Sometimes I don't see the big picture...

> It's always so much easier to pin any blame
> on "the market" or on a terrible
> competitor, than to take responsibility
> yourself.... Of course, in some cases the
> market or the competition is to blame, but
> with good planning you should hopefully be
> able to avoid such situations.... :)

In EVERY case of DotCom demise I've read about, the CEO blamed "Market Conditions."

It wasn't that they spent all their money on parties and mahogony furniture when MDF would have been fine - heck, one company even put in an indoor bowling lane - and so on, or that they wasted money on useless image advertising, or that their business model had them giving everything away and you can't make a profit if'n you never sell anything, or that people never actually wanted what these people were offering, or that they couldn't actually do their jobs.

It was always the "Market Conditions." Almost as if they expect us to believe their mis-management and wasteful and useless spending with a business model that gave things away instead of sold things, could actually work in some cases.

Anyway. About this competition thing... EVERY business who is trying to make a sale is your competition - do I spend $3,000 on a new computer, or a new plasma TV, or a new surround sound stereo, or getting my decking re-done or going to that seminar?

You aren't just competing with other businesses in the same industry or niche as you, you are competing with every other business.

Michael Ross.

> Hi Mike,

> Thanks.... That was one of those posts which
> can cause you to rethink you're whole
> approach to everything!

> I know about strategy.... But what your post
> made clear to me is that I'm not really
> applying what I know!

> One thing which used to confuse me on this
> topic was what seems to be a difference
> between military and business strategy. In
> military strategy, you usually have a clear
> "enemy", and you also have to
> consider the physical environment and
> geography. For example, the fact that the
> Confederate South was reliant on its sea
> ports (a fact determined by geography),
> helped to determine General Winfield Scott's
> strategy.

> In business, the main factors are your
> target market and your competitors. What do
> your target market want, and what are they
> getting already (and NOT yet getting) from
> your competitors? These factors will help
> determine your strategy....

> Mike, how do you think we should go about
> creating a good strategy for our business?
> I've never seen it this way before, but
> after reading your post I realize a
> "business plan" is essentially an
> outline of a "business
> strategy"... I've created one business
> plan before, but it was for a business which
> was never created. (A friend and I entered a
> business plan competition with it.) I'm
> starting to think it's time to create
> another business plan in order to help
> organize a good strategy....

> I'm keen to hear more of your thoughts on
> this, Mike, or anyone else...

> - Dien

To me that is where you want to start strategizing for your business. What is the purpose of the business?

Take care,

Mike W.

> To me that is where you want to start
> strategizing for your business. What is the
> purpose of the business?

Hi Mike,

Well, in the last 24 hours or so, you, Bob, Mary, and others have really made me think more about how to best use "strategy" in business....

After I typed in that possible definition of business strategy (adapted from the strategist B. H. Liddell Hart's definition of military strategy) - "the art of distributing and applying business assets and means to fulfill a pre-defined goal" - I started thinking further about it....

A business is not really an end in itself. (Well, not usually.) Just like an army is not an end in itself either. It's there as a means to fulfil something else....

To me, this really puts a whole new spin on things.

There are many goals which people turn to business as the means to fulfil them... These could be lifestyle goals, they could be goals of wealth or power, or the goal could be to help others, with business being the means to facilitate that....

My own personal goals are related to lifestyle, as well as some certain achievements I'd like to achieve in my life....

Business is the means by which I hope to achieve that....

Anyhow, what I've done is to make a list of my significant business assets.

There, I've written down things such as my knowledge and skills, my own labor, products I have the right to sell, my web sites, my shares, etc.

This is like the "third leg" of the stool you were mentioning, Mike - it's good to know about the market and your competition, but perhaps most important of all is knowledge of the "self" - that is, what can YOU bring to the strategic effort, in terms of your assets like knowledge, skills, money, physical property, contacts, etc.

So NOW what I am still contemplating is what is the best way to "distribute and apply" my business assets to reach my goals.... This exercise has already revealed a weakness in my business activities so far which I will be fixing ASAP.... But the bottom line is, I'm not finished yet (I've only really just started), but I think it's already been quite useful.... :)

I highly recommend doing this...

First, write down your goal or goals. (Remember, business is just a "means" for attaining that goal.) It could be lifestyle-related or anything else....

Then, write down all of your significant business assets, as I described above. That is, your significant knowledge, skills, physical assets, product rights (or your own products), and so on....

When that's done, think, what is the best way to use these assets to achieve your goals? Do you need to add more or different assets to achieve what you want to? Doing this exercise will probably help make everything become clearer....

Well, that's what I've been up to! :)

- Dien Rice

>I agree that we are less satisfied.

Why would we be less satisfied? And if we are -- why is that?

Who can change this?

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan


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