OK, I admit it – I thought mine was going to be (turkey, cooked, that is).  Pushing a deadline and watching Vancouver empty for Thanksgiving weekend, I was going to ‘share’ a book review – and take the easy way out! mea culpa major…..

Then, I thought about the book I was going to ‘feature’ and knew I couldn’t do that. This book is too good, holds too much valuable information, and offers too many important insights to be shortchanged like that……and so do you.

The book in question here is Roy Osing’s masterful Be DiFFERENT or be dead, hailed as a new primer for survival in these challenging business times. Oddly enough, the title made me think of dinosaurs and Darwin (as in “The Survival of the Fittest”), which may not be too far off the mark.  It also applies to our online communications world, because it takes a real difference (a clear point of view) to stand out from the herd there, too.

I had the opportunity to hear Mr. Osing speak recently, which is how I came to own his book. In a crowded pub, he spoke for over an hour and I took 7 pages of notes. I was hooked; he had a new fan.  He spoke about “only” statements and why we need to be that different to our customers.  He takes a “customerized”  view of marketing and has created an operating model to “execute offers brilliantly”!

Best of all, his ideas have been tested and proven in practice, for Mr. Osing served as president of TELUS Advanced Communications – working to position the company as a global leader in its field.  That is not a position in the middle of the herd; to be distinctive in your market and differentiate your service takes vision, conviction and courage……strengths his calm demeanor manage to convey.

With BlogWorld Expo only a few days away, I thought of all the  thought leaders who will be there.  These are people who have opinions and shape those of others, too.  In a sea of so many fishes (About 706,000,000 results (0.22 seconds) in my recent Google search for “blogs”), how can one mere minnow hope to stand out?

You read what the man said: “BE DiFFERENT or be dead”. Roy Osing knows how – he’ll share it with you!