No Bullsh*t Strategy

I would argue that pretty much any vaguely successful business has such characteristics buried somewhere within it. Indeed it is probably these characteristics that have driven its success up to this point. If it didn’t have them, it would have probably just failed. Trust me, they’re there. The problem is that founders are almost never aware of wha

The three ways to discover the hidden strategy in your business OK, let’s recap what we’ve learned in this section. 1.The goal with our strategy is step away from our competitors and to create fresh market space 2.We must do this by leveraging existing characteristics hidden in our business 3.When we find those tendencies which connect with the nee

First, let’s look at the value side of the equation. The main way people screw this up is by confusing the value they provide with the product or service they make. If you ask someone what value their company delivers, they may respond with something like “we make cars”, or “we provide legal advice”, or “we run hotels”. None of these are “value”; t

If you think back to Southwest Airlines and put yourself in their shoes, you might have reasonably concluded that passengers were choosing their travel options not only from among the airlines but from buses too. Makes sense, right? In that respect then buses were just as much of a competitor to Southwest as the other airlines were. Now clearly an

Most brands have lateral, unexpected competitors like this. Competitors against whom they’d have massive advantages if they just framed themselves that way.

imagine the market not as a battleground but as an ecosystem. In an ecosystem different organisms don’t “compete” with each other, trying to drive the others to extinction. Instead they work together, symbiotically, to create a healthy overall system. They each have a particular “job” to do, and those jobs complement the jobs of the others around t

What do you offer now, even if inadvertently or only slightly, which is unexpected or weird in the category? Whatever it is, it’s probably very subtle and largely accidental, but usually there’s something there – especially in businesses that are doing well. There will be something that the market has picked up on and is enjoying which you haven’t

We aren’t just trying to find open market space; we’re trying to find open market space that’s especially suited to us.

Here I’m going to lay out three ways of looking at things which may help you achieve this, all with the goal of uncovering the unique value you could offer. Method 1 – Context shift The beauty of this method, assuming it’s an option for you, is that it allows you unlock massive value without necessarily changing anything about your product at all.