Cliff Claven, the know-it-all postal carrier on Cheers, was explaining Darwin’s theory of natural selection to his beer-drinking buddy, Norm:

"Well ya see, Norm, it's like this. A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it's the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

Cliff is no expert on natural selection, but if he can theorize about it, so can I:

Well ya see, it's like this. Businesses operate like pack animals. One introduces a new product or marketing strategy, or drops prices, and others follow. And just like in a buffalo herd, the slowest and weakest in the market are first to die.

I can't always explain, however, the success of some companies that run against the herd, the ones that do their own thing and sometimes disrupt the natural order so much that they change the market's balance of power.

Follow Your Convictions

To find answers, I talked with Scott Anderson of North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale. He's been CEO since 1981, and retires later this year after leading his hospital through turbulent changes in health care.

When he joined North Memorial in 1964, there were about 39 independent hospitals operating in the Twin Cities, he says. Today, there are about half as many hospitals, and most belong to large networks that are vertically or horizontally integrated in the marketplace.

Anderson says North Memorial has bucked the merger-and-acquisition trend and stayed financially successful because its leaders have always believed in staying "lean and mean." Discussions with his board of trustees and employees told him he had strong support to stay independent, so "I was confident that we could be successful."

North Memorial focused on its core strengths in emergency services, maintaining Level 1 Trauma certification like Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and Regions Hospital in St. Paul. "I knew we had to have a central focus and receive notoriety and recognition for it," Anderson says. The hospital also established the first hospital-owned helicopter ambulance program in the area 20 years ago.

Anderson's depth and breadth of market knowledge give him the courage to follow his own convictions.

If It Ain't Broke . . .

Richard W. "Perk" Perkins blazes his own trail as president of Perkins Capital Management in Wayzata. He says a good analogy to his investment philosophy is his experience fishing for trout in younger days.

Most other anglers wouldn't walk far from the bridge and caught only small trout. Perk learned that if he walked a ways up the creek to the spring where it started, the trout were larger and more plentiful.

Going where others don't just makes common sense, Perkins says. That's why, instead of investing in large-cap and mid-cap companies across the country, his firm invests in small- and mid-cap companies located in the Upper Midwest. If there are 20 or 25 analysts from other firms following 3M, for example, "how much added value could I contribute to that?" he asks. "Companies that have no one or only one other analyst following them, that's where I could provide value."

Like Anderson, Perkins has extensive market knowledge. He managed money for the Mayo Foundation and the pension fund for Standard Oil of Ohio in the early '60s, then returned to Minnesota to join Piper Jaffray. There, he and a partner created a regional boutique that focused on local companies.

That was 40 years ago. But if an idea "ain't broke, don't fix it," Perkins says, "and it's always worked very, very well for me."

Reinvent the Wheel

Health care is broken, and MinuteClinic has set out to fix it.

Nearly everyone has felt the frustration of sitting in a doctor's office for hours to get common treatments for common ailments. That aggravation is where MinuteClinic has found its niche. It offers a retail approach to medical care, with clinics in grocery, pharmacy, and discount stores in the Twin Cities and Baltimore. Most clinics are open seven days a week, including evenings. Nurse practitioners diagnose, treat, and write prescriptions for strep throat, ear infections, and other minor problems – all at a lower cost than at a traditional doctor's office.

"We don't address broken bones, cancer, or kidney dialysis," says company founder and COO Linda Hall Whitman, "but we've carved out a focused niche and do it exceedingly well."

Inexperience gives MinuteClinic's principals the courage to run against the herd, she says. None of them has come from a health care background. If they had come from the complex infrastructure of the industry, "we would have been intimidated," by trying to design something new, Whitman says.

Be Passionate

Scott Hillstrom is so passionate about his oath to put clients' interests first that he started a law firm, Guardian Law Group in Minneapolis, to ensure that his clients' lawyers do just that. In other words, people hire him to make sure that their lawyers do their jobs.

Too often, clients "don't know the difference between good and poor legal strategy," Hillstrom says. And sometimes, good legal advice doesn't make sense from a business perspective, because too few lawyers have business experience. Hillstrom does.

He isn't sitting on high, judging everyone, Hillstrom is quick to add, but "it's been my observation that clients need a knowledgeable person to guide them through legal minefields, and I have a passionate conviction about that."

After talking with these friends, I'm confident adding to the Sheffert theory of natural selection in business: Sometimes pack animals will break away from the herd to go their own way. Whether they live or die depends upon their experience, passion, creativity, and conviction.