Standards and uniqueness in the same company
Across the more than a thousand sales projects I’ve worked on, I’ve heard the same sentence again and again:
"Well, we’re quite unique."
It’s usually said with a smile — but also with an underlying assumption that standard solutions don’t quite fit.
And that’s understandable.
Many companies — especially small and mid-sized manufacturing and trading businesses — have their own nuances. It might be specific customer relationships, complex supplier networks, technical products, or highly specialized employees.
That’s exactly the complexity CEOs, supply chain directors, and procurement leaders must navigate — and that any good advisor needs to understand before real value can be created.
But that doesn’t mean everything is unique.
When you break a company down and analyze the underlying structures, you’ll often find that certain elements repeat across most businesses — regardless of industry.
There are fundamental building blocks that every company must address if they want scalability, efficient operations, and improved profitability.
I’ve worked with IT and SaaS in many forms — from online job platforms to e-learning, from Enterprise Architecture to now Supply Chain Intelligence — and one pattern keeps repeating:
There are core principles and processes that can and should be implemented based on best practice — even in companies that consider themselves “special.”
At Inact, we often apply the 80/20 rule when working with new clients:
Yes, your business has unique characteristics — but up to 80% of the structural challenges can be addressed with proven solutions, tested processes, and standardized technology.
The remaining 20% is where real value is created — by tailoring to the company’s unique DNA: products, customers, service requirements, culture, and behavior.
It becomes even more complex when you add another layer of truth: there is no single right answer. (But more on that in another article about The Wicked Problem.)
Standards are your friend — not your enemy
It’s tempting to dismiss standard solutions as rigid or irrelevant — but in reality, standards are a shortcut to fast, measurable, and low-risk value creation.
They are tested. They are documented.
And they are built on experience from hundreds of companies facing the exact same fundamental challenges.
For SMEs with limited resources and high expectations for return, it’s a major advantage to implement solutions that have already proven their value in practice.
Standards make it possible to move quickly — without reinventing the wheel and without taking unnecessary risks.
This isn’t about choosing between standardization and differentiation. It’s about using standards as the foundation — and building what makes your company unique on top of that.
A final point for you as a leader:
Beware of silo optimization — the hidden constraint in SMEs
A classic pitfall in many organizations — especially in growth or maturity phases — is trying to optimize standards in isolation.
The problem?
If optimization isn’t connected and embedded across the entire supply chain, you risk moving problems instead of solving them.
That’s why best practice should never be seen as something belonging to a single function. It must be anchored across the organization — as a shared language and a shared direction.
Best practice isn’t just about technology and frameworks. It’s just as much about processes, language, and behavior — and therefore about culture and capabilities.
And that’s where it starts: with leadership.
So no — your company isn’t like everyone else.
But it’s not alone either.
The key is knowing the difference.
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