Some interesting prescriptions for businesses:

- Sell to the most sophisticated and demanding buyers and channels

- Establish norms that exceed the toughest regulatory hurdles or product standards

- Source from the most advanced suppliers

- Seek out the most capable competitors as motivators

- Make meeting challenge a part of the organization’s norms

- Investigate all emerging new buyers or channels

- Find places whose regulations foreshadow emerging regulations elsewhere

- Welcome domestic rivalry (to compete globally)

- Identifying sophisticated buyers in other countries helps companies understand different needs