Strategy in Three Minutes. Episode 30

1. Strategy and Value Exchange: The best problem is the one no one notices

So, no one calls it a problem

Going to a supermarket or restaurant didn’t seem like a problem a few decades ago—it was just a task.

But then, delivery services turned it into a problem for some customers.

The inability to always be in touch with the world wasn’t a problem either, but smartphones made us change our minds.

The best problem to build a business around is the one everyone takes for granted.

How to find such a problem?

Dive deeply into basic customer needs.

For instance, people always want to save time, energy, and resources, care for their loved ones, and be accepted.

If something prevents them from doing it, it may be a problem even if they don’t see it that way.

Those who identify such problems can completely reshape the customer experience and create a new market.

Use Steven Reiss’s sixteen basic needs model.

2. Strategy-related terms: Life is a flow. Business is a flow

Business does not develop in discrete steps—from goal to goal, from milestone to milestone. That’s just an illusion.

In reality, it develops continuously.

Every day, every single second.

People came up with milestones and objectives – things like quarterly profit.

But if you focus on a quarterly milestone, you lose sight of what comes next.

Strategy is also a flow.

When you run a business, you manage a flow.

The flow has three dimensions: speed, direction, and density.

The speed and direction reflect your strategic choice—where you’re going and how fast.

The density of the flow represents the resource you must channel into the flow.

Set the direction and speed, provide resources, and your business will be successful.

3. Thursday musings: Why AI agents won’t increase your productivity

New productivity tools seem to pop up every single second.

And yet, our productivity stays just as low as before.

Most tools follow the same logic:

[1] Plan your work quickly and efficiently

[2] Work faster – get done more

[3] Delegate your routines to machines – free up time

But:

[1] Some sources state that only 23% of the workforce is engaged at work. Are AI agents where you need to start?

[2] Workaholics from AI startups believe that cumbersome routines are a problem for people, which needs to be solved.

Wrong.

Harsh truth: most people don’t dream of getting rid of boring routines to free up time for creative and strategic tasks. That’s a big Silicon Valley myth.

People are happy to drown in routines and use them as an excuse to avoid hard thinking.

Download my new mini-book The Plague of Strategic Goals for free here—a gift for my subscribers! Oh, and by the way, the same link also has free checklists (in case you haven’t grabbed them yet)!

Svyatoslav Biryulin

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I help businesses scale fast by creating new markets. Want to unlock the future of your industry? Let’s play the Foresight Game! DM me to find out how it can reshape your perspective.

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