Of course you have seen such restaurants. They’re everywhere.
The only question is — what do you order in such a restaurant, the Andhra food or the ‘multi-cuisine’ stuff?
In these cases, multi-cuisine is invariably a cover for North Indian and Chinese.
I would choose a restaurant that served only Andhra or Chinese or North Indian than one that tries to make everything.
This thinking doesn’t end at restaurants. Many organisations fall over each other to make all sorts of promises about their offerings. They try to be everything to everyone and in the bargain, lose what they’re good at. I want to start a podcast. It isn’t to tell people that I can do podcasts but because it will teach me a new skill, get me out of my comfort zone and hopefully help me meet new people.
In a similar vein, when diversifying, merging, or choosing to up-skill, it pays to ask whether it makes sense.
Does it add value?
Is it complementary to what you are already offering?
Are you doing it because the company down the road is doing it?
A business, a non-profit or even a personal blog like this one exists to serve people in one way or the other. But ever so often, ideas are stymied because they try to appeal to everyone.
Try to please everyone is one of the greatest forms of inertia that exists.
And the resultant work is invariably bland.
