Tag Archives: Strategic management

December 23, 2015 · 10:57 am

Defensibility

I was on a call yesterday with a potential client and we were discussing his product. What he has done is to take a number of off the shelf products and integrate them into something really innovative and wonderful. At one point he expressed to me a bit of trepidation with respect to that. In theory, anyone could take those same components and build something similar, although it certainly would take them some time. In a word, he was concerned about defensibility.  

I told him that I was less concerned than he was about it. I likened him to a great chef. The magic is partially in the great ingredients for sure, but the real magic happens in how those ingredients are combined. His goal in building his dish isn’t to make something that is defensible but rather something that delights his customers, is really unique, and that can continue to evolve over time based on feedback.

Instead of focusing on patents to make something defensible, my feeling is that time and money are better spent on drilling down on why a customer will want to choose your product and only your product as a solution to their problem. Remember that the first question you need to ask is “what problem am I solving?” If you are unclear about that, no patent will protect you from failure.

How defensible is Facebook? It really wouldn’t be very hard to do what they’re doing, or at least it wouldn’t have been 10 years ago. Their biggest defense now is simply scale. We join social networks because our friends are there, and migrating everyone we care about to another platform when the one we’re on satisfies our needs is difficult. The newer platforms such as Periscope and Snapchat are solving a different problem which is why they are scaling too.

Many people do what I do. There are tons of consultants and even more bloggers. I like to think that what my clients and my readers get from me can’t be duplicated since my life experience, intelligence, and creativity are mine alone. I’m sure each of them feel the same way about themselves. My blog and my business are defensible because I use those raw materials to solve problems in a unique way. Do you?

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting

Tagged as , , ,

December 21, 2015 · 9:30 am

The Blend

One of the really special things about the holiday season in my town is the concert put on each year by the high school music department. They held the 75th annual one over the weekend and it was great. It also offered us an instructive business point as well.

Philharmonic Orchestra of Jalisco (Guadalajara...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The school’s band, orchestra, chorale, and choir all perform. While I never played in the orchestra, I did play in my school’s band (saxophone, thanks for asking) and I sang in the choir. When I go to concerts of this sort, I always listen for the one thing my conductors used to emphasize: the blend. If you’ve ever gone to a school concert, inevitably you hear the voice or playing of a really talented kid above all the others. That’s exactly what you don’t want to hear, because it has the effect of distorting the overall sound.  Really wonderful musical groups sing and play as one instrument.  Every component of that instrument is in sync – on exactly the same beat with exactly the same dynamics.  It’s the conductor‘s responsibility to make that happen. I recall how when our musical groups were doing extremely well in rehearsal, the conductor would often walk to the back of the auditorium and listen.  We were all working together so well that we really didn’t need to be lead.

Like that conductor, a great manager needs to be able to make the blend happen.  We need to let individuals sing their parts loudly, but we have to blend all of those parts together in a single, overarching product that’s our brand presented as one. Without the blend, it’s just a cacophony.  It’s not just within your own unit either.  The blending across departments is critical today more than ever.  As an example, think about how marketing and tech have become so totally intertwined. The Chief Marketing Officer must blend with the Chief Technical Officer in a seamless duet or the organization is absolutely not going to sound right.

The next time you hear some live music, listen for the blend and think of your company.  Are you putting out a unified sound that’s greater than the sum of its parts, or does the world hear a lot of strong pieces that are disjointed and not pleasing to the ear?

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Music, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

December 18, 2015 · 11:52 am

Bad Corn

It’s Foodie Friday! With the new season of Top Chef in full swing, I thought I’d use something that happened on last night’s episode as our topic this week. If you’re a fan of the series and have not yet watched the latest episode, mild spoiler alert!

Public relations of high-fructose corn syrup

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The chef who was eliminated last night made a dish that contained a corn and chorizo hash as an accompaniment to the protein, shrimp. When facing the judges, the question was raised why she chose to cook the corn. The judges thought that some crisp, cool corn would have complemented the shrimp, which was served outdoors (on a golf course!) in the heat. The chef’s reply was that the raw corn seemed overly starchy and she didn’t think it would have been any better raw than cooked. Her hope was that cooking would transform some of the starch. She was then asked the obvious question: why use the corn at all if you weren’t happy with the quality of the ingredient? Which raises our business point.

We often get handed inferior ingredients in business.  These can range from the dead weight employee who is unmotivated and less skilled to the messy financial plan.  The right answer isn’t always “let’s see what we can make out of this.”  Sometimes we need to find different ingredients or change our initial plan for the ones we have.  We get into trouble when we plow ahead, inflexible and wearing blinders.  Markets change, consumer tastes change, and stuff happens.  That doesn’t mean we should constantly be changing course, but it does mean that subtle adjustments are as much an ongoing part of business as tasting and seasoning is a constant part of cooking.

I rarely go to the market with a complete list.  I like to see what looks good with a general plan in mind about what I feel like cooking.  I try to approach business the same way – have a plan, but find the best ingredients and be ready to adjust.  I mean, who wants to pack their knives and go based on a bad piece of corn?

Leave a comment

Filed under Consulting, food, Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , , , ,