There’s a legendary story of Burger King’s “fast follower” strategy. While McDonald’s had a large team dedicated to selecting the perfect new location, Burger King had one person whose job was to open a new store as close as possible to each McDonald’s. As long as McDonald’s continued expanding, Burger King could piggyback on their success. This phenomenon isn’t limited to fast food; it happens in many industries, if you’re observant.

On a related note, it’s always struck me as odd when a creative agency, consulting firm, or any service claims to specialize in one industry. The message they send is, “we have deep knowledge of your field” and are somehow better than generalists. Yet many of the most significant industry disruptions come from outsiders. In reality, specialization often benefits the agency more—it means they only have to master one ecosystem.

Industries behave like ecosystems. Take basketball, for example. A team functions within its own ecosystem to win games and develop talent, but it’s also part of the larger world of professional basketball, college and playground basketball, and even the wider realm of professional sports and entertainment. Players begin in the sport and sometimes evolve into entertainers within a broader industry.

The “fast follower” strategy is essentially a drafting technique—one that businesses and even industries employ, sometimes without realizing it. If industries can draft insights from one another, why limit yourself to learning only from your own field?

Consider the world of food. From the tomatoes grown in a small garden to the eggs produced by hired farm chickens, every level of food production is part of a larger ecosystem. Over the past two decades, the natural and organic products ecosystem has exploded. One of the busiest trade shows—arguably even more vibrant than CES—is ExpoWest, driven by consumers seeking better options in food, cleaning, beauty, and household items.

Just three weeks later, the Global Pet Expo brings together pet industry brands of all kinds. The pattern is unmistakable. One booth even featured a dining table setup reminiscent of a friendly weekend gathering. The connection between human food and pet food became blatantly clear, with messages like “100% human grade pet treats,” “dog gelato,” and a clever brand called “Animals Like Us” boasting, “They Like to Eat Well. Like Us.”

The pinnacle moment? My colleague Allison and I sharing a dog biscuit.

So, what does this have to do with competitive advantage, marketing, and industry specialization? If you’re working solely within the pet industry and never venture into the human food ecosystem, you’ll miss the trends that are influencing your field. The pet food industry is, in a sense, drafting off the natural and organic food products industry. Anyone with a pet might relate—sometimes we spend more on our pets than on our kids.

This isn’t just about quirky pet lovers or health-conscious consumers. Tech, for instance, has been drawing inspiration from fashion for decades—just look at the design of the Apple Watch or the aesthetics of Apple stores. If you’re entrenched only in tech, missing out on the cross-industry design cues from fashion is a lost opportunity.

So, how do you address this? When a potential client asks, “Do you have experience in our industry?” the expected answer is yes, but the truly great answer is, “Actually, we don’t specialize in one industry.” Instead, we draw inspiration and insights from a variety of fields. This approach not only enhances creative problem-solving but also leads to better talent and more innovative teams than a narrow focus on one industry ever could.

Lucky for us, most of our competitors don’t read and certainly wouldn’t read this far down in one of my columns to take this advice. For everyone else, the specialization should come in the form of creative problem solving skills in a variety of scenarios, not in a specific industry.