Tag Archives: Strategy
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.…
Can you say what you stand for?
in Leadership
We’ve all been in offices/establishments and seen posters/pictures hanging on the walls that communicate the values of that particular business. But, rarely will you see something like this:…
If you don’t like how things are done, tell a different story
in Innovation, Leadership, Strategy
A typical marketing and sales person recently asked me why I don’t place ads on my blog to generate additional revenue. Being that this blog gets between 6K – 9K visits/month, I’m in a very good position to do so (I have gotten requests from companies to place ads). But, I don’t want to place ads.
I simply don’t like advertising. And, generating revenue from ads is not a narrative I want to be a part of.
When he heard my response, he thought I was crazy. In his own words: that is not smart.…
Q&A: Group Partners on How Visualization Provides Strategic Ways To Solve Business Challenges
in Innovation, Interviews, Strategy
Why We Think Visually from John Caswell on Vimeo.
To be great at strategy and innovation, you must be able to work through an interconnected system. And, as the pace of change exceeds our ability to grasp what is happening around us, a better approach is needed for developing strategy and innovation. A visual approach to systems thinking.
To help deal with that challenge, Group Partners, has developed a unique approach to visualize and better solve problems with strategy and innovation. Here is a quick interview with visual thinking gurus, John Caswell and Hazel Tiffany of Group Partners.…
Why is competitive advantage temporary?
An often asked question. Yet, there are those who think that competitive advantages are everlasting.
Competitive advantage, it seems to me, has become an instrument of finance. As in, how can our company accumulate hoards of cash to become sustainable?
The defining metric for said advantage is profits. That is a mindset, I believe, of playing not to lose.
Accumulating a war chest of money doesn’t mean you will outlast the next wave of change, you have things upside down, for an investment in innovation is an investment in your future.…