My business motto is simple.

“Helping Smart People to Think Clearly About Their Business and Competitive Strategy”

I chose that phrase because it captures what fascinates me about people and challenges that they face. There are a lot of smart people in the business. Experts at technology, manufacturing processes, financial models and so much more inhabit the corporate world. Yet, these smart people sometimes get “stuck” when they work outside their expertise.

In the high technology industries that I am most used to it is a merit badge of sorts to be considered “smart.”  Knowing facts, solving problems that others struggle with, completing tasks faster are things that separate smart people from the crowd. Over time this helps increase the confidence that the same smart people feel about their capabilities.

With so many smart people, we might expect strategies that are well considered and implemented. Many people that I speak with tell me that this is not the case for their companies.

So why aren’t business and competitive strategies better?

There are two reasons that I have observed in nearly thirty years of work.

I have traveled around the world for business and pleasure. From the Old City in Jerusalem to the rural villages of Kenya or the crowded streets of Bangalore, I can always find certain things that mean just about the same thing that they mean in Texas. For instance, no matter where I have traveled, I can always get a Coca-Cola. The markings, bottle shape and product are essentially the same everywhere. You and I can rely on those facts which make it comfortable for us to choose Coke (or maybe you are a Pepsi person?).

Coke is a valuable brand. It got that way because many years ago there was a vision for the product, an explicit way to market the vision and scrupulous enforcement of the brand that emerged. Brands are powerful shorthand ways that we assign value to or judge the worth of something. They help us cut through the noisy clutter of life to make simpler decisions. If we are associated with a “good” brand, then we find our pathways smooth and clear. Conversely, few things are harder to overcome than a “bad” brand (if they were still being made, would you consider a Yugo?).

Of course each of us establishes a personal brand. Personal branding is a bit of a rage in corporate life today. Establishing a brand, the thinking goes, ensures that your unique value is recognized. (Translation: you get to keep your job.)

It is also important when starting a new Competitive Intelligence program. The CI brand that you develop will empower you to accomplish great things. In previous entries in this series, we have already talked about Setting Some Standards and hinted at branding elements at the Tease The Vision step. Now it is time to make the critical branding elements explicit. So, here they are.

Eight years ago I was diagnosed with a life threatening condition that required surgery. I understood that the surgery would be quite difficult and so I searched high and low for the right surgeon. The doctor that I found was recommended to me. He was personable and seemed competent. I knew that he had been successful in many surgeries and I expected (hoped) that he would do what was necessary for me.

When I awoke from the surgery, my doctor was standing over me. Through the fog of anesthesia, he told me that the surgery was not a success. He said that they had opened me up and looked me over before simply closing the incision that they had made. After my wife joined me, he went on to tell me that the surgery was impossible to complete without killing me. His kind suggestion was that we should go on whatever dream vacation that we had planned (with the implication that no solution was possible). My time was short.

Flashing forward 8 years …

Sometimes smart people have competitive intelligence questions that are also quite difficult. It could be that they have tried to get answers themselves or have asked others in their work group to get answers. In the end, the answer eludes them all and they conclude that it is impossible to the get the answer. Thus, oddly comforted, they go about business imagining that everyone encounters and responds to such impossibilities the same way.

The fact is that some people are undaunted by the impossible (or what seems impossible to others).

In competitive intelligence there is an article of faith that almost every question has an answer that can be discovered ethically, albeit with some uncertainty. That is, evidence can be assembled, primary sources queried, data correlated and so on to produce credible and actionable answers. Smart people sometimes doubt that this can be done because they have previously tried for the same answers or relied on someone that tried and failed.

Here are some things to remember (as a competitive intelligence professional).

1. Read the rest of this entry

There was a time when I was younger that I believed certain things to be true. For a while, there was evidence that I was right. My life proceeded along a path that adhered to those “truths” more or less predictably. For instance, here were 10 things that I thought were true.

1. I would live forever (or at least for a very long time).
2. Good health was a given.
3. My income would always increase.
4. All important relationships would endure.
5. People at work would come to care about me like a family member.
6. All decisions would be between something good and something better.
7. Power would come through my “rank” at work.
8. People would naturally respect me more as I got older.
9. Nothing good could come from bad situations or experiences.
10. The best years in life would be when I was young (think 25).

Depending on your age and experiences, you might be chuckling right now. Maybe you recognize that the wisdom or hopes of a youth don’t always turn out to be true. The fact is that every single truth I held back then has been challenged. I have come to realize that the experiences of life refine and clarify what we hold dearest. My responses (e.g., learning, coping, re-thinking, accepting) to those challenges has led me to new wisdom that is less starry eyed yet richer and more satisfying.

Strategy work is similar for me. There was a time when I thought certain things about doing business strategy. For example, my firmly held “truths” about strategy included the following.

1. The best ideas (i.e. mine) will win.
2. Leaders want and will commonly accept great strategy ideas from subordinates.
3. All important factors affecting strategy would be obvious to me.
4. Peers would be naturally attracted to and supportive of my ideas.
5. Well crafted presentations would ensure that my strategy inputs would be accepted.
6. Everyone would understand what I was saying when I said it.
7. The organization would change to adapt to a new strategy.
8. Someone else would worry about and manage the strategy implementation.
9. Silence in meetings meant agreement.
10. Decisions would always be made in open discussions that I was invited to attend.

Ah, but the years have passed and I have painfully discovered that my understandings needed to change. This is all good (after the pain lessened) because a strategist must have a reflective and learning disposition. Without such a personality, one is doomed to marginalization (and probably a new career in another field). So, we experience, we reflect and we learn. The benefit is that we are disabused of simple notions when they are insufficient and we are enriched with understandings that are powerful.

I am both more humble these days and much better equipped to solve difficult strategy problems with people.

What about you? Are you learning new things as you live life and work on strategy?