STRATEGY CENTRAL

Interested in learning about strategy?  Got 12 minutes?  If you do, be sure and listen to this interview with Michael Porter.  He’s got a new article out called The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy.  Very interesting stuff.  I know a lot of my readers would say, "We’re not in competition," (and some would actually mean it) but this is also really interesting from the angle of how well your team understands what you’re trying to do.

Want a taste?  Check out this quote from the interview.

"Strategy is completely useless…unless the results of the strategy process, the position that you choose to occupy, the way you’re going to drive your company is well understood, quite broadly. The number one purpose of strategy is alignment.  To get all the people in the organization making good choices, reinforcing each other’s choices, because everybody is pursuing a common value proposition, a common way of gaining competitive advantage."

Here’s today’s question: If you interviewed the key players on your team, would they all agree on what you’re trying to do and how it impacts their department?

No doubt you’ve heard the old saying that there’s fast service, high quality product, and inexpensive pricing…and you can pick any two.  That’s a saying that’s been around for many years.  In fact, I can almost imagine Joseph the carpenter using that line.

According to Peter Sheahan’s Flip, those days are gone.  It’s now fast, good, and cheap as the cost of playing at all.  Not only that, but if you’re in a competitive field you better add an x-factor to those three!  What’s that supposed to mean?  Think about it.  If everybody’s meeting the customer’s needs of fast, good and cheap…you’ll have to get your edge somewhere else!  You’ll have to also provide…green, responsible, easy, or some other intangible that puts your product beyond the point of entry.

He makes a good point!  You can see it happening everywhere.  Question is, how does it apply in your world?

Sunday afternoon.  A little after 4:00 p.m.  56°F.  We’re between storms #2 and #3.   Listening to a little Long Road Out of Eden.  Wasn’t sure at first.  Wanted to form my own opinion, but it really is growing on me.  Love the title song.  There are several really good songs.  Makes for a good sound track for a January day in SoCal.  Wish you were here! 

Was over at Church of the Customer this morning.  One of the blogs I check out for marketing and customer related content.  Had to laugh when I caught the line regarding a new iPhone:

However, I do looker cooler using it, so I got that going for me, which is nice ; )

Nothing to do with the post in particular or the blog in general…but it is interesting how a line like that becomes part of the culture.  And it is part of the culture, right?  I’m mean, you’ve used it, haven’t you?

Couple months ago I noticed a reference that Tom Peters made to a book called Flip: How to Turn Everything You Know on Its Head–and Succeed Beyond Your Wildest Imaginings.  He’d noticed a tagline on the cover: "Edward de Bono meets Tom Peters."  Intriguing.  Sounded good to me too, so I wrote the publisher and asked for a review copy (the book releases here in April).  Good stuff!  Definitely worth checking out.  You can preorder your copy Right Here with Amazon.  If you want it now, you can order it off Peter Sheahan’s site right here.

Here’s Kinsey!  She’s a cutie!

Only in Southern California do you get the high-quality illustrations of how storms develop. We’ll see what happens (what really happens) over the next few days here in SoCal.  It’s a little bit like life in South Florida during hurricane season.  Long lines at the Home Depot buying prefab gutters.  Long lines at the grocery stores buying supplies for the weekend.  How do I know?  I’ve been putting up my own section of prefab gutter!  I’m an expert.  In the fall of 2004 (last time we had big rain) I put up a gutter in the rain to keep a leak in the dining room down to a trickle.  This time…I put it up before the rain.  Of course, my tried-and-true theory about home improvement was dead on once again.  Here’s the theory: You’ll never go only once to Home Depot for a project.  It will be at least three trips.  And that’s if you don’t really finish it off well.  Dohhhhhh!

You may have already read the text of the commencement address that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford a couple years back.  It’s now available as a video from Stanford on iTunes.  You’ll see it on the top downloads.  Just 15 minutes long, but a great way to start the year.