It’s early season and I’m skiing on a Tuesday, which is a luxury. Weekend traffic in Colorado ski country is soul robbing. (If you’re planning a trip, think about Utah!) We have a better-than-average snowfall, and on my first chairlift I notice that a snowboarder ducked a rope and got a great line right under […]
Satisfying needs is how you trade your stuff for money I’ve just scratched the surface in my quest to better understand Paul Romer’s insight into growth. Romer won the 2018 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences — shared the win, actually. One of Romer’s central themes is that resources are fixed and innovation is unlimited. […]
This is a picture of a monkey backpack my wife bought for one of our grandsons today at OfficeDepot. He’s not yet 1 year old, but as you can see, the backpack is quite small. It’ll probably hold a diaper or two and a tube of mushed pea baby food. It was on sale for […]
What is strategic planning? Well … for one thing, it’s perhaps the most misused phrase in business! Let’s start with what strategy is. On second thought, let’s start with what strategy is NOT! It’s not a budget. It’s not a fat document. It’s not that thing you do every November. It’s not a mystical chant. […]
It turns out that erasing $100 billion in market value takes less time and energy than bolting together parts to achieve it initially. It doesn’t take the brightest bulb in the chandelier to see that keeping the trains on the tracks, the coal-fired turbines spinning or the airplanes flying all at the same time is […]
“Having determined your destination, you set sails, motivate rowers, adjust for winds and currents, avoid shoals and rocks, allow for surprises, and expend finite energy efficiently. You control some things, but align yourself with others. You balance, while never forgetting that the reason you’re balancing is to get from where you are to where you […]
I was supposed to be at a convention this week but stayed home to handle a challenge that arose. So, I found myself with a pretty blank calendar. My initial anxiety turned to joy when I spent a good deal of time reading. I finished Jim Comey’s book and am anxious to see how that […]
High-margin businesses naturally attract competition If your strategy doesn’t identify what specific markets you compete in and why people will buy from you versus your competition, then your strategy is bad. You’re going to need to rely on luck. In fact, if you’re in a high-margin business, you may not know it but you’re being […]
I received a notice from a well-known university for a strategy workshop to “master strategy consulting skills,” which they say is the skill of “structured problem solving.” Using templates and tools, they’ll teach you how to develop recommendations for clients. Problem solving isn’t strategy, and telling people what to do is rarely effective. Does it […]
IBM, one of the most storied companies on the planet, just had its first quarter of year-over-year growth in 23 quarters! Market cap, as I write this, is about $134 billion, so still a significant organization, but down from $210 billion in 2006. Many investors have bailed on IBM, growing impatient as Big Blue gives […]