Category Archives: Strategy

The Tour Begins on Saturday

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He will not be there.

There comes a time when every team loses its star player. On your teams, it happens. In your company it happens.

I know the lump in the throat when, from across your desk, your star player tells you she is leaving. Moving to Iowa. Retiring. Changing careers.

We cannot stop her, in fact, we wish her well. But, our hearts tell us life will never be the same.

Still, life goes on. Veteran managers know the clouds will go away, the birds will sing and the sun will shine again. Life goes on.

Long time readers of Management Skills Blog know of my keen interest in cycling. Each year, July turns its attention to the lessons learned in the Tour De France. Some readers may find a new appreciation for the sport. Even without Lance Armstrong.

There will be new names, just like new names in your own company when a star player leaves. Of course, they are not really new, just faces you never paid attention to before.

There will be favorites this year. On the stage with Lance in 2005 were Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich. But there are a host of other players you will meet over the next few weeks.

My interest in this sport is the quiet teamwork required to post a win. It is not entirely visible. You might think the winner would emerge only from individual effort and the tactic would be to just “go fast.” Not the case.

My fascination is in the management lessons. Coaching, teamwork, tactics, communication, support, fitness, self-talk, discipline. We’ll have some fun over the next few weeks. The Prologue starts on Saturday, July 1. -TF

Competitors Have to Retool

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“You said this subject has implications outside of the marketing war room?” I continued the conversation with Jaynie Smith about her new book Creating Competitive Advantage.

“Often, when a company thinks about its competitive advantage, it gets stuck as an exercise for the marketing department. The most powerful part of this process occurs when competitive advantage gets driven into operations.

“Competitive advantage is not some double-speak marketing gimmick. For it to be effective, it has to be real, when its elements are designed into the product or service and become visible to the customer.

“I tell the story of Volvo. Its marketing talks about safety and its design includes whiplash protection, brake circuit redundancy, traction and spin control. Competitors cannot copy a slogan. They have to retool their product if they expect to win on the promise of safety.”

So, what is your competitive advantage? Not what your marketing says, but what is truly distinctive about your product or service? I would be interested to hear your thoughts. -TF

Jaynie Smith’s Creating Competitive Advantage is now available on Amazon.

Competitive Advantage Over Worthy Opponents

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I was talking with Jaynie Smith, a friend of mine about her new book. “There are all kinds of management books written by all kinds of people. Why is the subject of Competitive Advantage so important?”

“Just because you make a product, doesn’t mean you have a successful business. Just because you take out an ad or create a fancy brochure doesn’t mean you will win. Every company spends marketing dollars, but most of it underperforms. Most marketing doesn’t communicate what is truly important and gets caught up in the blather that sounds like every other company’s marketing stuff.

“And customers are smart. There is the saying that you can’t fool dogs or children. Well, you can’t fool customers either. Most marketing doesn’t connect or communicate anything real.”

“Give me an example?” I asked.

“At our company, quality is number one. We are in business to exceed our customer’s expectations. Please. It doesn’t mean anything.” Jaynie stopped. “But it is more important than that. This is not about fixing bad marketing. This is about competing head to head with worthy opponents who have the skills and resources to beat you, if you let them.

“I tell the story of JTECH, an on-site pager company in Boca Raton, Florida, who successfully brought to market local pagers, used by hundreds of restaurant and retail store chains across the country. It was such a great success that Motorola decided to get into the business. JTECH had to seriously answer two simple questions. Why should our customers do business with us? What do we offer that the other guy doesn’t?

“By making the right choices, JTECH fought off a devastating attack.”

If you are interested, you can read the rest of the story (pdf) and find out how they did it.

Jaynie Smith’s book Creating Competitive Advantage is available now from Barnes and Noble ($16), CEO Read ($16) and Amazon ($13). -TF

Creating Competitive Advantage

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Struggle as they might, not a single person in the room was able to do it. The assignment sounded simple. Name your unique competitive advantage. Name one quality that truly distinguishes your company from your competitors. Name that one quality that gives your customer a reason to make you the clear choice above your rivals.

I met Jaynie Smith more than ten years ago. Over the years, I have watched her ask that question many times, so the response from this group was no surprise.

“It’s rare that a company doesn’t have a competitive advantage,” Jaynie explains, “but most often, the company simply doesn’t know what it is. Or they know what it is, but have never talked about it, held it up for display, pulled it apart to understand its power. Or they know what it is and even understand it, but never tell anyone, never tell their employees, never tell their customers.”

And so, I was happy to learn, a couple of years ago, that Jaynie was compiling her research into a book. And it’s published. Because she is a close friend, I get to spend time with her to pick her brain. Over the next couple of days, I will share some insights from those conversations.

Meanwhile, the book is out. Creating Competitive Advantage by Jaynie Smith. It lists for $20, but Amazon has it for $13. And if you can’t wait for the book, you can read chapter one on Jaynie’s website (for free).

Big Moves

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A friend of mine named Dan Wertenberg threatened to follow me around one day to evaluate my effectiveness. It was interesting. He said, as I went through my day, only 20% of the things I did would have real lasting impact on my business, my organization, my effectiveness. And I got to thinking about that.

As I look back on the last three years, what were the four or five strategic decisions that I made that had a lasting impact on the direction of my business? It was the opening of a new office, a key hire, the creation of a new business direction. The rest was just noise, busy work to make me believe that I was doing important adult stuff.

What was more interesting was the next question. In the next three years, what will be the important decisions that I make that will have a lasting impact?

In the next three years, what will be the important decisions that you make that will have a lasting impact on your career, your team, your department, your organization? -TF

Market Dominance

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In spite of the fact that I told my staff that I would lay off cycling for a bit, now that the tour is over, we did receive a comment this past weekend from a reader whose support of Armstrong may not be entirely enthusiastic.

“Do you have any idea on what Armstrong said to Candel Evans after he sneaked in front of him and taking the 11th place on the last Tuesday stage? “Why have you done that?” It is known that Armstrong intimidates the other riders and that anyone who does not obey, as Candel did, is punished? Years for now, after each tentative escape from the peleton, Candel will be followed by the Discovery team, which will lead the peleton into Evans’ annihilation. Now, that’s the “team spirit”, and Armstrong kicked T-Mobile asses because they dared to walk outside the leadership of the Great Lance. ”

It is my intent to link this discussion to relevant management issues, and as I read the posted comment, I remembered a conversation I had with a South African fellow named Gideon Malherbe. We were talking about those companies who maintained a strategy of Market Dominance. Seven tour wins reminds me of market dominance, though we were talking about Wal-Mart and Microsoft. Gideon’s parting thought to me was, “If you are the 800 pound gorilla in a market and not stepping on some toes, then you are missing the point.”

I am curious, what do you think? -TF