Vertical thinking helps you build ideas in a logical, step-by-step way.

These techniques help you examine ideas carefully, narrow your options, solve problems step by step, and turn rough ideas into real solutions.

1. Analysis

Break a concept or problem into smaller parts so you can look at each one clearly.

This helps you find causes, strengths, weaknesses, and understand how everything fits together.

For example, you could break a business idea into customer needs, pricing, production costs, and competition.

2. Selection

Pick the most practical option from your choices.

This helps you sort through ideas and highlight the best ones.

For example, if you have five product ideas, you could pick the one with the highest demand and lowest risk. Follow the ideas step by step so each one leads to the next.

This approach works well for planning and making decisions.

For example, you might identify the problem, gather information, compare your options, choose a solution, and then test it.

3. Evaluation

Judge ideas using clear criteria like cost, value, and practicality. This helps you decide if an idea should be improved, changed, or dropped.

For example, you might evaluate a new service idea by asking whether customers need it, whether it can be profitable, and whether it can be delivered efficiently.

4. Group information together to make it easier to understand and compare.

This helps you organize research, market segments, or product features.

For example, you could group customers by age, income, habits, or location.

Compare your options to find differences, advantages, or better choices.

For example, you could compare two brands by looking at their prices, quality, and target customers.

5. Refinement

Improve an idea by making small corrections or adjustments over time.

This helps you polish ideas so they work in real situations.

Now that you know the main techniques, let’s look at how vertical thinking works in real situations.

You can use vertical thinking to turn ideas into practical solutions. It helps you solve problems in an organized way.

• Make decisions based on evidence.
• Improve existing products or plans.
• Reduce risk before taking action.
• Turn creative ideas into market-ready solutions.

Some popular vertical thinking techniques include 5 Whys, Pareto Analysis, and SCAMPER.

Each one gives you a structured way to solve problems.

1. 5 Whys

With this technique, you ask “why?” several times, usually five, to find the root cause of a problem.

1. Ask why it happened.
2. For each answer, ask why again.
3. Keep going until you find the real cause.

Example:

• Sales dropped.
• Why? Customers were unhappy.
• Why? Delivery was late.
• Why? Production was delayed.
• Why? A supplier failed.
• Why? There was no backup supplier.

Use: problem solving, quality control, process improvement.

2. Pareto Analysis

This technique uses the 80/20 rule, which means a few causes often account for most of the results or problems.

How it works:

1. List all the problems or causes.
2. Measure how often each one occurs or how much impact it has.
3. Rank them from biggest to smallest. Focus on the few causes with the greatest impact.

Example: A company finds that 80% of customer complaints come from only two service issues. Fixing those first gives the greatest improvement.

Use: prioritizing problems, decision-making, and resource allocation.

3. SCAMPER

SCAMPER helps you improve ideas by looking at them from seven angles: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, and Reverse or Rearrange. These questions help you find new options and better solutions.

Substitute: replace one part with another. Combine: join two ideas or features. Adapt: borrow from another idea. Modify: change the size, shape, or quality. Put to other uses: use it in a different way. Eliminate: remove unnecessary parts. Reverse or Rearrange: change the order or direction.

Example: For a water bottle:

• Substitute plastic with steel.
• Combine the bottle with a filter.
• Adapt from sports bottles.
• Modify size for travel.
• Put to other uses as a thermos.
• Eliminate the extra pack.
• Reverse the design to make cleaning easier.

Use: improving products, generating structured variations, and innovating.

Conclusion

Vertical thinking techniques use logic—such as analysis, selection, reasoning, evaluation, comparison, classification, and refinement—to turn ideas into solutions. These creative methods help you analyze, refine, and improve ideas in a structured way. They are especially helpful when you already have a concept or problem to work with.

 

 

​The process of transforming abstract concepts into innovative ideas is central to creative thinking. Understanding this process involves examining how creative techniques reveal the inherent flexibility of concepts. Rather than maintaining a single, stable meaning, concepts are shown to shift according to context, perspective, comparison, or interpretation.

This is the main change:

• People often see a concept as something stable and general that applies to everyone in every situation. Examples are beauty, justice, success, or truth.
• A relative idea views the same concept in a new way, so its meaning changes depending on who sees it, where, when, and under what conditions.

Creative techniques question the belief that concepts have only one meaning.

1. Changing perspective

Think of a writer, artist, or designer who brings a concept to life by seeing it from a different angle. When the perspective shifts, the idea changes as well.

For example, freedom can feel exciting and empowering to one person, but might cause fear for someone else. Seeing different perspectives makes the concept unique to each person instead of universal.

2. Using contrast

Creative work often develops when two versions of an idea are compared side by side.

Comparing wealth and poverty can change how we define success. This shows that success depends on circumstances and values, not just money.

3. Metaphor is also an effective means of creative thinking. 

Metaphors help us reshape abstract concepts by connecting them to something concrete. For example, if we call time a thief, it suggests time steals moments. If we call it a river, it highlights flow and change. Each metaphor adds new meaning and shows how the image we choose forms our understanding.t.

4. Context does more than influence meaning.

 It can completely change it. An action might seem heroic in one situation but reckless in another. Details like setting, tone, and framing make these ideas highly context-dependent.

5. Inviting interpretation

Creative works often leave some things mysterious instead of explaining everything clearly.

Ambiguity, irony, open endings, and layered imagery invite the audience to find their own meaning. This makes the concept more flexible instead of fixed.

Simple example: Home.

Creative techniques can turn it into different ideas, such as:

• home as safety
• home as confinement
• home as memory
• home as exile
• Home is still the same concept, but its meaning changes depending on the emotional, social, or cultural lens.

Creative techniques turn notions into relative ideas by using perspective, contrast, metaphor, context, and interpretation. This means meaning depends on relationships, not just fixed definitions.

​Now, let’s look at some key creative thinking strategies:

Vertical thinking relies on logic and structure. Lateral thinking uses creativity and new methods to turn concepts into marketable ideas.

Vertical thinking

Vertical thinking is like a careful builder. It is logical, works step by step, and always checks before making a move. idea by following definite steps, testing evidence, improving details, and improving what already exists.

In business, vertical thinking turns a concept into a product, plan, or strategy by asking questions such as “What works?“ What is realistic? How can this improve? It is especially good for evaluation, planning, risk reduction, and execution.

Lateral thinking 

In innovation, lateral thinking transforms concepts by asking questions such as: What if we approached this differently? Who else could this help? 

For example, Edward de Bono, who developed the lateral thinking technique and coined the term, encouraged the generation of new ideas by deliberately moving beyond standard patterns of thought. 

A classic example of lateral thinking is using a brick not just for building but also as a paperweight or a doorstop, demonstrating how unconventional uses can emerge from re-examining the concept’s potential applications.

This is where new possibilities appear. Lateral thinking opens up many options.

These creative techniques can work together

Vertical thinking then sorts through creative ideas and shapes them into workable plans. For example, if the concept is home delivery, lateral thinking might suggest meal kit subscriptions, 10-minute grocery apps, or delivery of pet medication. Hacks cost, demand, logistics, and customer fit to decide which idea can actually succeed.

Many sources say these approaches work well together. Lateral thinking creates new possibilities by generating diverse ideas, while vertical thinking improves them by carefully evaluating and refining them toward practical solutions. psychologyfor.com oventhal.com

Conclusion

Vertical and lateral thinking are the main ways to turn concepts into marketable ideas. Lateral thinking sparks originality, while vertical thinking turns those initial ideas into solutions that work in the market. This is one of three blog posts about transforming concepts into creative ideas.

People often think creativity is just about sudden inspiration, but strong ideas usually come from clear and disciplined concepts.

A concept helps you organize what you notice in the market. It lets you spot patterns, identify opportunities, and understand customer needs, behaviors, and frustrations. Without clear concepts, creativity can lose focus. Teams might come up with ideas, but those ideas are often too broad, random, or easy for others to copy.

That’s why concepts give creativity its direction.

For example, instead of just saying, “We need a new service idea,” it’s more helpful to say, “We’re seeing more time-poor clients who want expert support without a complicated buying process.” That’s a concept. Once you have that, better ideas tend to follow.

Rather than brainstorming in general, teams can design offers that fit that specific market need:

• simplified premium packages
• faster onboarding
• expert-led guidance
• priority response models
• subscription-based advisory support

This link between clear concepts and focused innovation is why concepts matter so much for turning creativity into results. They help businesses move from vague ideas to real, relevant innovation.

Concepts help in four key ways:

• First, concepts help spot patterns. They let businesses focus on what really matters in the market, rather than just reacting to random bits of data.
• Second, concepts create focus. They give creative thinking a clear goal, so idea generation becomes more strategic.
• Third, concepts help businesses stand out. They make it easier to design products or services that meet real customer needs instead of relying on general assumptions.
• Fourth, concepts make ideas easier to act on. A strong concept can turn into a product, service, message, or experience that customers actually value.

In short, concepts connect insight to action.

This is important because creativity by itself isn’t enough. Many companies can come up with ideas, but far fewer turn those ideas into real business advantages. The difference often comes down to having clear concepts.

When businesses use strong concepts, they can ask better questions, like:

• What customer group are we really serving?
• What needs are competitors overlooking?
• What friction can we remove?
• What would make this offer feel more specific, useful, or distinctive?

That’s ultimately where better ideas start.

Conclusion

To sum up, creativity works best when it’s not just original but also relevant. Concepts make this possible. They add structure to what you notice, guide your ideas, and bring discipline to innovation.

If a company wants creativity to deliver real business value, it can’t just depend on inspiration. It needs concepts that sharpen thinking, guide action, and turn market insights into ideas customers actually want.

Concepts are what turn creativity into something useful.

 

 

Insight: The Power To See Opportunities Differently

Every successful company experiences a moment when information turns into understanding. Data, feedback, and observation come together to reveal what customers really need. That moment is called an insight.

Insights change how companies design, build, and deliver their products and services. They replace guesswork with strategy and help turn ordinary products into real solutions.

What Insights Really Are

An insight is more than a fact or statistic. It is a deeper understanding that explains why people act a certain way or why something happens. For example, knowing that customers leave their carts is just a fact. Realizing they do it because shipping costs show up too late in the checkout process is an insight. This reveals the cause and shows how to improve.

Insights connect two areas: the world of data and the world of human feelings, motivation, and context.

Why Insights Matter for Business Growt

1. Insights reveal what customers value

Companies often think they know what matters most to their users. But real insights come when organizations look beyond what customers say and uncover what they really mean or feel.

This clear understanding helps teams focus on features, messages, or new ideas that meet real needs, not just what they think people want.

2. Insights enable creativity

When a team finds an unmet need or a problem people have ignored, it can lead to creative solutions. Many great products come from seeing old problems in a new way, not just from new technology. 3.

3. Insights focus on what really matters.

Insights help organizations focus on what really matters. Without them, teams might waste time on the wrong features or follow the wrong numbers. A good insight helps everyone use their time, money, and energy wisely.

4. Insights improve customer experience and loyalty

When a company uses real insights, its products and services become easier to use and more helpful. Customers feel understood, which builds trust and makes things run more smoothly. This connection can turn first-time buyers into loyal fans.

Turning Data Into Insights

Data is important, but it is not enough on its own. Companies collect large amounts of information, such as sales numbers, engagement rates, and survey responses. But data only matters when you understand it in context.

The best companies make this process part of their culture. They encourage teams to be both analytical and curious.

The Competitive Advantage of Insight

Insights drive progress in any business. They turn observations into action, clear up confusion, and help create useful innovations. Companies that learn to find and use insights not only improve their products, but also change how they understand their customers.

Jim Zitek

I help companies create a competitive advantage in 90-days

 

Stop Fighting Your Competitors

It’s now possible to create a competitive advantage in just 90 days using my Insight-concept-competitive advantage process.

Most companies are fighting the wrong battle. They obsess over competitors—tracking features, matching prices, copying tactics—while margins erode. The result is a race to the middle: more effort, less leverage, and no lasting advantage.

There’s a better way.  

True competitive advantage isn’t something you outspend or outlast your competitors to achieve. It’s something you design—systematically, deliberately, and faster than most leaders think possible.

The Insight → Concept → Competitive Advantage framework does exactly that. It replaces reactive competition with an intentional advantage in 90 days. 

Insight: Diagnose the Real Problem 

Most strategies fail because they’re built on surface-level assumptions: customer requests, market averages, or competitor benchmarks.

Insight is different. Insight is a rigorous diagnosis. It uses vertical thinking—analysis, decomposition, cause-and-effect—to uncover what’s actually happening beneath the symptoms:

• Where value is leaking
• Why customers behave the way they do
• Which constraints truly limit growth or pricing power
• Where competitors are structurally vulnerable 

This phase doesn’t generate ideas. It clarifies where an advantage is possible. Without insight, creativity is guesswork.

 Concept: Create What Competitors Can’t Easily Copy

Once the real problem is clear, creativity becomes focused and productive. There are nineteen different individual creative techniques included under vertical and lateral thinking. Concepts are generated by combining:

• Vertical creativity (logic, evaluation, feasibility, economics)
• Lateral creativity (reframing, provocation, analogies, non-obvious connections)

This is where most companies stumble. They rely on brainstorming or incremental thinking and mistake activity for innovation.

Concept development, done correctly, produces:

• New ways to deliver value customers didn’t ask for—but immediately recognize
• Offers that change the basis of comparison
• Solutions competitors can’t quickly reverse-engineer 

Concepts are not ideas for ideas’ sake. They are testable strategic options designed to become an advantage.

 Competitive Advantage: Design It, Then Deploy It

A competitive advantage exists only when customers consistently choose you for a reason competitors can’t neutralize. In the final phase, concepts are:

• Scored
• Tested
• Refined
• Deployed 

The focus is speed and proof. Within 90 days, leaders can move from insight to a live, market-facing advantage—often in pricing power, differentiation, cost structure, or perceived value. This isn’t theory. Its execution.

Stop Competing. Start Inventing.

When you stop fighting competitors and start designing an advantage, everything changes:

• Strategy becomes clearer
• Creativity becomes practical
• Growth becomes intentional

Insight → Concept → Competitive Advantage isn’t about keeping up. It’s about getting ahead—and staying there.

If you would like to learn more about turning sales problems into solutions that deliver a competitive advantage. Let’s have a short phone call. No obligations.

Jim Zitek

jzitek@harborcapitalgroupinc.com

How to Stop Guessing and Start Diagnosing

Most strategy failures don’t stem from poor execution. They begin with untested assumptions.

An assumption is when you believe something is true without having proof. An insight is a proven understanding that leads you to act differently.

To build a real competitive advantage, you need to turn assumptions into insights.

Why Assumptions Are Dangerous

Assumptions may seem efficient, but they create three main risks:

• Misallocated resources: You end up solving the wrong problem.
• False certainty: Leaders stop asking questions.
• Strategic drift: The company creates solutions based on faulty logic.

Ultimately, they become just like everyone else.

What Is the 5-Whys Technique?

The 5 Whys is a root-cause analysis method popularized in the Toyota Production System. The idea is simple:

1. State the problem.
2. Ask “Why?”
3. Take the answer and ask “Why?” again.
4. Repeat five times (or until you identify the root caThe goal isn’t just to ask five questions. 

The real aim is to dig deep. Here’s an example: Assumption vs. Insight.

• Why are sales down? → Customers hesitate at the quote stage.
• Why do they hesitate? → They compare us to lower-priced competitors.
• Why do they compare? → They don’t see meaningful differentiation.
• Why not? → Our value story isn’t clear.
• Why isn’t it clear? → Sales messaging focuses on specs, not outcInsight: The real issue isn’t price, but how customers see our differences. This insight changes everything, from messaging and positioning to sales training and product strategy. 

Benefits of Turning Assumptions into Insights

When used correctly, the 5 Whys and similar root-cause methods can increase strategic accuracy: you fix the real causes, not just the symptoms.

• Reduce political bias: It shifts the discussion from opinions to real questions.
• Strengthen Competitive Advantage

You find gaps in differentiation that your competitors haven’t noticed.

How to Put Your Insight into Action: The Concept to Advantage Model

Use the 5 Whys to get past surface-level explanations.

1. Insight phase: Identify the main root causes. You can’t gain real insight if you don’t challenge your assumptions.
2. Concept phase: Once you identify the root causes, use various techniques to develop solutions.
3. Advantage phase: Test your ideas and weigh the costs and benefits.

Conclusion

Here’s the hard truth: Most leaders don’t ask “Why?” often enough. They jump to “What should we do?” That’s the wrong order. Diagnose first, then design.

Assumptions feel safe, while insights can be uncomfortable. But a real competitive advantage comes from pushing past that discomfort.

If you want pricing power, higher margins, or real strategic differentiation, you need to challenge what you think you know. Start by asking one question: Why?

Have a great day,

Jim Zitek

I turn sales problems into creative solutions that 

deliver a competitive advantage.

 

Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats is a helpful method for group discussions and personal thinking. It asks you to consider a problem or decision from six different viewpoints, each represented by a colored hat.

Use Six Thinking Hats to make quick, balanced decisions and run efficient meetings, especially when people have different personalities or when the stakes are high. While other tools help with what you discuss, Six Hats improves how you think together for better results.

​Try Six Thinking Hats when meetings get stuck because people are thinking in different ways, have conflicting biases, or face tough choices. It does not replace detailed research or special tools, but it helps groups make faster, stronger, and more widely supported decisions.

When groups take turns using each hat, they are encouraged to see different points of view. This helps avoid groupthink and leads to better decisions.

The Six Hats and Their Focus

The hats are covered in the order listed here. Whoever wears a hat leads that part of the meeting. The whole process usually takes about an hour.

1. White Hat: Neutrality & Facts

The White Hat stands for neutral, objective, and data-driven thinking. It is about gathering information and looking at facts without making judgments.

• “What data do we have?”
• “What are the known facts and what is still unknown?”
• “What information might we need to look up or verify?”

2. Red Hat: Emotions & Intuition

The Red Hat stands for emotional viewpoints, feelings, and gut instincts. It encourages people to share their emotions and first reactions openly.

• “What is my gut feeling about this?”
• “Does anything here make me uneasy or excited?”
• “What’s my first, instinctive response?”

3. Black Hat: Critical Judgment & Caution

The Black Hat stands for critical, careful, and risk-aware thinking. It is used to spot possible problems, dangers, or negative outcomes.

• “What could go wrong here?”
• “What is the downside of this idea?”
• “Have we identified any flaws or weaknesses?”

4. Yellow Hat: Optimism & Benefits

The Yellow Hat stands for positive, constructive, and solution-focused thinking. It is about looking for benefits, opportunities, and good results.

• “What are the advantages?”
• “Why could this idea be worthwhile?”
• “What opportunities or possibilities might this create?”

5. Green Hat: Creativity & Alternatives

The Green Hat stands for creative thinking, new ideas, and possibilities. It is used for brainstorming and exploring fresh solutions.new ideas, can we generate?”

• “Could we combine or modify existing concepts in an innovative way?”
• “How else can we think about this problem?”

6. Blue Hat: Process & Control

The Blue Hat stands for organization, facilitation, and thinking about the process itself. It helps manage the meeting, set goals, sum up key points, and plan what to do next.

• “What is our goal or agenda?”
• “How should we allocate our time?”
• “Let’s summarize what has been discussed.”

How You Use this Technique in Your Meeting

Introduction and Guidelines

A facilitator, usually wearing the Blue Hat, explains what each hat is for and ensures everyone understands the goal: to examine a challenge from every angle in a structured way.

Sequential Thinking

The group or individual. Everyone wears the same hat at the same time. For example, the whole group starts by focusing on facts with the White Hat, then moves together to emotions with the Red Hat. Each hat keeps everyone focused on the same type of thinking. For example, with Red Hat, everyone pays attention to feelings, and emotional input is not ignored; with one, emotional input is dismissed as irrelevant.

This shared focus helps avoid confusion or conflict about whether it’s okay to voice concerns, be critical, or propose wild ideas.

Summaries and Action Plans

Throughout the Blue Hat tracks, the group should fully understand the problem, including its facts, emotions, risks, benefits, and creative solutions. The main results will include a clear list of insights for decision-making, specific action steps, and actionable items to move forward.

Effectiveness and People often bring their own biases to discussions. By using all the hats in order, you ensure that essential viewpoints, such as facts, emotions, risks, and creativity, are included. Emotions, risks, and creativity are considered.

Reduces Conflict and Miscommunication

Usually, different thinking styles can clash in group discussions. The Six Hats method avoids this by giving each style its own time, so pessimistic and optimistic views are shared in separate steps.

Promotes Creativity

The Green Hat phase is when the group is encouraged to brainstorm and share unusual ideas. This ensures creative thinking is not blocked by early criticism or by excessive focus on data. Provides Clear Structure

Labeling each phase keeps the discussion organized and helps participants understand the purpose of each round.

Reduces Groupthink

Groupthink can happen when teams want to agree too much. The Six Hats method makes sure every viewpoint, even negative ones, is considered. This helps avoid herd mentality and leads to better analysis.

Enhances Emotional Intelligence

The Red Hat allows people to share their feelings, which are often left out in regular meetings. This builds empathy and helps make decisions that connect better with everyone involved. Practical Applications

Business Meetings and Strategy Sessions:

Teams use the Six Hats to explore new product ideas, analyze market data, or solve complex organizational problems.

Project Planning:

Before launching a project, teams can cycle through each hat to identify potential risks, gather data, and brainstorm improvements.

Personal Decision-Making: 

Individuals can apply the hats informally to weigh pros and cons, emotions, and data when making major life decisions.

Other Considerations  

Training and Familiarity: The method works best when everyone understands each hat and tries to think from that viewpoint. A brief introduction is helpful. Management: Set specific time limits for each hat to keep the discussion balanced and moving.

Facilitation:  Having a neutral Blue Hat facilitator is especially important for larger groups or complex topics.

Ability:  While the classic approach cycles through all hats, facilitators can adjust the order or spend longer on some hats as needed.

Overall Assessment of Effectiveness

Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats is well known for its clear structure, which helps people think creatively, critically, and with emotional awareness.

By separating thinking styles—fact-finding, emotional, critical, positive, creative, managerial—the method encourages thorough exploration and strength. 

At first, the method may feel forced, but many people find that once the team gets used to it, it dramatically improves productivity, clarity, creativity, and decision-making.  

 

Jim Zitek

I turn complex product problems into creative solutions

 with a Competitive Advantage

Uncertainty is no longer just something to get through. Now, you can use it to your advantage.

Many CEOs view economic volatility as a threat. They worry about higher interest rates, unpredictable demand, slower sales cycles, tighter cash flow, and the pressure to do more with less.

Over the next two to three years, the most successful B2B companies will be led by people who see volatility as an advantage, not just a problem.

Volatility is more than turbulence. It changes the competitive landscape, giving bold companies a chance to act quickly while others hold back.

You can turn this uncertainty into an opportunity.

Why Volatility Creates an Opportunity for CEOs

Volatility affects your business in three main ways:

1. It exposes weaknesses in your company and your competitors. Inefficient processes, weak offerings, outdated models, and poor customer experience all become obvious under stress.
2. It changes customer behavior. Customers become more risk-averse, more value-driven, and more willing to switch providers if a better value appears.
3. It slows competitors down. Many CEOs freeze, cut investments, delay decisions, and lose confidence. This creates space for companies that act quickly to win a bigger share of the market.

Volatility reveals which companies are leaders and which are lagging.

First: Build a Volatility-Ready Strategy

To benefit from volatility, a CEO must first understand it. This requires clear thinking and strategy. Ask yourself questions like these on a regular basis:

A Revenue Resilience Diagnostics.  

• What revenue disappears if demand drops 10–20%?
• Which customers are vulnerable?
• Which offerings remain essential?

A Cost Flexibility Review

• How quickly can we move from fixed costs to variable costs?
• Where can we simplify our operations without losing value?
• If customers had to cut budgets today, would they keep us?
• Why? Why not?

A Competitor Stress Analysis

• What will competitors do under pressure?
• Where can we advance while they retreat?

This process helps CEOs clearly see their weaknesses, risks, and opportunities. It prepares them to take decisive, strategic action.

Preparation alone is not enough. Creativity is what turns preparation into a real advantage.

Creativity: The CEO’s Secret Weapon in Volatile Markets

Volatility requires creativity and fresh ideas to find new ways to grow. Both vertical and lateral thinking are essential now.

Creativity is more than catchy slogans or brainstorming. It means finding new strategies that your competitors have not considered.

Here are three powerful creative levers a CEO can use:

1. Create Volatility-Specific Offerings

During uncertain times, customers value:

• Predictability
• Reduced risk
• Faster ROI
• Greater reliability
• Lower operational friction. 

Creative CEOs change their products and services to meet these needs. For example:

• Performance guarantees
• 90-day value delivery commitments
• Fixed-fee or inflation-protected contracts
• Proactive monitoring services
• Outcome-based pricing
• Bundled service + software + support packages

When customers are worried, they change how they buy. If your product or service helps them feel more secure, you can earn their loyalty and grow your market share.

2. Convert Internal Strengths Into a Value Monopoly

Most companies have hidden strengths they have never used to make money:

• Reliability
• Speed
• Technical expertise
• Service quality
• Industry knowledge
• Partnership networks

Lateral thinking helps you use these strengths to stand out. For example:

• “Zero-downtime guarantee”
• “Rapid deployment model”
• “Optimization audit service.”
• “Continuous improvement partnership. “Predictive performance dashboard elements help you build a strong, unique position in the market. They make you stand out and earn loyalty, especially in uncertain times.     

 

 3 Move While Competitors Freeze. 

The quickest way to gain an advantage is to act while others wait.

Volatility leads many companies to:

• Delay decisions
• Cut back on service
• Slow innovation
• Retreat from customer engagement
• Postpone strategic projects

This is the time for bold CEOs to:

• Launch new offerings
• Deepen customer relationships
• Expand advisory or strategic roles.
• Improve customer experience
• Gain wallet share
• Invest in innovation that your competitors cannot match.

Companies that change their strategies during uncertain times gain long-term advantages. Their willingness to act sets them apart from those who wait.

​How Volatility Creates Long-Term Competitive Advantage

Volatility gives CEOs a chance to build advantages that last long after things become stable again. Companies that innovate during these times can build:

• Differentiation: Unique offerings, service layers, and solutions competitors can’t replicate.
• Pricing Power: Volatility hurts companies that offer only basic products, while rewarding those that provide unique value.
• Increased Switching Costs: When you become essential during chaotic times, customers stay loyal.
• Internal Capability: By navigating volatility, companies become more agile, creative, and resilient.

Volatility speeds up change. Companies that adapt creatively now will keep their advantage, even after things settle down.

​A CEO Playbook for Turning Volatility Into Strength

Here is a simple, practical framework CEOs can use:

Step 1: Diagnose the Risks (Vertical Thinking). Understand revenue, costs, customers, and competitive vulnerabilities.

Step 2: Design New Solutions (Lateral Thinking). Create volatility-specific offerings that reduce customer uncertainty.

Step 3: Differentiate Deeply. Build value that competitors cannot copy or match.

Step 4: Strengthen Relationships. Be more present and more helpful than competitors during challenging conditions.

Step 5: Move Forward While Others Hold Back. Make bold moves when your competitors hesitate. This is how you build a real advantage.

Conclusion: 

Volatility does not create winners or losers. It shows who they are. It reveals them.

Companies that move first and create new value will capture lasting market share.

The companies that hesitate or wait for stability will fall further behind.

The CEOs who thrive in volatile conditions do three things better than anyone:

They prepare better.

They innovate faster.

They use volatility as an opportunity.

Take action now to build advantages your competitors will not see coming.

Jim Zitek

I turn complex product problems into successful solutions 

with a competitive advantage

 

In most B2B industries, business leaders tend to solve problems in similar ways. They examine data, brainstorm ideas, study competitors, and strive to enhance existing solutions. These approaches feel safe, rational, and businesslike.

But they also lead to the same predictable ideas.

True innovation — creating new revenue, categories, and advantages — demands more than logic. It requires breaking from established thinking and exploring ideas your competitors wouldn’t consider.

That’s why Edward de Bono created one of the most underrated creativity tools for business leaders: Provocation, also called “Po.” When used effectively, it becomes a strategic tool that helps you break free from industry norms and generate bold, valuable ideas.

Let’s look at what makes Provocation unique and how your organization can use it to gain an edge.

What Is Provocation (Po)?

Provocation is a lateral thinking tool. You make a statement that is illogical, impossible, or absurd on purpose to help your mind see new possibilities.

De Bono introduced the term “Po” to show that the statement should not be judged or dismissed. It permits you to set logic aside.

Some of de Bono’s classic provocations include:

• “Po: houses should be heated from the ceiling down.”
• “Po: Cars should have square wheels.
• “Po: A restaurant should serve dessert first.”
• “Po: a company should hire people with no qualifications.”

These statements are not meant to be true. Their purpose is to provoke new thinking.

When your brain tries to make sense of something absurd,

it can discover insights you would never find through normal reasoning.

Why CEOs Should Use Provocation

1. It breaks your team out of “industry thinking.”

Every industry’s unspoken assumptions limit innovation:

• Customers expect this.”
• “You can’t do that in B2B”.

Provocation helps your organization break through these invisible barriers.

2. It creates ideas your competitors cannot predict.

Most companies use the same strategy tools. Few business leaders use anything that challenges logic itself.

Just one provocation can lead to a solution that gives you a lasting competitive advantage.

3. It accelerates breakthrough thinking.

Rather than just improving your current model, Provocation helps you imagine new models more quickly than traditional brainstorming.

4. It helps teams escape the “gridlock” of expertise.

Even smart teams can get stuck quickly because their expertise makes them repeat old patterns.

Provocation breaks these patterns right away.

When to Use Provocation

Use it when you’re facing:

• stalled innovation
• slow growth
• declining differentiation
• strategic inflection points
• customer complaints that keep repeating
• complexity you can’t untangle through analysis
• an opportunity that requires fresh thinking

It’s especially effective when you know the root cause of a problem but don’t have a solution yet. 

Why it’s so effective:

Make a statement that defies logic, best practices, or common sense.

Example from de Bono: “Po: Cars should have square wheels.” Absurd? Yes.

Is it useful? More than you might expect.

Step 2: Explore the consequences. Ask:

• What would happen if this were true?
• What problem might this solve?
• What assumptions does this break?

Square wheels cause vibration, which could be useful for compacting surfaces.

Insight: “Movement doesn’t have to be smooth to create value.”

Step 3: Extract the core insight.

From the absurdity, a principle emerges.

In business, a provocation such as “Po: we should eliminate customer service completely” might reveal this insight:

“Customers want products so simple they require no service at all.”

Step 4: Move toward practical solutions.

Turn the insight into practical ideas. This final step leads to breakthroughs.

For example:

• Self-guided onboarding
• AI-assisted support
• Proactive issue detection
• A radically simplified interface

All of this starts with an idea that doesn’t seem to make sense.

​Why Provocation Works Better Than Brainstorming

Traditional brainstorming:

• Stays within known boundaries
• Reinforces existing assumptions
• Produces incremental ideas
• Favors loud or senior voices

Provocation:

• Breaks boundaries
• Challenges assumptions
• Produces non-linear ideas
• Democratizes creativity

This isn’t just brainstorming. It’s a structured way to shake things up.

Which kinds of B2B challenges benefit most from Provocation? Consider these categories:

• Strategic reinvention
• Product or service redesign
• Customer experience transformation
• Business model innovation
• Process simplification
• Identifying new revenue streams
• Differentiation challenges

If the problem is routine, logic is enough. However, if the problem is complex or affects the entire system, a strategic approach is necessary. In these cases, Provocation works better.

Final Thoughts

Your competitors are focused on optimizing. But optimization rarely creates a real advantage. Innovation, led by leaders like you, is what makes the difference.

Most teams attempt to generate new ideas by employing the same thinking that led to their existing ideas.

• They brainstorm logically.
• They make lists.
• They stay realistic. But Provocation gives you the power to:
• Disrupt old thinking
• Unlock breakthrough thinking with one powerful word: Po.

If you want your team to think in new ways, try a new technique. That’s where Edward de Bono’s Provocation can help.

Jim Zitek

 I turn complex product problems into creative solutions with a competitive advantage.

In a competitive market, the primary goal is to gain a competitive edge. Business leaders do this by learning as much as they can about the market.

The main idea is straightforward: customers purchase products to accomplish a task. For example, people don’t buy a drill bit just to have it. They use it to create a quarter-inch hole, allowing them to hang a shelf and organize their home.

When you start looking into your products, pricing, and what customers expect, it’s easy to fall back on old habits. This is often where strategies fail before they even start. Teams often ask questions like:

• “Is our price too high?”
• “What features should we add?”

These kinds of questions often miss the real issue. 

They don’t focus on strategy. You may obtain data, but not genuine insight. In a crowded market, asking the same questions as everyone else won’t help you stand out. Real advantage comes from asking better questions.

Instead of digging for deeper insights, teams often compare product features rather than what truly drives value. They focus on price comparisons instead of understanding what gives them pricing power. This difference matters.

To gain a competitive edge, you need to determine what sets your company apart from others in the eyes of customers. The goal isn’t to know what everyone else knows, but to discover what truly sets you apart.

To avoid these common mistakes, you need a better approach. 

So, how do you formulate the right research questions? The biggest mistake in research is starting with the questions themselves.

If you start by brainstorming questions, your team will stay stuck in its own biases and blind spots. This leads to vanity metrics, like “85% of users like our new logo.” These numbers might look good, but they don’t help you beat your main competitor.

The right question doesn’t come out of nowhere. It comes from a clear strategy. It’s like a key made to open a specific door.

So, where should you start your research? 

Start with the outcome you want. Most companies start research by asking, “What do customers think about our product?” But that’s not the best place to begin. Instead, ask: What decision will give us a unique and defensible advantage?

Example decisions:

• What value can we deliver that competitors cannot easily copy?
• What specific customer segment will value it the most?
• What tradeoffs will we intentionally make (and which will we ignore)?

Your questions should help you make crucial decisions. Research isn’t just about collecting facts; it’s about finding insights that guide your strategy.

To avoid this, always define the decision or problem before you write your questions.

Before writing any survey questions, ensure you understand the decision you need to make or the problem you want to solve.

Don’t start with, “What should we ask about price?” 

Instead, begin with, “We are losing 30% of customers at checkout. Why?” Then, determine whether the answer involves a pricing change, a simpler checkout process, or the addition of a “buy now, pay later” option.

See the difference? A clear problem statement gives you strong focus. Now your research has a clear purpose.

• Bad Question: “Is our price fair?” (What does “fair” even mean?)
• Good Question: “When you saw the final price, what thoughts or feelings caused you to abandon your cart?”
• Good Question: “You completed your purchase. What other options did you consider before deciding this price was worth it?”

4 Questions That Lead to a Competitive Advantage

​For products and features, your goal is to understand what makes you different and what value you offer—not just what people prefer. When it comes to pricing, focus on understanding how customers perceive the value, not just the price itself. Never ask, “Is this too expensive?”

To address customer expectations, try to identify what needs aren’t being met and what assumptions customers have.

Next, build questions inside these four pillars:

Pillar	Purpose	Example Research Questions
1. Customer Truths	Identify what they actually value, not just what they say	What frustrates you most about current options? What would you be willing to pay more for if someone delivered it to you?
2. Market Gaps	Identify missing value OR underserved segments	Where are current suppliers letting you down? What is not good enough? What is being over-delivered?
3. Value Levers	Identify what could make you uniquely valuable	In what situations does a 2x result matter more than price? What benefit would change your decision immediately?
4. Competitor Blind Spots	Identify areas you can exploit that they ignore	What do all suppliers seem to assume is important that actually isn’t? Where are they investing effort that doesn’t matter?

By focusing your research on these four areas, you can find ways to gain a competitive advantage instead of just collecting general opinions.

Why This Matters

Competitive advantage doesn’t come from just knowing what customers like.

Competitive advantage comes from knowing what customers value most, what competitors don’t offer, and what customers are willing to pay for and rely on.

The questions you ask in research shape what you learn. Average questions lead to average strategies. If you focus on competitive advantage, you’ll find insights that help you stand out.

​Conclusion

Good research questions make strategy possible. They bring clarity, show where you can gain an advantage, lower risk, and help you focus creativity on what matters most.

The quality of your research questions shapes your competitive advantage. It’s both a design challenge and a test of creativity.

 

Jim Zitek

I turn complex product problems into creative solutions with a competitive advantage.