“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 […]
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlighted the different yet intertwined paths of Xerox and Fujifilm. Xerox, once one of the world’s most admired companies, now has a market value that is less than 20% of what it used to be. As a former executive at Kinko’s, I used to rub elbows with […]
Being tagged as “strategic” thinker or a “not very strategic” thinker can be a boon or a bust for your career in the business world. Unfortunately, you must dig deeper to understand what the compliment or curse means. Have you ever met a strategic payroll clerk? Probably not, though I bet there are some. Some […]
Business and math are inextricably linked. Big data, income statements, turnover, weighted average cost of capital, customer satisfaction scores and quotas — just to name a few. And accuracy is vital. Don’t you dare make a miscalculation in a 10Q! But accuracy and efficacy are two different things. I may have a bang-on measure of […]
Working on one element of your strategy without the others is usually a waste of time “We tried, but it didn’t work,” said the CEO about his new strategy. What he didn’t say was that the general idea for how he’d win in his marketplace wasn’t wrong. He just didn’t understand that all the pieces […]
This is a picture of my wife’s kiln just after cracking the top. When the temperature drops from about 1,800 degrees to 150 degrees, she nervously opens the top to see what occurred. Each piece is fired at least twice, once to harden the clay (called bisque firing) and again after glazing. Ordinarily, she finds […]