Here are a few quotes I like to keep in mind whenever I think I have all the answers.

Everything that can be invented has been invented.
–Charles H. Duell, Office of Patents, 1899

There will never be a bigger plane built.
–A Boeing Engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that carried ten people.

Ours has been the first, and doubtless to be the last, to visit this profitless locality.
–Lt. Joseph Ives, after visiting the Grand Canyon in 1861

We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.”
–Decca Executive, 1962, after turning down the Beatles

With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn’t likely to carve out a big slice of the US market.
–Business Week, August 2, 1968

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.
–Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Corp. 1977

This telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.
–Western Union, memo, 1876

No imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?
–David Sarnoff’s associates in response to his urging investment in the radio in the 1920’s

Who wants to hear actors talk?
–H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

As marketing professionals most of our working lives, we have spent a lot of time looking for differentiation. What is this product’s differentiation? How does our company differ from our competition? How does our story set us apart? And how can our story be meaningful over time, not just until our competitor copies us, or worse, comes out with something better?

Most of the time we think of differentiation as a product’s feature, the ability to tout a big client or even our brilliant strategy to market. While all of these things are differentiators and some of them good ones, in themselves they are about as sustainable as bringing the first car to market with an iPod jack. The product feature that is going to change the world may be obsolete in 6 months. Our biggest and best client loved us, until the company re-orged and now our new contact has a friend who works for our competitor.

So is there such a thing as SUSTAINABLE differentiation? If so where is it?

It’s in your company’s PEOPLE! In the speed of today’s highly competitive business environment product features come and go, but the people BEHIND the product are the sustainable force.

So why then is the investment in the development of people the first budget to get cut, while the practically useless blinking light that differentiates our product from the competition never comes under scrutiny? Does that light really have a better ROI, or is that just what we like to think because it takes more effort to demonstrate the value of continuity and great talent to our business?

We’re not suggesting to drop product innovation, but rather to look beyond product features to the people who made them possible. The engineer who had an idea at 4:00 am and spent the next 72 hours perfecting it. The team who spent the weekend in the office to finish the project which keeps the big client coming back. The sales person who gives the marketing campaign life and stays to make just one last cold call on Friday evening.

Invest in the development of people and you invest in the one true sustainable differentiator that will weather your company through any competitive storm and lift your organization to prosperity through the worst of economic downturns.