Category Archives: Strategy

Culture tells us what to do when the leader isn’t in the room

in Leadership, Strategy

How does a leader build a sustainable company cultureCulture tells us what to do when the leader isn’t in the room. We’ve all heard this before, and being able to achieve this is one of the daunting challenges of leadership.

It is not unusual to be in a strategy session and come up with all kinds of great quotes and soundbites, that are quickly forgotten when everyone leaves the room. The key is to be able reduce those great quotes into “concrete behaviors” that happen on a daily basis.

For me, the challenge is ongoing. And to face this challenge, I use a code: FLUSH.…

To innovate better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission

in Innovation, Leadership, Strategy

Cultures of innovation are naturally dynamic. Employees think of new ideas and try them on the fly. Processes and procedures are fluid. There often is no one right answer to a problem, but rather experimentation drives many projects, efforts, assignments, and ultimately opportunities for improvement.

With that said, in my neck of the woods, businesses are the complete inverse.

Take a recent experience I had with the marketing manager of a telecommunications company based in Tijuana. With Startup Weekend Tijuana 4 coming this week, this marketing manager enthusiastically let me know that she signed up to participate. “Great!”, I said. But there was one minor problem: she didn’t want me to tell her boss about it.

Sucks!

According to her, the boss doesn’t want people to have their head occupied in anything other than what they’re supposed to be doing at work.

Sound familiar?…

The case for discovering what business you are really in

in Innovation, Strategy
General Assembly 2013

General Assembly 2013 (Photo credit: Paradise Nazarene)

What business are you really in?

Most can’t answer this question. And if they do, it is a rather functional driven answer such as: we make vacuums.

How meaningful and memorable is that?

I was reading through a note about General Assembly, a co-working space, and how it is shutting down it’s co-working services for entrepreneurs and instead focus on education:…

Tower Infinity and the Power of the Opposition Strategy

in Innovation, Leadership, Strategy

tower infinity invisible skyscraper

Last week, South Korea announced that it will build the first ever invisible skyscraper. The proposed Tower Infinity will use cameras and LED screens to disappear. Think about that for a second…

We usually hear about countries building the next tallest skyscraper all the time, but this a break from that narrative. And that is really cool. Not only is this latest skyscraper aiming to use technology to create the appearance that it is invisible to the naked eye, it won’t even be one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world.

This is classic opposition strategy by GDS Architects:…

What are the common sources of resistance to change?

in Innovation, Leadership, Question-To-Innovate, Questions, Strategy

What are the common sources of resistance to change?

Scott Berkun has a great quote about resistance to ideas: The default state of an idea is non-adoption.

Reflecting on this quote, it useful to consider why that is so. For many reasons, people, in any arena, will resist change. That is just the way it is, so it is best to expect it.

While too many to list, there are commonalities between them. Here are five common sources of resistance to change:…

Getting the small things right is a first step towards innovation

in Innovation, Leadership, Strategy

Nobody likes to be rejected. But, there are times when you know you’ve provided value by facilitating clarity. This happened to me recently…

Last week I had a meeting with a very public mexican CEO, where we talked about innovation and its various forms. He clearly wants to innovate in various areas, but was honest in expressing his understanding that his company is not prepared to do so.…

Strategy is hard. Innovation is harder

in Innovation, Strategy

By now, you should know that I don’t sugarcoat it. No recipes, frameworks, or any other method with promises of a silver bullet. No BS here about how easy it is. With that said, here is another anecdote for you…

Yesterday we visited a prospect, we talked about how we could help them make some improvements in they way they collaborate with their value chain. After our meeting was done, the CEO asked me why we needed to be so thorough to make a strategy. I simply said: Strategy isn’t supposed to be easy. There is no silver bullet that applies to everyone. Whoever tells you differently is not a strategist.…