Archive for the ‘A Peak into the Guru's Mind’ Category

International best-selling Blue Ocean Strategy authors, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne have been recognized amongst the brightest business thinkers and strategy gurus. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Make Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant has sold over 2 million copies and has been published in 42 languages, breaking Harvard Business School Press’ historical record of most foreign language translations ever achieved. Kim and Mauborgne co-founded the Blue Ocean Strategy Network, a global community of practices on the Blue Ocean Strategy family of concepts created. The Observer called Kim and Mauborgne, “The next big gurus to hit the business world.”

“Don’t wait until everything is perfect. Fire away!”

Author Michael Masterston includes in his business book Ready, Fire, Aim Zero to $100 million in No Time Flat.

Masterston believes successful entrepreneurial businesses typically progress through four stages: “Infancy, Childhood, Adolescence and Adulthood.” When launching a business allocating around 80% of the company’s efforts on sales is essential. He feels it is important to seek out an “optimum selling strategy” for your product or service.

Ready, Fire, Aim points out that regardless of your company’s convictions, customers will ultimately decide the value of your product or service, but to understand the difference between customers’ “wants” “and needs.”

Furthermore, treating every customer cordially but saving the royal treatment for your big spenders is vital to turn Zero to $100 million in No Time Flat. However, it is important to try to know more about sales and marketing than anyone else in your firm.

Masterston stresses that innovation and brainstorming go hand in hand and feels you can turn outstanding employees into superstars!

International best-selling Blue Ocean Strategy authors, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne have been recognized amongst the brightest business thinkers and strategy gurus. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Make Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant has sold over 2 million copies and has been published in 42 languages, breaking Harvard Business School Press’ historical record of most foreign language translations ever achieved. Kim and Mauborgne co-foundedthe Blue Ocean Strategy Network, a global community of practices on the Blue Ocean Strategy family of concepts created. The Observer called Kim and Mauborgne, “The next big gurus to hit the business world.”

“Consumers do not purchase a product – they purchase a job. Companies should see how customers use products and take the appropriate cues.”

Seeing What’s Next by Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony and Erik A. Roth focuses on using the theories of innovation to predict industry change. The authors emphasize that theory can be useful – if put into practice.

Seeing What’s Next states there are two kinds of innovations: sustaining and disruptive and companies derive their capabilities from resources, processes and values. Initially, disruptive innovations offer poor performance but ultimately redefine the value proposition for an industry, while sustaining innovations support established industries but often reach a point at which they outstrip market needs

While Christensen, Anthony and Roth believe the education, airline and health care industries are favorable for disruptive innovation non-market forces, such as government regulations, can make or break innovation. In the face of disruptive innovation the same resources, processes and values that help make companies successful can also incapacitate them.

The authors share that companies should innovate with better products for high-margin customers, with cheap alternatives for low-end buyers with offers for current non consumers.

International best-selling Blue Ocean Strategy authors, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne have been recognized amongst the brightest business thinkers and strategy gurus. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Make Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant has sold over 2 million copies and has been published in 42 languages, breaking Harvard Business School Press’ historical record of most foreign language translations ever achieved. Kim and Mauborgne co-foundedthe Blue Ocean Strategy Network, a global community of practices on the Blue Ocean Strategy family of concepts created. The Observer called Kim and Mauborgne, “The next big gurus to hit the business world.”

“Revolutionizing a business requires innovating strategically.”

Authors Vijay Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble of 10 Rules for Strategic Innovators from Idea to Execution believe that companies need to be aware of organizational factors that inhibit innovation. If you establish a new division in a company it is essential to enable it to borrow knowledge and resources from the parent company, while ultimately minimize tensions.

Govindarajan and Trimble feel such innovation requires innovating strategically and requires strategic experiments. These experiments are hard to predict and budget for ultimately losing money early on and will be difficult to evaluate them.

But, strategic experiments require you to change your understanding of business. In order to guide strategic experiments, and to learn from them, companies should use “theory-based planning,” which includes testing and revision. Evaluation of strategic experiments should not be based on profits, but on what you learned from the experiments.

Frequently, companies should revise any plans on involving strategic experiments in light of what you’ve learned along the way. As new projects are started, forget the corporate culture of the older institution.

And as is the goal of every organization you must undue politics, reduce inside competition and avoid bad planning – which can disrupt learning.

International best-selling Blue Ocean Strategy authors, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne have been recognized amongst the brightest business thinkers and strategy gurus. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Make Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant has sold over 2 million copies and has been published in 42 languages, breaking Harvard Business School Press’ historical record of most foreign language translations ever achieved. Kim and Mauborgne co-founded the Blue Ocean Strategy Network, a global community of practices on the Blue Ocean Strategy family of concepts created. The Observer called Kim and Mauborgne, “The next big gurus to hit the business world.”

“Stopping a bad behavior can be more productive than doing something right.”

Marshall Goldsmith, author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There shares his insight on how successful people can become even more successful. He feels that some of some of the behaviors that enable people to become successful actually can be the reason people do not ultimately rise to the top.

Simply put - The higher level of success, the more destructive your bad habits become. Goldsmith focuses on twenty common bad habits that undermine leadership that include overemphasis on needing to win, as well as not listening, playing favorites, placing blame and making excuses. When these behavioral foibles become behavioral crises, then the time for change has come.

Goldsmith also considers being judgmental, volatile, negative and/or secretive also to be bad habits that directly inhibit leadership. He feels by following a simple seven-step procedure people can find the cure to their bad workplace habits and avoid the twenty-first bad habit – “goal obsession.”

Goal obsession occurs when your overall mission is overshadowed by the need to achieve a particular goal. The key is to first seek feedback. Then apologize, advertise, listen, show gratitude, follow up and practice “feedforward” thinking. 

International best-selling Blue Ocean Strategy authors, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne have been recognized amongst the brightest business thinkers and strategy gurus. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Make Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant has sold over 2 million copies and has been published in 42 languages, breaking Harvard Business School Press’ historical record of most foreign language translations ever achieved. Kim and Mauborgne co-founded the Blue Ocean Strategy Network, a global community of practices on the Blue Ocean Strategy family of concepts created. The Observer called Kim and Mauborgne, “The next big gurus to hit the business world.”

“Innovation is more than just coming up with new ideas; innovation includes commercializing those ideas.”

“Under the topic of leadership and management, Managing Creativity and Innovation by Harvard Business Essentials of Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, the Harvard Business School Press summarizes, “Anyone can come up with new ideas.”

Managing Creativity and Innovation focuses on generating many new ideas, both radical and small. You don’t have to come up with all your new ideas yourself; you can get them from customers, new research, “empathetic design,” “lead users” and the market.

The objective is to winnow these ideas. Companies and individuals have to examine the new ideas for “opportunity recognition.” The question is - Will they make money?

Managing Creativity and Innovation includes the three components of creativity when exploring incremental innovation and radical innovation. Creativity has three main components: expertise, incentive and problem-solving ability. Incremental innovation has small improvements to products while radical innovation revolutionizes an entire industry.

The point being: To increase your organizations’ innovativeness by making the right management decisions. Most often, diversity tends to generate more creative ideas in comparison to homogeneous companies. Managing Creativity and Innovation addresses the issue that diversity also tends to lead to conflict.

Consequently, products have life cycles, and your strategy should reflect your position in that life cycle.

International best-selling Blue Ocean Strategy authors, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne have been recognized amongst the brightest business thinkers and strategy gurus. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Make Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant has sold over 2 million copies and has been published in 42 languages, breaking Harvard Business School Press’ historical record of most foreign language translations ever achieved. Kim and Mauborgne co-founded the Blue Ocean Strategy Network, a global community of practices on the Blue Ocean Strategy family of concepts created. The Observer called Kim and Mauborgne, “The next big gurus to hit the business world.”

By 2050, about two billion vehicles will be traveling the world’s roads, compared to 750 million today.

Future Energy, authored by Bill Paul and published by John Wiley & Sons in 2007, focuses on the economics and politics of the oil and energy fields. Paul analyzes the importance of alternative energy and how the new oil industry will change people, politics and portfolios.

In Paul’s book he states there are about 3.4 million Americans that spend more than 90 minutes daily commuting by car. The increasing reliance on motor vehicles as transportation and oil consumption the worldwide demand for oil will soon outstrip supply. While oil companies, environmentalists and politicians have hindered the development of fuel alternatives the development of alternatives to oil will produce new investment opportunities, especially in energy technology and biofuels.

Currently, about 55% of gasoline’s retail price is connected to crude oil prices, but refining, marketing and profits account for the remainder. The price of oil has drastically risen over the past several years and the U.S up-to-date has not had a coherent energy policy and the failure is bipartisan.

Thinking ahead, tthe liquid alternatives to oil are biofuels and unconventional fossil fuels. Biobutanol might become the world’s predominant biofuel and tradable gasoline rights could encourage households to reduce their energy consumption.

The future of the oil industry is now more relevant than ever and the need for the development of alternative energy will be sure change people, politics and portfolios.

International best-selling Blue Ocean Strategy authors, W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne have been recognized amongst the brightest business thinkers and strategy gurus. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Make Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant has sold over 2 million copies and has been published in 42 languages, breaking Harvard Business School Press’ historical record of most foreign language translations ever achieved. Kim and Mauborgne co-founded the Blue Ocean Strategy Network, a global community of practices on the Blue Ocean Strategy family of concepts created. The Observer called Kim and Mauborgne, “The next big gurus to hit the business world.”

Peter Navarro’s book, “The Well-Timed Strategy Managing the Business Cycle for Competitive Advantage,” published by Wharton School Publishing in 2006 states that timing is everything; especially in the business cycle. By failing to manage the business cycle correctly, many managers take austerity measures when they should spend, and spend lavishly when they should cut back. Navarro believes that managing is something like investing – it is important not to go with the crowd. In recessions, advertise and look to hire new people. In contrast, during booms, do not get swept away, expect bad times ahead and stay lean. Keeping a close eye on the yield curve and the stock market can lead to clues for the future. But, not all risks are cyclical. Unexpected outside factors from terrorist attacks to natural disasters can make cycles better or worse. It is important to recognize that price elasticity is not a constant, but rather changes at different points in the business cycle. Furthermore, remove the threat of adverse foreign-exchange and commodity-price moves by strategic hedging. Peter Navarro’s insight in “The Well-Time Strategy Managing the Business Cycle for Competitive Advantage” encourages readers to diversify to reduce business cycle risk.