Think John Donne not Paul Simon

Substitute the word "business" for "man." "No man is an island. entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." This from John Donne's Meditation XVII, most people are familiar with this passage though it seems many business leaders today haven't really applied it their organizations.

From a lot of the people I speak to it is important for them to know that our company has experience working with organizations in their specific industry. I hate this. Why on earth, if you are looking for new ideas, new approaches and new ways of thinking would you ever want someone with experience in your industry because if they do have experience in your industry the fact is they are plagued with the curse of what they already know.

The truth is we are humans (most of us, some of us are just scum) regardless of our experience working in the "baked animal packaging" category the fact is we have experience working with people, people with problems. Other than the differences between any two individuals are CFO's or CMO's in the retail industry really that different from the same person in the baking or automotive industry?

Behind all organizations there are people (sometimes they are really buried deep) and as John Donne says, "I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." So if you ask me in the future do you have experience working in the automotive air freshening industry I might refer you to John Donne or I might just pull a Jason Bourne on your ass.