2025-01-30 18:03:00
Nothing stays still. Relative to the rest of the world, even something that’s not moving is changing.
It’s tempting to talk about not making fast enough progress.
But it’s far more useful to ask which direction we’re progressing.
Often, people will point to the velocity of the change they’re making without pausing to consider the direction of that change.
Strategy is the hard work we do before we do the rest of the hard work. Where to?
2025-01-29 17:30:00
There are many ways to prioritize our time and focus, but the easiest and most vivid way is to do the urgent things first.
If we wait until a house plant is sick before we take care of it, though, it’s too late.
Deadlines, loud requests and last-minute interventions are crude forcing functions. They’re inefficient and common.
It’s far more effective to organize for important instead.
We thrive when we do things when we have the most leverage, not when everyone else does. Waiting for trouble means that you’re going to spend your days dealing with trouble.
2025-01-28 17:53:00
If you fail to show us the facts, it’s difficult to accept your analysis.
While it’s tempting to simply share an interpretation of what’s happening, credibility and persuasion are based on showing your work.
2025-01-27 18:03:00
Consulting firms rank brands on value. Marketers promise to increase it.
But brand value has little to do with whether a company is famous or even profitable.
The accurate measure of brand value is the premium that consumers will spend over the generic.
What time, money or risk will they take for a valuable brand compared to the very same offering from an unknown?
Luxury goods, by necessity, have high brand value, because the generic knock-offs sell for a tiny fraction of the price. (Heinz ketchup commands a much smaller price premium. You may have heard of them, but you don’t care that much.) Familiarity is not always a proxy for high value.
New products launched by high-value brands get off to a faster start because consumers who trust them feel like they’re taking a smaller risk.
Valuable brands often get applications from potential employees and partners of higher quality than an upstart might.
And yet…
ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude all gained enormous traction at the expense of some of the most highly ranked brands in the world.
Systems change, and user experience and the network effect often defeat brands. Plan accordingly.
2025-01-26 17:37:00
The simplest way forward is to see which boxes your target market has and then check all of them.
Unfortunately #1: The audience doesn’t publish their actual list of boxes, they conceal many of them.
Unfortunately #2: They don’t all have the same boxes.
Unfortunately #3: If it were that straightforward, your competition would have done it all already.
Great work finds emotions, stories and possibility. Great work invents new boxes.
The Yellow Brick Road is mostly an illusion.
2025-01-25 17:41:00
In the ideal world, credentials would be awarded to all experts, and withdrawn from all charlatans.
But they don’t always line up as neatly as that.
An expert is someone who can keep a promise. Point to the results that demonstrate your skill and understanding and commitment and we’ll treat you as an expert.
Credentials, on the other hand, are awarded to folks who are good at being awarded credentials. The place you went to school or the number of followers you have online are credentials. If they help you create value, that’s great. But they’re not the same as expertise.
