This week Liz (The Icehouse) and I were in Sydney for the OMP10 implementation day. We were staying about 700 metres from the venue. As, it was pissing down we decided to catch a cab that we had arranged the night before.

While en-route the driver mentioned that the UBER price had just doubled. Confused, we asked what he meant. He pointed to his phone on the dashboard that was logged into the UBER drivers app.

He explained that he used it to understand where the demand was for UBER. He could then go to the area in his taxi or target areas where there were not many UBER cars available. “It works for me. I constantly get better returns than other cabbies. You’ve got to differentiate yourself!”

I was pretty impressed with the cabbies approach. I’m not sure it is really differentiation, but definitely a great gorilla marketing and business approach. It also highlights the importance of collecting information to drive your tactics and strategy in order to compete more effectively! Simple, but important lessons from a disrupted industry!

Taxi Driving Author

Talking about taxi’s it jogged another memory of a taxi driver. He gets his passengers to write down one piece of life advice in his notebook. He hoped to publish all those snippets one day, and he did.

“A Taxi Drivers Wisdom”, a book of pearls of wisdom from the most multicultural, multiethnic, multireligious group of philosophers ever assembled: New York Cab drivers. A refreshing and humorous take on what life can teach us if we are open to learning.

So the next time you’re in a taxi or UBER, keep your mind open and start a conversation. You might be surprised what you hear, learn, or what is reinforced by guys that are out there each day to make a buck in a really competitive market.