“Does my business have a real strategy?” This is the question I spend most of my time helping business leaders answer.  In most cases, the answer is no.  The reality is that every struggling, stagnant, or declining business finds itself in this situation due to its unique situation, but they all share a similar feeling of being rudderless.  Rudderless businesses often display one or more of the following signs: De They aren’t generating profits.  They aren’t likely to create new customers.  They are probably seeing a decreasing market share.  These signs are oft ..read more

This post was published originally on my email blast! Hey!  I was going through my notes last night. At the front of my notebook, I keep a list of 20 insights that I find myself sharing over and over in my strategy work.  I came across this exercise from reading David C. Baker’s book The Business of Expertise. In the book, David talks about an exercise called ‘Drop and Give Me 20’. David describes this as a way to test your expertise and positioning.  In practice, you should have about 20 insights that will teach your listener something. That will give someone an “aha!” mom ..read more

My go-to sneaker newsletter is by Mike Sykes and this morning he put together a really solid one about Travis Scott and the Jordan Brand.  The Kicks You Wear The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 345 — The Travis Scott Effect Goooood morning, folks! Welcome to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for reading. Hope you had an amazing weekend. In my cart : Y’all know I’m tapped in with the JFG 1000. Specifically that Black Ice pair. They’re special. It’s not actually in my cart yet but, you know, hopefully it will be… Read more 22 minutes ago · Mike D. Sykes, II I sent Mike a reply and I figured it migh ..read more

I originally posted this on LinkedIn and it has received so much attention, I figured you might find it useful as well.  Including the drawing and picture. I try to add some humor to your day.  Today I want to talk about some of the worst advice I know of when it comes to strategy: ‘Let the market decide…’ This is the absolute worst advice because it has 3 key underpinnings that will guarantee you failure: – It assumes that everything is random.  – It tells you that strategy is unimportant.  – It says that the quality of your decisions can’t make a difference ..read more

Brands spend a lot of time thinking about their brand…if they are smart.  Why? For major businesses, your brand can be worth 30-40% of the total valuation of your business.  For a small business, your brand and your name are likely the only thing you have that is standing between you and the commodity abyss.  That’s why these continuing stories about the new Major League Baseball jerseys is interesting because sports teams have some of the best brands in the world, but I also feel that far too many of them don’t give them the attention that they deserve. So, to hear players comp ..read more

Honestly, I’m not sure if I heard of The Messenger before yesterday.  Which is probably part of the problem the site had.  But the bigger point to make is that the collapse of The Messenger is a reminder to get your strategy right before you do anything else.  I took a look at the site’s Wikipedia this morning and saw a clear lack of strategic vision evident from the jump.  Which I got to after reading a WSJ piece on the site shutting down that made me think, “there wasn’t really anything going on there.”  The final nail for ..read more

TechCrunch shuts down TC+ to get their focus on one business.  It is the quote from Editor in Chief, Connie Lozois, that really struck me as very smart: “Building around two businesses hasn’t allowed us to focus where we can win.”  Music to my ears.  Why? Our business environment seems to almost exclusively send the message, “Less isn’t working, let’s do more.”  In too many cases, this steals from the core business, the core competency.  The idea of core competencies is common now, but it really only started gaining traction in the 90s with this article from HBR ..read more

Dr. Julie Gurner is the psychologist that was an inspiration for Wendy Rhodes on Billions.  This morning she wrote about the 4 critical moments that define your success in business or your career.  Early career Going all in Crisis Reinvention I’ve been thinking about the fourth one a lot lately.  Why? Because it feels like all of us are at a point of inflection and reinvention.  I was reading ‘Puck News’ talk about how newspapers, streamers, and other businesses were struggling with living in a non-ZIRP world. (Zero interest…I had to look it up.)  ..read more

Hi! This common question I come back to with folks is: “How well do you really know your customers and target market?” Your knee jerk reaction is probably, “Pretty well.” But, my question to you is, “Is that really true?”  Let’s talk about market research and customer orientation this morning: Tom Elmer, a marketing professor in Pennsylvania, sent me a Peter Ducker quote the other day, the gist is that marketing is everything and customer orientation is the business looked at from the outside from the perspective of the customer.  True.  True. For our purposes, I want you to thi ..read more

Hey!  I’m back from the midwest where I drank coffee and beer, and watched basketball.  Yesterday, a few folks forwarded me a post about a “strategic plan” for a smaller orchestra with a similar question: “Is this what a strategy document should look like?” The short answer: No.  A friend of mine called it “strategy theatre” and I’m stealing that term from here on out.  The full document can be found here! Let me give you _ lessons from this document that you can apply in your own organization: 1. Overall it is too long:  No one is working through this ..read more