. Set your goals and strategies based on understanding, not bravado

5. Getting the Hedgehog Concept is an iterative process. The Collins study found that it took four years on average for the good-to-great companies to get a Hedgehog Concept. The process might be quicker for an individual, but don’t count on it.

6. You do not need to be in a great industry to produce sustained great results. In the study, no matter how bad the industry, every good-to-great company figured out how to produce truly superior economic returns.

The time is now.

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