A few years ago I was asked to give a speech to a group of entrepreneurs on their way to Startup Chile. As part of my talk they asked me to write a list of 3 to 5 things that I do to be successful. While I did do that list, I explicitly said “I can tell you my 3 to 5 things I do on a daily basis but that’s what works for me, in the context of my life, my personality and mindset.”
Tag Archives: Strategy
Your North Star Is Your Customers Not Competitors
There are many businesses that start out filling a need for a specific type of customer. Sometimes this leads to the creation of a new industry or segment that was ignored or unserved by incumbents.
If the business does everything right, they will be the leader for that new category, segment or industry. The problem arises when that leader stops paying attention to what started it all: the customer.
Create! Don’t Compete
I’ve had many meetings with principals in large organizations and companies who say, “I am worried my business will be completely replaced by some Silicon Valley startup. How can I build something to counter that?”
Eat The Bug: Do What Others Can’t Or Won’t Do
Every organizations lives and dies by its strategy. What makes a good strategy? The best strategies are simple and answer 5 fundamental questions: who, what, where, how and why.
Still, developing a strategy is hard. There’s a tendency to make it a very complex activity, which I believe drives most organizations to fall for many traps; one being the the copy-paste approach.
Startups, by their very nature, do not fall for this trap. But this doesn’t mean their path to victory will be easier; but much more harder.
Good Strategy Bad Strategy
in Strategy
What’s the best strategy book I’ve read? Not specifically business strategy, but strategy in general.
A friend asked to borrow one of my books on my Kindle yesterday. While I was scrolling through my books I stumbled on Richard Rumelt’s masterpiece Good Strategy Bad Strategy; this is the best book I’ve read on strategy.
When Someone Points Out The Flaws In Your Idea You Need To Thank Them
At both of my ventures, Better and Netek, we operate by many key principles, one of them is avoiding stupidity; which is to avoid bad decisions. So instead of asking ourselves,”how do we make good decisions?; we ask: how do we avoid making bad ones?
Biggest Strategy Mistake: Putting All Your Eggs In One Basket
in Innovation, Strategy
Businesses have always relied on various forms of advertising to promote themselves. It’s still holds true in the digital world we live in today. But the internet changes everything because today every business is a digital business or a dead business.