The Soft Edge summary

You know that feeling you get with your closest friends? That feeling that everything’s going to be okay? That’s trust. Imagine if you felt that way at work.

Trust is at the heart of the soft edge. It’s equally important to establish both external trust with your customers and internal trust with your staff.

You know those companies who always seem a step ahead of their competitors? What makes them so smart? Do they have a bunch of speed-reading champion employees? From the outside, it’s hard to tell what makes a business smart, but in fact smart businesses are defined by something definite: hard work and the constant quest for improvement.

A strong company always has to be ready to change. It needs to work hard and be prepared to make mistakes. That’s what makes a company smart.

Of course, smarts aren’t the only key to success. Your business has to have the right kind of organization, too.

Humans are hardwired to function and excel in groups such as families, tribes and communities. Businesses should emulate the kinds of groups we instinctively work well in.

What exactly gives a great smartphone its greatness? How it looks? How it functions? How it feels in your hand? Excellent design isn’t merely a matter of solid interface – there’s always something more.

Top-tier products need taste. Taste should seem innate, giving the product an aura of intelligence and intrigue; it’s that quality that’s hard to put a finger on, but makes the customer feel excited and smart. Although taste may seem like an abstract concept, every company needs to push for it.

Now let’s look at the final pillar supporting a company’s soft edge. Just think of the first Apple products, built in that garage in Palo Alto. Stories like that one play a large role in shaping our perception of successful companies; it’s often what brings us to view them as great.

A company’s story helps us understand it. It gives the brand its purpose. It lets us know where it came from, what it is today and where it’s going.

It’s important not to think of the soft edge as merely another part of business, like marketing or logistics. The soft edge is much more than that. Remember, it’s the human side of business.

These days, companies have an unprecedented amount of data to define their hard edge. It’s the soft edge – cultivated by human ingenuity and innovation – that sets some companies apart from the rest.