Category Archives: Tools and Tips

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What is the Problem Your Solution is Solving?

Upon hearing about an issue of some sort, most people, myself included, jump into problem solving mode almost immediately. We hear one rendition of the issue from one source and we immediately synthesize an elegant solution and mobilize an impressive set of resources conquer it.

However, more often than not, we are attempting to solve the wrong problem.

Slow Elevator Problem

There is an interesting story of an office building owner who is dealing with an overwhelming number of complaints of slow elevator service. People are waiting so long for the elevator that they are beginning to break lease agreements and move out of the building.

The owner has many options to fix this seemingly slow elevator issue. For example, he could:

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How to Use the “Rule of 3 and 10” for Business Growth

Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Rakuten, an electronic commerce and internet company based in Tokyo, established what he dubbed the rule of 3 and 10 to guide his company through periods of extreme growth.

Although this rule was created for companies that are growing very quickly, it applies to all companies as they progress through these major growth milestones.

The Rule – “Everything breaks at multiples of 3 and powers of 10”

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Differentiate or Die!

If you do not differentiate your business from your competitors, you are just another commodity! Being a commodity means that your products are no better than anyone else’s. This drives down your prices, erases profits, and eventually kills your business.

I wrote about what causes commoditization and how to avoid it in a post called Why Does Your Business Exist and Why Should We Care.

In this post Apple entered the MP3 market as a late comer. They were not the “first mover” and the market space already had a large number of competitors who competed on price. The market space was already commoditized.

Apple knew this but they understood that they could still dominate the space by clearly differentiating themselves from their competitors. They identified their key differentiators, measured themselves against their competitors, and realized that they were head and shoulders above the others. They entered the market and still dominate it today!

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The Sleep Revolution

Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time

This week’s book review is The Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffington

Huffington provides a very detailed study on the importance of sleep and the impact that lack of sleep has on every aspect of our lives – our health, ability to focus, productivity, safety, life expectancy, etc. Unfortunately, most of what was covered in the book was not revolutionary but is knowledge that is already commonly available. However, it is a good consolidation of these studies and findings.

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How To Get Powerful Business Results

If I had to pick one activity, habit or tool that would be the most significant thing a business could implement to get powerful business results, I would say it would be the habit of goals. And, by “habit of goals”, I am not referring to the habit of setting goals.

I am talking about the habit of setting powerful, focused goals and implementing a system to monitor the progress and deliver on these goals.

This is why I use one page tools like the Strategy Summary to clearly define where my business is going and to measure progress against these targets. I have seen businesses and non-profits alike make stunning progress in their market space simply by focusing their leadership and their staff on their most important objectives and reinforcing these priorities each and every day.