It took a while, but I have come to appreciate what I believe to be the most important lesson to be learned when executing with a new business model. It’s this: new models have new mistakes.

The lesson doesn’t end there. The other, even more critical thing to know is that you can only identify new mistakes after they have happened. As new mistakes, they are unknown by definition. So you can’t see them coming. You can only identify new mistakes after they’ve bitten a hopefully-not-too-vital-part of your body. If you accept that as a fact of life then you also need to accept the identification of mistakes as a very high priority of the company. The higher the priority the identification of mistakes becomes, the sooner you will identify the mistakes so they will cause less damage and your definition of the mistake will be clearer, thereby allowing you to develop a more successful solution sooner and better.

There are at least two major consequences when mistake-identification becomes one of the company’s highest priorities.

First of all, as you proceed to solve the unique problems you bump into, you discover that your solutions are also unique. Over time, as they prove to be successful, you institutionalize your unique solutions and they become integral to your culture. As that process evolves, you imbue into your culture more and more unique attributes. And that makes you more different. At Qorvis I have seen that the internal awareness that we are different is often evidenced in a pride that is palpable. That’s a good thing.

But there is a price we pay. We look for mistakes all the time — a more positive way of saying that would be that we are looking for ways to do things better all the time. It is a part of our mind set. And that means we focus on what is wrong, and that does exert a negative influence on the culture. Fortunately, we’ve discovered that the potency of the mistakes we encounter has subsided over time — and so too does the impact of their negative force. Basically, the mistakes you encounter in the early stages of executing on a new model are more serious because they tend to be fundamental. Not only will the real basic mistakes be the first mistakes to arise, but they are likely to do so quickly, catching you by surprise, just at a time in the business’s life cycle when even little problems are difficult.

As Qorvis has grown up as a company, we have simply accepted that having a mistake-focus is a necessity and it has really become a part of who we are, good and bad, and we try to balance the bad by enjoying the benefits of being unique.

Another way of saying “we’re unique” is to say that “we’re different.” In the Knowledge Economy, service providers are increasingly selected based on how their differentiators translate into value for the customer. Some firms will want to say “we’re different because we can do your work quickly and ok and cheap.” There is often (justifiably) a big market for companies with such positioning, and some of them will become successful and some will even become dramatically successful. But we prefer to seek the differentiators: “we’re different because we are the best in the world.”

The fee you charge will be limited by and directly related to the extent you can make such a claim of providing uniquely high value. The most simple evidence of your success for being great will ultimately show up in your P&L, especially net margin as a percent of sales. The more you are valued, the more clients will be willing to pay a premium for your services. What that means is that both the service provider and the client share the same exact vested interest: achieve definable goals as quickly as possible as completely as possible. That is not the case when the service firm is selling time. In that case, success for the service provider is measured by the amount of time they take to achieve the goal, with the more time spent being better. That just doesn’t make sense to the client.

As more firms shun the concept of “time is money” and adopt the concept “value is more money,” and as they develop their own unique ways of doing business, they will merit respect for the value they provide, succeed and grow accordingly. More and more clients will learn about the option of doing business with firms who have such a business model and will want to work with those companies. Those who sell value will grow while those who sell the commodity of time will lose market share. Eventually, time will no longer dominate business as it does now.

Will this happen next Thursday? No. Neither will it happen in 2009 or 10 or whenever. The evolution may be slow, but the shift will occur. As it does, time will die.