• Innovative Strategies That Create More Profits

Author: harborcapitalgroupinc

How To Create Value Monopolies, Part Two

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The source of sur/petition

Sur/petition goes far beyond housekeeping. Getting things right within the organization (cost control, quality) is undoubtedly essential, but this merely gets the baseline right. Classic competition is part of housekeeping, though it is also concerned with getting the baseline right. 

Quality and prices have to be correct. There is a slight overlap between product differentiation and sur/petition, but the overlap is not considerable.

Sur/petition is not so much concerned with differentiating changes in the product as it is with the uniqueness of the value provided. There are several ways in which value monopolies were established in the past. Some are still as important as they ever were, but others have become less important over time. The following are some of the ways you can establish value monopolies.

Physical uniqueness

There is only one Mona Lisa and only one Van Gogh irises. Their price may fluctuate with the market, but their unique value will remain. A retail store built in a prime location may, over time, lose its special status. 

Technological uniqueness

Patents are an obvious example of a value monopoly. Intellectual property is crucial and should be protected. The pharmaceutical industry has the most patent protection because of the long development time required.

 Outside of the pharmaceutical field, sur/petition through technology is much less secure. Technology may only provide a six-month to one-year lead time, and except for exceptional cases, lead times may be reduced further. 

There’s also the problem of very high technology development costs with a small, narrow market. This problem is happening in the chip market as more chipmakers focus on specially designed chips vs. the broad commodity chip market. You can keep up your margins but also progressively reduce your market.  

Also, new products are being developed that are not technology breakthroughs but new applications of technology. The application can be more valuable than pure technology. That is why there is a need to treat concept development as seriously as technical development. 

Name recognition

The extent to which the name of a politician, company, brand, author, Etc., is familiar to the public. Name or brand awareness and brand recognition lead to Brand Trust.  

Dominance

Occasionally, a corporation becomes so dominant that it provides sur/petition by its position alone. This dominance is undoubtedly true for Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Facebook.  

A dominant position is a good base for sur/petition, but it needs to be continuously used. Boeing may be somewhat complacent about his dominant position, which is always much more vulnerable than it looks.  

Cost of entry

CMOS chips require less power than standard chips but require heavy capital investment. The cost of entry is high and requires continuous injection of development funds; there is protection from newcomers. However, existing cash flow has to cover these development costs.  

Once something is established, the cost of displacing it may be huge. The keyboard’s design, which was to slow down typing, is still the prominent keyboard today. We could design a much more efficient one today, but the cost of introducing it would be huge.

Brand image

The most traditional way of getting a value monopoly is through the brand image. McDonald’s does very well despite its many competitors. Heinz tomato ketchup continues to be a favorite. Familiarity, availability, dependability, and public image are essential when other values are similar.

Although brand images are a useful way of gaining recognition, there will probably be an even greater need for them in the future. However, it will become increasingly difficult to sustain them as quality improves and consumers become more conscious of their values. 

Segmentation

 Specific niches, segmentation, and market focus have always been ways of gaining a sur/position. At the very least, they give a company a good starting position. Even when others enter the same area, there is still an initial advantage, provided management can keep up the quality.

As always, there is an initial advantage and the importance of follow-through. It is possible to have market segments that are even too specific. Then, there is the same problem as with very specialized products. The market may be tiny. Having a dominant position in a small market may not be good enough. If the market gets bigger or seems lucrative, others will undoubtedly take a good look at it.

Protection or plus

Above were some of the more traditional methods of getting value monopolies. Some of them are forms of protection, like patterns and cost of entry. A few are based on uniqueness. The rest have to be based on some sort of a plus.

The plus factors will come from careful attention to integrated values. For example, Domino’s Pizza was based directly on this concept. People who want pizza do not feel like going out to get one, so Domino’s delivers to their door. 

Perrier is another example of integrated values. Perrier introduced the concept of designer water and kept up the pressure to remain the market leader. People are becoming more health-conscious. The two-martini lunch was going away, so what were you going to have for lunch? Water made you seem very cheap and often tasted awful. So consumers were crying out for the most expensive possible way of drinking water, and Perrier satisfied that need. It became not only socially acceptable but even a mark of sophistication.  

One of the worst reasons for not doing something is that it might hurt existing businesses. But that is where sur/petition may be found in new concepts.

 

Competition vs. Sur/petition, Part One          

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Competition is for survival. Sur/petition is for success.

Competition is the critical ingredient in free-market economics. It prevents monopoly pricing and ensures that consumers get the best deal. It also ensures that producers make every effort to be efficient and to provide quality. if not, they risk being driven out of business by a producer who offers better prices or quality. 

The purpose of the competition is to benefit the consumer by keeping prices down and quality up. The competition also helps the economy by ensuring the most efficient use of resources and encouraging enterprise. New businesses with better ideas, prices, or quality can enter the field and compete against those already in it. Then there is a great deal to be said for competition.

The competition benefits the economy as a whole and consumers. Only part of the benefit of competition is for the producers. To be sure, producers are driven to greater productivity and efficiency, but these benefits are not reflected in greater profits, only in survival.

Companies put much effort into competing with one another, but the result may be merely the same existing market share for each. However, the competition allows the more effective producer to increase market share at the expense of the less efficient producer, sales volume may go up, but margins and profits may not.

In short, competition puts pressure on the producers. You have to be competitive to survive. Just as labor costs and environmental concerns or pressures on producers, so also is competition.

Sur/petition

Sur/petition is concerned with how you move forward from the baseline. Physical monopolies are illegal in many countries, and value monopolies are not. Value monopolies are for the benefit of the producers and are also in the interest of consumers. Companies are now moving away from survival economics and toward value economics.

Value economics means that consumers can choose what value means for them. You decide to buy something because you value it. Today, sur/petition and value monopolies are very much in the general economic interest. Value economics is about creating opportunities for spending money as you wish. 

So value economics, sir petition, and value monopolies benefit the economy, consumers, and producers, which contrasts a competitive economy. 

Classic competition certainly needs to be there; otherwise, the benefits of value economics will quickly disappear. But once the classic competition is in place, it is no longer sufficient. We also need sur/petition to make value economics work. Sony Walkman is a good example. Sony kept improving and improving the Walkman and is still the leader today. The real value of the Walkman story is not in recognizing its creation but in its potential success and running with it. They did not sit back and relish their success. They started producing model after model. There are over 100 other competitors offering very similar models, but Sony is still the leader.

Some people are disillusion with innovation because they claim they put in the development costs and open up the market, and then new companies jump in and take all the profits. That is what happens if you sit back. You have to create your own race against potential new competitors, which is what sur/petition is all about.

See also, How To Create Value Monopolies, Part Two

 

 

Solve Problems And Gain Insights Intuitively 

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Intuitive techniques allow you to tap into your unconsciousness and find the ideas that you already have. To solve a problem, you have to believe that you already have the answer in your unconscious. 

Michael Michalko, in his book, “Thinkertoys,” explains how Intuitive techniques show you how to take advantage of your right brain’s capability to perceive insights all at once from your unconscious. The following discussion is based on his study of intuition and problem-solving.

Using intuition means paying attention to your feelings and knowing their accuracy and how well you apply your intuition to your problem. Here are some examples of using intuition. 

“George Washington solved his most difficult problems during the revolutionary war with intuition. He would instruct his orderlies not to let anyone disturb him while he relaxed and intuited decisions.’ Another example is Conrad Hilton, who is bidding for the Stevens Hotel in Chicago. He offered the number and won the world’s largest hotel by $200.”

Successful managers often use intuition. Present an intuitive manager with a company’s financial report, and s/he will accurately assess the firm’s strengths, weaknesses, and future. Present the same manager with a personal problem, and s/he will evaluate the situation and intuit the solution and possible courses of action.

Five ways managers use intuition

Harvard business professor Daniel Isenberg studied 16 senior managers in major corporations. He spent days observing them as they work, interviewing them, and having them perform various exercises designed to figure out what made them successful.

He identified five different ways successful managers use intuition to:

1 Help them sense when a problem exists

2 Rapidly perform well-learned behavioral patterns

3 Synthesize isolated bits of data and experience into an integrated picture

4 Check on the results of rational analysis. They search until they match their gut feeling and their intellect.

5. Bypass in-depth analysis and come up with a quick solution. Charles Merrill of Merrill Lynch once said that he was right 60% of the time if he made decisions fast. If he took time, analyzed the situation, and decided carefully, he would be right 70% of the time. However, that extra 10% was seldom worth the time.

Intuitive people develop superior insight that enables them to perceive whole situations in sudden leaps of logic. John Mihalasky and a Douglas Dean at the new year New Jersey Institute of Technology discovered that 80% of CEOs whose is profits doubled over five years had above-average intuitive powers.

The blueprint for achieving intuition

The two basic principles of intuition are: it must be developed and should be incorporated with reason.

1 It must be developed. Strive to be aware of your intuition daily. When do they occur? How do they feel? Practice your skills by making guesses before a situation is thoroughly analyzed.

To condition your mind, ask yourself some “yes” and “no” questions to which you already know the answers. Observe how you get the answers. You may see a yes or no. NO matter how your answer comes; concentrate on getting future answers in the same way.

Do the same with choices. Start by thinking about a choice you have already made, and imagine the options you had when you made a choice. If you think of the choice you have already made, observe the word, phrase, image, or symbol that represents that choice. Remember how you got the answer, and focus on getting future answers in the same way. Pratice making a few simple choices you haven’t made before.

2 combine intuition with reason. In an interview, Jonas Salk, the scientist to discover the polio vaccine: “I’m saying we should trust her intuition. I believe that the principles of the universe are revealed to us through intuition. And I think that if we combine our intuition with our reason, we can respond in an evolutionary sound way to our problems. Affective, creative conceptualization requires that one incorporate reason and logic as well as intuition and feeling.”

The exercises on the following pages will re-introduce you to your intuitive senses.

Problem-solving

Professor George Turin, of the University of California at Berkeley, states that the components of solving problems with intuition are:

1 The ability to know how to attack a problem without knowing how you know.

2 The ability to relate a problem in one field to seemingly different problems in unrelated areas. The ability to see links, connections, and relationships between ideas and objects.

3 The ability to recognize the crux of the problem.

4 The ability to see in advance a general solution to the problem.

5 The ability to identify solutions because they feel right. The ability to focus on what may be rather than what is.

Experts at the intuitive problem-solving approach can rarely provide an accurate account of how they obtained their answers and may be unclear on what aspect of the problem they focused on before the insight.

Brainwriting

Brainwriting is a way to solve problems using intuition. Find a quiet spot and relax. Write out your particular challenge and concentrate on it for a few minutes.

Write down some pertinent questions about your challenge: What is in my best interest? What should I do? Are there other alternatives? Which alternative is preferred? And so on. And wait for the answer. 

It may come as a voice in your mind, or you may seem to be communicating with someone else. Try to write down your answers as they come. Don’t analyze or think. Write whatever occurs to you. Keep asking questions, and keep writing the responses until the responses stop. Finally, read and review what you have written. The answer to your challenge may be there.

Summary

Strive to be aware of your intuition daily. Think about choices you have made and observe how you recognized the answer. Try making some simple choices you haven’t made before. 

Practice will help you when you don’t have the time to do a deep analysis and make a quick decision and accept the consequences. 

 

Create New Concepts Before Your Competitors Do 

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Design thinking aims to create new thoughts about the solution or answer we seek and then visualize and shape those thoughts into concepts that will result in new strategies or tactics. It is how we solve problems and create new or improved sources of revenue.  

Wikipedia defines concepts as abstract ideas or general notions occurring in our minds, speech, or thoughts. A concept is challenging to describe, but we need to look for them, design them and use them. This discussion is based on information from Edward de Bono and his books on thinking.

A concept consists of two parts: the concept and its implementation. Concepts are essential but very difficult to generate. However, In hindsight, almost all successful concepts seem obvious.

An idea is how you put a concept into action. For example, traveling along the road is a concept. Still, you have to do something specific in practice, such as walking, riding a bike, or driving a car.

 A Concept vs. Perception

There is a difference between perception and a concept. Perception is seeing a group of things when we look at the world we haven’t named, like flowers or mountains. A concept is a group of things with a purpose or benefit like sales tax, traffic control, or a restaurant.  

There are some exceptions. The restaurant is both a description and a concept, it sells people food, and there’s a place to eat it. The purpose and benefit are apparent. 

Forming concepts

With perception, we can only receive information in the patterns that we have already formed. So, an analysis of data is unlikely to create new concepts. However, we can select from concepts we already have. However, you can form a new concept by modifying or improvement of an existing concept. Also, a simple piece of information can give rise to many concepts, but they will come from concepts we already have in our minds.

The critical point is the need to do conceptual work in our head and not just wait for information to provide concepts because that is unlikely to happen.

Business use of concepts

Many businesses are impatient with concepts and prefer “doing things rather than thinking.” However, the world is getting crowded with products and services, so creating new concepts is critical as we move into the future.  

A new concept is unquestionably the best and cheapest way of getting added value out of existing resources. Businesses have been approaching concept development haphazardly. They wait for someone else to develop the concept and then jump in with a similar copy.

In the future, we must take concepts more seriously. Major companies spend billions on technical research, but new concept creation is as important as technical resources. 

Conclusion

Learning how to analyze information and make decisions is not going to be enough. These skills are necessary for maintenance management in a competitive market. But, in a globally competitive market, you need to shift part of your focus to conceptual thinking in addition to analysis and decision making. 

Why? Because analysis of information can never yield the concepts hidden in data. Also, we now know from the research into self-organizing information systems like our mind, we know what we need to do to get creative concepts.

Also, because the brain was not designed to be creative, we have to use methods that are “not natural,” like the random word method, to generate innovative concepts.

For a quick start to creating new concepts, check out the information on the Random Word method to get creative concepts and ideas. It is easy and powerful.

 

Creative Results From Your Team  

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Creative Results From Your Team

As someone who has been in many “brainstorming” sessions, I can’t tell you they don’t work, but I can tell you they don’t work as well as some other methods. The Six Hats method makes much more sense. It is easy to use, structured to include everyone, and the processes make the meetings more productive.

The Six Hats method allows us to think in parallel to explore a subject in a constructive rather than an adversarial way. 

The Six Hats method of thinking, created by Edward de Bono, author, and professor, challenges all those at the meeting to fully use their minds and not just negatively. Someone who is against an idea being discussed is expected to honestly and objectively still see the values in the proposed concept.

The framework of the six hats might seem to complicate discussions and make the meetings last much longer. But the opposite is true. The use of the six hats method significantly reduces meeting time. Sessions progress in a natural, orderly way from getting initial information to creating concepts and ideas. 

After using this method a few times, you will be able to get many creative ideas in a setting that is not only productive but also team-building. Plus, you will get results in a fraction of the time it usually takes for such a meeting. 

Following are the six hats:

 The Blue Hat is the person who organizes and controls the meeting.  It is used right at the beginning of a discussion to decide the focus and what sequence of hats the session will use. The conference does not have to be conducted in the order presented here, but this order is the most logical progression. The blue hat reminds people of the hat in use during the meeting if they stray away for some reason. The Blue Hat is also used at the end of the outcome, summary, and next steps.  

The White Hat is concerned with information.  What information do we have? What information is missing? What information do we need – and how are we going to get it?  If conflicting information is put forward, there is no argument. Both versions are put down in parallel and then discussed when that information needs to be used. 

Red Hat has to do with feelings, emotions, and intuition. Under the Red Hat, all participants are invited to put forward their feelings. In a regular discussion, you can only put forward these things if they are disguised as logic. There is no need to justify or explain them. They exist and can therefore be put forward. The Red Hat is very brief and simply allows these things to get out on the table.  

Black Hat is for critical thinking. What is wrong with the idea? What are its weaknesses? The black hat looks at the downside, why something will not work, the risks, and dangers. All the negative comments made during a meeting are concentrated under the Black Hat. The Black Hat is beneficial, but it has a defined time and place.   

Yellow Hat focuses on the positive. What are the benefits? How could it be done? What is the value? Traditionally, our education is primarily about critical thinking. We are never really exposed to developing forward-thinking concepts. For example, the ability to find value in anything, even things we do not like and will not use. Nevertheless, we should, honestly and objectively, find value in things. Without sensitivity to value, creativity can be a waste of time.

Green Hat is directly concerned with creativity. When the Green Hat is in use, participants are expected to make a creative effort or keep quiet. Most people do not like keeping quiet, so they make an effort. This effort means looking for new ideas. It means considering alternatives, both the obvious ones and new ones. It means generating possibilities. It means modifying and changing a suggested idea, possibly through the use of lateral thinking tools.

Conclusion

That is all there is. A simple method that allows everyone to think together to explore a subject and generate new concepts and ideas on how to move forward in a constructive rather than an adversarial way.  

Try to use this method in a small group first, so you get the hang of it. It may take a couple of times to get it right. But, once you have the method down, it’s easy to use and productive.

Let us know how it works for you.

 

 

 

 

The Random Word Technique/A Creative Tool For New Ideas

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It is our perceptions that control emotions, and emotions control behavior. If your perception changes, you have no choice; your emotions and behavior will change also. The random word technique helps you change your perspective, so you see concepts and new ideas differently.  

The mechanism of the mind

We can now base thinking on the way the mind works. In Edward de Bono’s book, “mechanisms of the mind,”  he describes the mind as a self-organizing system. Based on this self-organizing system, he designed the lateral thinking process.

The asymmetric patterning behavior of all human minds gives us creativity and humor. That is why we have excellent thinking (landing on the moon, fly faster than sound, computers, etc.) The interaction of our asymmetric mind is what gives us the ability to do creative thinking.

Perception

Perception is far more important than logic. Logic is excellent but not enough. 

We have made significant achievements in science, technology, and engineering. We need to supplement our existing thinking methods with perceptual thinking, creative thinking, and design thinking.  

The formal tools of lateral thinking

Lateral thinking means moving across established patterns of thought instead of moving along them. For example,  if there is an obvious route in one direction, we are naturally blocked from taking other unknown ways. (The dominant pattern).

The lateral thinking tool requires that we block the obvious path (A to B). It may be the best way, but we will seek alternatives (drilling oil wells from vertical to horizontal, for example).

Focus is important:  

What do you want to focus questions? What problem do you want to solve? Where do you want new ideas? There are two types of focus:

Purpose focus: a problem to solve, a process to simplify, a conflict to resolve, a product to improve. Etc.

Area focus: the general area in which you want new ideas. This area could be the market, the industry, or your market niche, for example. The random word tool is very useful for area focus because it works even with no defined starting point. 

The focus area may be broad or narrow. You want new ideas about your focus objective (purpose or scope).  

                          C wallet

A______________________________B

                         Restaurant

Therefore, to get new ideas, you need to get your mind off the traditional path A to B (the pattern already in your mind) and move laterally across the path to point C, a new starting point. For example, a random word disrupts the known pattern and asymmetrically opens your mind to a new pattern, pathway or idea.  

In the random word technique, point C would be a random word you connect mentally to the focused area. This process allows you to create multiple new concepts or ideas about your targeted focus area.

Select Random Words

Select the random words to use as your new starting points. There are several ways to get random words. One of the best ways is to use the dictionary. Open the dictionary to a random page and then put your finger on a random word and select the closest word (a noun). Choose about five more words. Write them down. 

Be sure you know the definition of each word because you will associate the characterizations of each word with your focus question  Work quickly through each of the words, but don’t judge your responses at this time. Each idea response represents the possibility of a great idea. You are going to spend about 5-10 minutes exploring each random word. 

For example, focus: on a new restaurant. 

Random word: wallet.

One concept would be a restaurant where people order food, pay immediately, and take the food elsewhere to eat vs. ordering in, eating the food at the restaurant, and only paying after eating. 

A restaurant where people are charged by the amount of time they spend at the restaurant. 

A restaurant known for one special, unique and expensive dish served at one particular time every day.  

Concepts

There can be functional or operational concepts to describe the way something is done. There are usually several levels of concept, from broad to detailed.

There can be value concepts (why is this a value?) Or purpose concepts (why are we doing this?) And descriptive concepts.

The importance of concepts is developing alternatives and new ideas by extracting the concept and looking for ways to deliver this concept through a specific idea. Ideas are the way of putting the concept into action.

Try it out

Try it on a focus of yours. The more you do, the more you learn and the more ideas you will get.

Let us know how this works for you or if you have any questions.

Top CEOs make good decisions just over half the time. You can do better.

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 Based on research conducted by McKinsey and Company, about 52% of decisions made by senior CEOs end up being good decisions. I would have guessed that number to be much higher. These are some of the most intelligent people in business, yet this is only slightly better than flipping a coin.  

We can all remember some of the spectacularly wrong decisions. Remember, “New Coke” lasted 79 days before being taken off the market. Or how about Ford’s Edsel car, which cost them 350 million dollars, was researched by many focus groups and then was shut down after 24 months.

As a business leader, you have to make many decisions under pressure and often without much time to think about them. So, how do you become a decision-maker that makes good decisions?.

You can read many books and articles that offer reasons why people make bad decisions and other books and articles on advice and models of making good decisions. Here are some examples from Jack Zenger in a Harvard Business Review article.  

Laziness; failure to gather input or check facts

Not anticipating unexpected results

Indecisiveness (little information or changing information)

Remaining locked in the past and using old data that may not be true today

Having no strategy alignment, meaning not being connected to the problem or strategy

Over-dependence on other people’s decisions

Isolation by not drawing in other’s opinions

Lack of technical depth

Others offer advice on setting up a model for decision-making. For example:

Define the problem (with clarity)

Identify the decision criteria

Develop the alternatives

Evaluate alternatives

Select the best alternatives

Here are a few thoughts from people we know are excellent decision-makers:

Colin Powel said never make a decision with less than 40% of the information you need, and never delay a decision once you have 70 percent of the information you think you need,

Steve Jobs would talk to his employees about a problem or opportunity and make an intuitive decision.   

Daniel Kahneman (author and professor) wrote a book on how we use our brains to think. In his excellent book, “Thinking Fast and Slow,” he talks about our fast brain, which gives us an immediate answer (there is a tiger in the bushes), and our slow brain, which provides us with an in-depth explanation based on all the information our brain has stored over time. 

But in the past few years, there is another way to think about decision-making based on our perceptions.

 Decision Making Based On Preceptions

We can look at decision-making from two perspectives: processing and perceptions. 

Processing is like putting all the ingredients together to make a meal. When we have the information, we have developed excellent methods for processing that information, including the following:

Mathematics

Statistics and probabilities

Computers and data processing

The production of the ingredients– for information processing– is the role of perception. 

It is a perception that organizes the world into Xs and Ys and then processes it with mathematics.

It is a perception that gives us the observations for propositions that we then handle with logic.

It is a perception that provides us with the words which we use to think about anything.

We have developed great processing systems, but we have done very little about perception because we have not understood perception.

It’s only recently that we have begun to understand the behavior of self–organizing information systems and self-organizing neural networks of our brains. This gave us the model to understand perception, humor, and creativity.

Creativity takes place in the perceptual phase of thinking, where we form perceptions and concepts. According to author Edward De Bono, Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic. Our emphasis has been on logic or truth rather than perception. With perception, we do not see the world as it is but as we perceive it and process this information over time. 

An example of perception vs. processing  

A group of young boys decided to pick on Johnny, one of the younger boys. They offered him two coins, a large coin worth two dollars and a smaller coin worth one dollar. Johnny picked the smaller coin, and the boys all laughed and teased him. They repeated this “trick” on Johnny several times. 

One day, an older man saw this and asked Johnny why he chose the smaller coin worth a dollar vs. the larger coin worth two dollars. Johnny’s response was. “how often would I have been offered more coins if I had taken the two-dollar coin initially?”

A computer programmed for value would have taken the two-dollar coin the first time. But it was Johnny’s human perception that allowed him to take a broader view and consider the possibility of repeat business.

This example was a complex example of clear perception; Johnny had to assess how often his friends would want to tease him, how many one-dollar coins they would be willing to lose, and how long before they realized what he was up to? There was also the risk factor involved here.

This example shows the difference between a computer and a human. The computer is given its perceptions and then processes the information. The human mind forms its perceptions by choosing to look at the world in a particular way.

,

However, we end up in our perception bubble — our own bias.

The logic bubble is that personal bubble of perceptions within which each person acts logically. The logic is correct, but if the perceptions are limited or faulty, the resulting action may be inappropriate.

Here is one way to broaden your perspective 

  1. Scan the plus points. 
  2. Then, the minus points. 
  3. And finally, the interesting facts.

Here is another story from Edward DeBono to illustrate this process. A class of 30 boys was offered the option of getting 5 dollars a week to attend school, and 29 of the 30 boys opted in. Then, in step two, the boys asked if the 5 dollars would have to be returned if their school work was unsatisfactory. The answer was yes. So, in step three, they all changed their minds.

 

 The comfort of logic vs. perception

We have always felt uncertain with perception and preferred processing logic. However, to make better decisions, we need to expand our view to see additional options. In the end, however, we have to come back to the world of logic to present ideas that are solid, workable, and of testable value.

But, our perception is also biased because we live in our own bubble. Therefore, we have to broaden our bubble to include, as much as possible, the perceptions of other people in our life, industry, market, and competitors to get the broadest possible perception of “what could be” before we make that decision. 

Broadening your worldview is critical to making great decisions. Ask yourself, What other perceptions are out there that we could use to our advantage?  

To make impactful, lasting decisions that move your company forward, you have to look at a broader picture than simply accepting information and processing it. 

 

How To Get Significantly Better Results In Less Time  

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Get Better Results In Less Time

No one has enough time, especially business executives. 

We always try to do more, learn more, and produce more. 

But there are only 1,440 minutes in a day, and no one gets more time, no matter who they are. 

But there are ways to get much more done and better if you know how to use your time correctly.

Start by asking yourself these questions.  

What do I love doing? 

What is my expertise? 

What do I hate doing? 

What do I do that isn’t a priority? 

Here is the first step if your goal is increased productivity and faster results. 

Get rid of the jobs you hate to do and those that are not a priority. 

If you hate doing them, you are probably not very good at them either. 

Plus, they take more time than they should. Time is not a renewable resource. 

Maybe someone in the company loves that kind of work and would be happy to do it. 

If not, hire someone from the outside to do it. That’s probably less expensive than you doing it. 

You have just saved time and used it on higher priority projects like driving revenues and profits. 

Wait, there is another way to use your time more effectively. 

What if you closed your office door, turned your phone and email off, and told people not to disturb you for three or four hours. 

The result would be no interruptions, no time-sucking chit-chat, no distractions from emails that were not critical, and more.

Imagine four hours free of disruption –every day –what you could accomplish with that much extra time. 

I’ll bet significantly more than twice as much.

Conclusion

Now, you can focus on the priority jobs where you have the expertise. 

That’s how you become an exceptional leader that gets results.  

Jim Zitek

Harbor Capital Group

P.S. Check out our website for more information on how to get results

P. P.S.It’s a short week so I made this short to save you time 🙂

 

 

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How Much Will People Pay For Your New Product?

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

How Much Will People Pay For Your New Product?

 

Most people believe their new product or service idea is a huge winner. But, to be sure, they tell some friends about the idea and ask what they think. Their friends, of course, have no idea but don’t want to hurt their feelings or be unnecessarily pessimistic. So they generally give a positive response to the idea.   

That is the wrong approach.

 Based on Rob Fitzpatrick’s experience as an entrepreneur, and several failing startups, he realized there was a better way 

and wrote a book titled, “The Mom Test.” that solved his problem.

Here is what he found out. To validate your problem, you have to interview people in your targeted market,

but you can not tell them what your product is.

That will bias their answer. Again, mainly in your favor.

People want to be friendly, and there are no consequences for their response as there is no product yet.  

You want to interview people about a subject other than your new product.

Then, during the interview, find a way to casually ask the person if they have the problem you think they do.

if they say yes, ask them how they dealt with the problem.   

Let them tell you exactly what the problem is

Let them tell you how serious the problem is and how they dealt with it.

The interviewee is now talking about his/her experience and giving you facts rather than opinions.

You need facts to make a go/no-go decision.

 Also, If the problem is serious, ask what it cost them (time, money, operational issues, etc.) to solve.

That will give you an idea of the price range you could charge.

Start with your  market representative list  

Get started by creating a list of about 30 people you can interview — that number would be statistically significant.

This is the kind of information you and your team will need to diagnose and create the solution.

Want even better product design ideas? 

You can now take this information as the basis for your diagnosis of the problem

and use your creative problem-solving skills to design an awesome product. 

See our blog post: How you can turn problems into opportunities.     

 The Next Step In Your Product Validation          

After you get your initial product or service designed, revisit people in the targeted market,

This time with your solution to see if they are willing to pay for your problem-solution fit.  

Conclusion

Don’t ask how much they would be willing to pay for your solution.

Ask them how they are solving the problem now and what they are paying to solve the problem including time delays, workarounds, performance, etc.

That will give you an idea of what you could look at in terms of the price range.

Jim Zitek l Harbor Capital Group

P.S. You can get more information about validating your new product idea by going to our website

and downloading our free report “ Learn The 4 Secrets That Guarantee Problem-Solution Fit.”

 P.P.S. If you know someone who could also use this information, please pass this on to them.

  

Leverage Strategy Through Inertia and Entropy

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

In business, inertia is a company’s unwillingness or inability to adapt to changing circumstances. 

Even with change programs in place and running, it can take a long time to change direction, and for large companies, it could take many years to change the way the company functions. If you recognize this inertia early, you can add leverage to your strategy. 

Why? Organizational inertia is the reason. A well-adapted corporation can remain healthy and efficient as long as the outside world remains unchanged. 

But another force– entropy — is also at work. Entropy measures an organization’s degree of disorder and increases in isolated systems or organizations.  

According to Richard Rumelt, Professor and author, companies with inertia and entropy tend to become less focused. Consequently, it is necessary for leaders to constantly maintain their company’s purpose and methods, even if there are no changes in competition. Inertia and entropy can have several important implications for strategy:

  1. Successful strategies often owe a great deal of their success to the inertia and inefficiency of rivals. For example, Netflix pushed past and now bankrupt blockbuster because the latter could not or would not abandon its focus on retail stores. 
  2. A company’s most significant challenge may not be external threats or opportunities but the effects of inertia and entropy. In such a situation, organizational renewal becomes a priority. 
  3. Transforming a complex organization is an intensely strategic challenge. Leaders must diagnose the cause of effects of entropy and inertia, create a sensible guiding policy for effecting change, and design a set of coherent actions designed to alter routines, culture, and structure of power and influence.

Inertia

Organizational inertia generally falls into three categories: the inertia of routine, cultural inertia, and inertia by proxy. Each has different implications for those who wish to reduce inertia or those who seek to gain by attacking a less responsive rival.

The inertia of routine

The heartbeat of a business is the rhythm and pulse of its standard procedures for buying, processing, and marketing goods. The company may not be consciously aware of these actions but is guided by them nonetheless. As the company grows in size and age, these routines become embedded in layer upon layer of impacted knowledge and experience. It’s the way things are done here.

These familiar routines both filter and shape everyday actions and filter and shape managers’ perceptions of issues. These standard routines and methods also act to preserve the old ways of processing information.

Sudden outside shocks can reveal inertia created by standard routines: a big jump in the price of oil, or a technology invention or, telecommunications deregulation, and so on. The shock changes the basis of competition, creating a significant gap between the old routines and the needs of the new regime.

With a sudden change like deregulation and leadership is convinced change is necessary, routines can change quickly. One way is to hire people with the essential skills, hire consultants, or re-design your routines. You may also have to re-organize business units. 

The inertia of culture

The problem may not be the competence of individuals but of culture. The use of the word culture means the elements of social behavior which tend to be stable and strongly resist change. It’s unrealistic to believe you can change a company’s culture quickly or easily.

The first step in breaking cultural inertia is a simplification. Think about complex routines, processes, waste, and inefficiency. Strip out any unnecessary administration or operations or outsource some services. A more straightforward structure will expose inefficiency. 

After you have made initial changes, it may be necessary to break down operating units to analyze each unit in-depth and use creative thinking to improve the situation further. You may even need a new structure or business model. You will want to look at both performance and culture. Also, remember that changing units can also change work norms and related values.

Inertia by proxy

The lack of response is not always an indication of sticky routines or a frozen culture. A business may decide not to respond to change or attack because responding might undermine values and profit streams. The streams of profit persist because of customer inertia, a form of inertia by proxy. 

For example, in 1980, the prime interest rate was 20%, and banks were free to create money market accounts. With this new freedom, smaller banks jumped at the opportunity to develop these high-interest deposit accounts. However, larger banks with long-established customers id not, 

Smaller and newer banks seeking retail growth were happy to offer this new type of high-interest deposit account. But many other banks with long-established customers did not. If their customers had been perfectly agile, quickly searching for and switching to the highest interest accounts, they would’ve had to offer higher interest accounts or disappear. But their customers were not this agile.

However, when an organization decides that adapting to change is more important than hanging onto profit streams, everything can change suddenly.  

 Entropy

It is not hard to see entropy at work. For example, with the passage of time, great works of art blur and crumble; unless a skilled artisan can restore the artwork. In a business where the firm is not keeping its product line up to date, it can begin to crumble also. The product often becomes less focused and reduces prices, customer response times may have become longer, and eventually, profits decline.

An excellent example of entropy is General Motors. They blurred the designs of their cars, brands, and divisions. They were essentially offering the exact vehicle under several model brand names. In 2001 they closed the Oldsmobile line of cars because Oldsmobile lost any distinction in either style or price.   

Remember, product-market fit is not a permeate status. In this Covid environment, think about how digital products are being created and changing how we live and work. Are you keeping up with technology and changing preferences?   

What policies are you going to put in place to guard against inertia and entropy?