Is your blog a hedgehog or a fox ?

Writing by aj@lecraic on Sunday, 3 of August , 2008 at 4:49 pm

The Greek poet Archilochus is attributed as saying “The fox knows many things; the hedgehog one great thing”. The philosopher Isaiah Berlin used this as the premise for his article ‘The Hedgehog and the Fox”. In his essay, Berlin divides writers and thinkers into two groups. One represents the hedgehog and the other represents the fox. The hedgehog sees the world in a very defined way whilst the foxes world view is more complex and harder to pin down.

I don’t pretend to be familiar enough with any of the great writers and thinkers cited in Berlin’s essay to say why Dante is considered a Hedgehog and Aristotle a fox. What I can relate to is the Hedgehog concept put forward by Jim Collins in his book “Good to Great”.

Good to Great is a business book that I return to time and again. It is a brilliant study on how to take a business from being, well, good to great. Collins and his research team analysed 1,400 companies on the Fortune 500 to come up with 11 examples of great companies. These 11 great companies all, amongst other things, had a period of 15 years of increased profits. Each one also followed the Hedgehog concept which states:

“A hedgehog concept is not a goal to be the best, a strategy to be the best, an intention to be the best, a plan to be the best. It is an understanding of what you can be the best at. The distinction is absolutely crucial” 

Put simply, hedgehog companies focus on one idea, a basic principle that “unifies and guides everything”. Whereas the fox is always looking at new directions and new ideas, the hedgehog is not distracted from the unifying vision/concept.

Expanding further on the Hedgehog concept, Collins tells the reader that the concept flows from a deep understanding about the intersection of three circles:

What you can be the best in the world at

What drives your economic engine

What are you deeply passionate about

What does this have to do with blogs?  Via Grandad, I read K8 the GR8’s post about not having joined the Beaut.ie fan club when the Hedgehog concept came to mind. Beaut.ie is a perfect example of a blog which fits the hedgehog concept perfectly and is the reason why it is so successful. You don’t have to be a fan of the site to see that its owners are deeply passionate about what they do, and they are the best in Ireland (and maybe the world) at doing it.

I’m not sure what drives their economic engine but I’d be very surprised if they didn’t have some monetary goal in mind or at least an idea that all the hard work might lead to something else with a monetary element. And I say good luck to them, the payoff may only be around the corner, who knows.

Meanwhile, I’ve no doubt beaut.ie will continue to do what they do best and what they are passionate about, and good luck to them. It may not be my cup of tea, but you have to admire passion and there’s no denying that beaut.ie have buckets of it.

Photo owned by eob and adapted under the terms of a CC License

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