Promotion ‘Reworked’: Part 2 – emulate chefs

This is part two of a three-part look at REWORK, the new business book by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, founders of Chicago-based web applications company 37 Signals.

READ PART ONE: Promotion ‘Reworked’: Part 1 – build an audience.

Fried and Hansson come from the school of thought where businesses should share everything they know.

Of course, this is anathema to most in the business world.

Businesses are usually paranoid and secretive. They think they have proprietary this and competitive advantage that. Maybe a rare few do, but most don’t. And those that don’t should stop acting like those that do. Don’t be afraid of sharing.

Chef Mario Batali shares his recipes and it’s made him famous!

The REWORK authors contend businesses should act like chefs.

A recipe is much easier to copy than a business, they write.

So emulate famous chefs. They cook, so they write cookbooks. What do you do? What are your ‘recipes’? What’s your cookbook’? What can you tell the world about how you operate that’s informative, educational and promotional? This book (REWORK) is our cookbook. What’s yours?

Powerful, counter-intuitive thinking. You could say, errr, food for thought!