[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/mytechanalyst.net\/blog\/is-it-really-that-simple-only-three-rules-for-greatness\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/mytechanalyst.net\/blog\/is-it-really-that-simple-only-three-rules-for-greatness\/","headline":"Is it really that simple? Only three rules for greatness?","name":"Is it really that simple? Only three rules for greatness?","description":"Last updated: April 2026 What do genuinely great companies do differently from merely good ones? In 2013, strategy researchers Michael Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed published a landmark study in Harvard Business Review. They analyzed the performance of more than 25,000 companies over 45 years to answer a deceptively simple question: what do genuinely great companies […]","datePublished":"2026-04-26","dateModified":"2026-04-26","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/mytechanalyst.net\/blog\/author\/sselip\/#Person","name":"sselip","url":"https:\/\/mytechanalyst.net\/blog\/author\/sselip\/","identifier":1,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/mytechanalyst.net\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/3f8\/3f89a45b84faa5ac60f91a01db85e3f4x96.jpg","url":"https:\/\/mytechanalyst.net\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/3f8\/3f89a45b84faa5ac60f91a01db85e3f4x96.jpg","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Principal Consulting, LLC","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/mytechanalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/150x40-NewPCLLCLogo.png","url":"https:\/\/mytechanalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/150x40-NewPCLLCLogo.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/mytechanalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/1641x625-bw-SchemaDepiction.jpg","url":"https:\/\/mytechanalyst.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/1641x625-bw-SchemaDepiction.jpg","width":100,"height":100},"url":"https:\/\/mytechanalyst.net\/blog\/is-it-really-that-simple-only-three-rules-for-greatness\/","about":["Assessing","Thinking"],"wordCount":873,"articleBody":"Last updated: April 2026What do genuinely great companies do differently from merely good ones?In 2013, strategy researchers Michael Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed published a landmark study in Harvard Business Review. They analyzed the performance of more than 25,000 companies over 45 years to answer a deceptively simple question: what do genuinely great companies do differently from merely good ones?Their answer was distilled into three rules:Better before cheaper\u00a0\u2014 compete on differentiators other than priceRevenue before costs\u00a0\u2014 prioritize top-line growth over cost reductionThere are no other rules\u00a0\u2014 everything else follows from rules one and twoThe researchers were careful to note that these are not strategies. They are the underlying logic that great strategies share. The specific tactics vary enormously across industries and business models. But the companies that sustained exceptional performance over long periods \u2014 not just one good year but decades of outperformance \u2014 consistently competed on value rather than price and grew revenue rather than cutting their way to profitability.It sounds simple. It is not easy.Why “Better Before Cheaper” Is So HardThe pressure to compete on price is relentless and real. Prospects ask about it. Competitors use it. Procurement teams are evaluated on it. In a market where your offer looks similar to alternatives, price is the easiest point of comparison for a buyer who does not yet understand the difference.The temptation is to respond by lowering your price to stay competitive. Raynor and Ahmed’s research suggests this is precisely the wrong move for companies that want to achieve sustained greatness. Competing on price is a race to the bottom that favors scale. Unless you are the largest player in your market, you will eventually lose that race.The alternative is making the value difference so clear and credible that price becomes a secondary consideration. This is harder. It requires investing in the quality of your service, the depth of your expertise, and the visibility of your results. It requires turning satisfied clients into advocates and documented outcomes into evidence.In digital marketing terms, it means your website, your content, and your case studies need to do the work of making your differentiated value unmistakably clear \u2014 before a prospect ever gets to a conversation about price.Why “Revenue Before Costs” Matters for Growing PracticesThe second rule is equally counterintuitive. When growth slows or uncertainty rises, the instinct for most organizations is to cut costs. It feels responsible. It feels like discipline.Raynor and Ahmed’s data tells a different story. The companies that sustained greatness invested in revenue-generating capabilities even when conditions were difficult. They protected their client relationships, their talent, and their market presence rather than cutting them to improve short-term margins.For a professional services practice, this translates directly. The investment in a well-structured website, in high-quality content that builds authority, in analytics that give you clear visibility into what is working \u2014 these are revenue investments, not overhead. They create the pipeline and the credibility that sustain growth. Cutting them to save money is exactly backward.What This Means for Your Digital Marketing StrategyThe three rules are not abstract. They have direct implications for how you should approach your digital presence and your content strategy.Your website should lead with value, not price.\u00a0If the first thing a prospect learns about you is your pricing, you have already started competing on the wrong dimension. Lead with outcomes, expertise, and evidence of results. Let price enter the conversation after value is established.Your content should demonstrate expertise, not just describe services.\u00a0Blog posts that showcase your analytical thinking, your frameworks, and your real-world experience are differentiators. A services page that lists what you do is not. The content that builds authority \u2014 and earns Google’s trust \u2014 is the content that demonstrates the quality of your thinking.Your analytics should measure revenue impact, not just activity.\u00a0If your digital marketing metrics are focused on traffic and impressions rather than leads, conversions, and pipeline, you are measuring activity rather than revenue. Connecting your digital marketing investment to business outcomes is what makes the case for continued investment \u2014 and what gives you the clarity to invest in the right things.The Simplicity TrapThe three rules are easy to remember and genuinely difficult to apply consistently. The challenge is not understanding them \u2014 it is maintaining the discipline to act on them when short-term pressures push in the opposite direction.Every time a prospect pushes back on price and you are tempted to discount rather than justify your value, rule one is being tested. Every time growth slows and the first instinct is to cut marketing rather than invest in pipeline, rule two is being tested.The companies in Raynor and Ahmed’s study that achieved sustained greatness passed those tests consistently over years and decades. Not perfectly. Consistently.That kind of consistency does not happen by accident. It happens when the strategic logic is clear, shared, and embedded in how decisions get made \u2014 including decisions about how you present yourself, how you price your services, and where you invest your marketing resources.If you would like to think through what “better before cheaper” looks like in practice for your digital presence,\u00a0that is a conversation worth having."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Blog","item":"https:\/\/mytechanalyst.net\/blog\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is it really that simple? Only three rules for greatness?","item":"https:\/\/mytechanalyst.net\/blog\/is-it-really-that-simple-only-three-rules-for-greatness\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]