Category: Quick Insights

Competitive Advantage significantly impacts your success, long-term profitability, and viability. But, about 80% of people believe they are not creative. Why?

Schools focus on vertical or analytical Thinking, which optimizes known knowledge rather than diverging into new possibilities.

Lateral Thinking moves beyond vertical Thinking and analysis and creates new ideas by disrupting the way the mind works. Some people you know who use Lateral Thinking are Steve Jobs (Apple), Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX), and Richard Branson (Virgin Group), who have applied this technique to revolutionize their industries.

Edward De Bono created lateral Thinking in the 1960s, a more productive approach to generating new ideas. In addition to vertical Thinking, lateral thinking techniques encourage breaking assumptions, making unusual connections, and embracing uncertainty, all essential for generating new ideas.

 Combining analytical thinking (optimizing existing solutions) and lateral Thinking (creating new, innovative ideas, concepts, and innovations) is crucial to creating a competitive advantage.

If you want to create a competitive advantage and move your company to new heights,  check out my website— and blog posts for more information.

Feel free to share your comments, insights, or questions. I would love to hear them. We’ll all learn from one another.

Cheers,

Jim Zitek

I help companies create their competitive advantage.

jzitek@harborcapitalgroupinc.com

You could do many traditional things, such as focusing on your strengths, enhancing customer experiences, or expanding your product line.

But it would be best if you started thinking at a slightly higher level. For example, think long-term but maintain short-term flexibility and treat disruption as an opportunity.

This thinking will help you keep your competitive advantage relevant and enable you to create an environment of innovation and early adoption of new ideas and technologies.

It also opens the door to many other alternatives that will enable you to maintain your competitive advantage.

If you want to create a sustainable, competitive advantage,  check out my website.

Feel free to share your comments and insights. I would love to hear them. Please email me at  jzitek@harborcapitalgroupinc.comn. We’ll all learn from one another.

Cheers, Jim Zitek

I help companies create and keep their competitive advantage.

 

The purpose of competition is to benefit the consumer—to keep prices down and quality up. It also benefits the economy by ensuring the most efficient use of resources and encouraging enterprise.

However, the most influential producers may be able to increase market share. Sales volume may increase, but the benefits are not reflected in margins and profits—only survival.

A Competitive Advantage, however, enables you to move upwards from the competitive baseline, help customers, and increase market share and profits. But value must also exist, or your advantage will quickly disappear.

However, once your idea has been enacted, you must continuously improve it, or competitors will try to copy it.

Here is the surprise. According to a study by Michael Mauboussen, an expert in investment strategy, only 10-15% of public companies have a competitive advantage. Why? The long-term benefits of a competitive advantage offer the ability to outperform rivals and achieve superior profitability.

To create a competitive advantage,  check out my website or email me at  jzitek@harborcapitalgroupinc.com.  

Cheers, Jim Zitek

I help companies create their competitive advantage.

When a problem is challenging to solve, or you require an exceptionally creative idea to exploit a potential market opportunity, which of the many creative techniques available would maximize your benefits?

Traditional Thinking or vertical Thinking is a systematic and logical approach. It follows established rules and pathways to arrive at solutions. It relies on sequential steps, continuously moving towards an objective.  It is also rooted in past knowledge and proven methods.

For example, the TRIZ method, or the “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving”) method for technical or engineering challenges. TRIZ can also be used to improve ideas from other techniques like brainstorming.    

Lateral Thinking was created by Edward de Bono in 1967. This unconventional approach encourages looking at problems from different angles. It’s about breaking from established patterns to explore creative solutions and unexpected conclusions.

Lateral Thinking is about taking advantage of how the mind works by disrupting learned patterns pr information and creating a new pattern that isn’t immediately obvious.

For example, Uber applied Lateral Thinking to the taxi industry by leveraging technology to match drivers with passengers directly, bypassing traditional taxi dispatch systems. Netflix, initially a DVD rental service, used lateral Thinking to pivot and dominate the video streaming industry. 

Note: I will write about these creative techniques in upcoming messages, so stay connected. Learn how each creative technique can help you solve problems and create new opportunities. 

To learn more about creating a Competitive Advantage,  visit my website or email me at  jzitek@harborcapitalgroupinc.com.  Do you have a specific question? Let me know what it is here, and I will get you an answer.  

Cheers, Jim Zitek

I help companies create their competitive advantage.

 

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No one can predict the exact economic and market changes that will occur in the next few years or their impact on specific industries. As you know, these pressures include inflation, technological advancements, customer behavior, debt levels, employee skills, and government regulations, just to name a few.

Yet, there is a solution. Creativity is a proven tool you can use to attack and overcome these pressures. Creativity can be a transformative tool to turn economic pressures into opportunities by rethinking problems, discovering new possibilities, and innovating traditional and new constraints. 

Here are a few ways creativity plays a pivotal role in this transformative process. To start with, there are many different creative techniques you can use to reframe challenges as opportunities, innovate problem-solving solutions, including process innovation, explore different business models, and retain customer loyalty.

There are over 20 creative techniques you can use to get the results you might need to achieve your goal of turning economic pressures into creative opportunities. Don’t wait until you are forced to come up with risky answers quickly.

 To learn more about creating a competitive advantage,  visit my website or email me at  jzitek@harborcapitalgroupinc.com.  Do you have a specific question? Let me know what it is here, and I will reply quickly.

Cheers, Jim Zitek

I help companies create their competitive advantage.

Brainstorming is one of many creative techniques for solving problems and generating new ideas to help your company grow. You can quickly invite a diverse group of employees to a meeting and ask them to generate ways to meet a specific objective.

Brainstorming can be a quick and inexpensive way to create new ideas. 3M company used it to create Post-it notes after the initial research failed.

If you encourage everyone to participate, brainstorming can quickly generate many ideas. Additional sessions can then be held to identify the most promising ideas.
However, to generate many ideas -good and bad- you need to suspend criticism and judgments to get people to participate.

There are some downside issues as well. First, remember you are after quantity rather than quality. Also, some participants overshadow others, and based on rank, that could be a problem. It could reduce the volume and selection of ideas generated.

In today’s fast-paced business economy, generating fresh, innovative ideas is crucial for creating and maintaining a Competitive Advantage. Brainstorming can be a powerful creative technique that can unlock the innovative potential of individuals and teams.

As with any new product or service idea, it’s still crucial to conceptualize and test the potential of brainstormed concepts before committing to a budget for their design and implementation.

Cheers, Jim Zitek

I help companies create their competitive advantage

If you have any comments or questions, please send them to me at jzitek@harborcapitalgroupinc.com. Thanks.