The Democratic Presidential race will have historical consequences. Your decision will pick the next POTUS. Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. The choice has generated huge turnout, especially with the Democrats. In the Republican race John McCain is the presumptive nominee. We each have our own criteria for selecting our POTUS. Judgment is core in my opinion. Hillary […]
Advantage-makers spot opportunities in problems – and a recession can be a real problem. And there’s the opportunity. Everyone wants their problems solved. Most people think about taking advantage of an opportunity, shift to focus on how you can take advantage of a problem. People became millionaires during the Great Depression. And while I don’t know any personally, […]
How do you categorize experiences? Do you notice what is there or what is missing? First, why does it matter? 1) A technology manager accepted the vendors judgment that shutting down the data center was just like the time before. This time the system crashed and results were disastrous, millions of dollars lost. They missed the […]
Two shoe salespeople go a foreign country to sell their shoes.The first shoe salesperson calls up headquarters and says, “They don’t wear shoes here I’ll be on the next plane home. The second shoe salesperson calls up headquarters and says, “They don’t wear shoes here, send all you can!” This story illustrates the difference between […]
When it comes to creating advantages it pays to know what you are after. There are 4 major criteria that should guide your efforts. 1. Faster – Does your product/service accelerate the sale? Retailer use accelerators all the time. Does your leadership accelerate the needed change? 2. Easier – Is it easier to use your product than the competitors? ie. […]
The ‘R’ word. ‘Recession’ is on the back of most of our minds. Everything was going along just fine and then boom the worry machine starts. A rule of thumb is that a recession is two consecutive quarters of shrinking GDP. Are we in one now? We won’t technically know for another few months. But […]
I’ve been asked, “How do you define leadership?” a thousand times. While my answer has refined over the years, from my vantage point: leaders create advantages that encourage followers. And followers can be customers, employees, stakeholders or the voters. Your leadership becomes obvious and irresistible when you shift the odds in their favor by producing […]
Do you know how to shift the odds in your favor in the best of times and the worst of times? Imagine that you are a commander of a fortress under a daily siege for six months, your supplies are down to two bags of grain and one cow. You have no way to communicate […]