Classic Cars - Best in Class

I spent most of last week with about 500 people at the North American MGB convention. Between us, there were about 250 cars - most of which were made before 1980. People came from all over the continent in a spirit of friendship and friendly competition. The highlight of the show was Wednesday’s “Car Show”.

 We vacuumed and cleaned and polished our cars to a blinding degree of brilliance in the blazing sun. We put out scrap books showing the repairs and back-breaking work we invested in them. And then we waited to be judged by our peers. Who would win the coveted Best of Class?

Being Best in Class (or Best in World), is something I think about a lot. Best in Class is really the only way to run a business. Coming in second doesn’t pay the bills. There are two main considerations to being Best in Class: 1) best at what? and, 2) best for whom? The ‘what’ needs to be something that you are really strong in, and the tighter you define your ‘whom’, the easier it is to be best for them. 

Now, to all but real keeners, MGBs look the same year to year, so winning best in class could be tricky. However, the organizers managed to sort the 250 cars into 20 different classes. My car was in the ‘1968 to 1969 (Chrome Grille)’ class. There were nine of us. My car was voted Best in Class. 

What about your company? For what are you known as Best in Class?