On Pantyhose, Taxi Cabs, and Billions
Don’t Beat the Competition—Make It Obsolete In 1993, a young woman in Florida was selling fax machines door-to-door. She had to wear pantyhose—a dress code her employer enforced. She didn’t…
Aim for Big Targets – They’re Easier to Hit
Create new markets where giants can’t Tywin Lannister said in Game of Thrones: “The enemy who has nothing to lose is the most terrifying.” Small startups often disrupt large businesses…
Seeking Product-Market Fit?
Lost Before the Game Began The ‘product’ is a metaphor. The ‘market’ is a metaphor. Product-market fit is an illusion. In 2007, Marc Andreessen coined the term ‘product-market fit’ in…
Happiness is a garden, not a burden
Life as a hedonic treadmill My friend’s name is Pete. He owns an IT business. His business is a drop in the ocean next to Apple, but Pete is okay…
Strategy in Three Minutes. Episode 23
1. Strategy and Value Exchange: How to Break Free from the Competitive Mindset Those with a competitive mindset create good businesses. Those with a creative mindset build the best. My…
Unpopular opinion: have more meetings, not fewer
The moaning about ‘meetings that could’ve been emails’ is heard from tech nerds hiding from human connection behind their screens. An email instead of a meeting is like a conductor…
You’re Probably Already Happy—You Just Don’t Know It
Take off your gloomy goggles first Entrepreneurs and CEOs need life strategies to thrive. Friday is the time to reflect. Your world is what you see. So, if you want…
Strategy in Three Minutes. Episode 22
1. Strategy and Value Exchange: Your market’s vision will drive your customers’ passion The kind of thinking that creates new markets. If you see your market through your product, your…
5 Pitfalls of Data: Why You Should Bet on Intuition While Strategizing
Worse than building a strategy solely on data can only be crafting one while ignoring data. In 2020, John Donahoe, then Nike’s CEO, declared ‘data-driven marketing’ a bedrock of his…