Understanding

Strategy is not a potpourri of 20 things to do.

Some say Strategy is about doing less not more.

They may be right but only scratching the surface.

Because Strategy is not really about doing.

Strategy is what happens once one understands.

When one understands, there is 0 risk of not executing.

Having understood, the doing follows with no effort or force.

When one does not understand, execution may happen, or it may not.

If it does, it is rarely coherent.

When one does not understand, one drifts away from the strike zone.

Some grow, but in the wrong direction.

Others stagnate.

Some shrink.

Most move away from their core. None achieve their potential.

Understanding requires open eyes.

Most think their eyes are open failing to realize they have glasses on distorting reality.

Understanding is out of reach.

A blind person has a better chance.

It Is Not Found

It is not found in the experts’ advice

It is not found in the bumper stickers

It is not found in the latest business book or memoir

It will never be found in the places you look

It is just not there

It is not found with your mentors

It is not found in the latest fad

It is not found in a manufactured conversation

It is not found in a method

It is just not there.

It is not found in a motivational speech

It is not found in the rules you follow

It it is not found in your effort

It will not be found with force

It is just not there.

It is not found by following these words

It is not found in your routines or your rituals

It is not found if you try

It is not found if you do not try out of principle

It is just not there.

But it exists somewhere

Waiting for no one

Ready to be found

For the one who cannot live without it.

Hallelujah

Business strategy secrets
From leonard cohen’s Masterpiece

A song has different elements.

Words. Harmony. Melody. Tempo.

You probably have heard about these.

But have you heard about prosody?

In songwriting, prosody is how all the different elements in a song fit together and support each other.

This is key when it comes to music and lyrics.

The lyrics of a song must be interesting on their own.

The harmony and melody of a song must be interesting on their own.

But the real magic happens when the melody and harmony of a song support the lyrics.

Leonard Cohen does this quite literally in the opening verses of Hallelujah.

“Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you dont really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor falls, the major lifts
The baffled king composing Hallelujah”

The line “the fourth, the fifth / the minor fall, the major lift” describes the chord sequence taking place under those words.

The prosody may be quite literal but it also opens deep questions about the meaning of the song itself and the very nature of composing.

When Bob Dylan asked Leonard how long it took him to write Hallelujah, he answered two years . He later said he lied, it took him longer.

How does this relate to business strategy?

In 1996, Michael Porter, in arguably the most relevant paper about strategy, “What Is Strategy?” , said:

“Strategy is creating fit among a company’s activities.”

If business is a song, strategy is prosody.

A Thing Worth Doing

Something you cannot study for
Something you cannot practice
Something that you cannot grasp and hold or keep
Something that comes but does not go

Something you cannot pray for
Something you cannot get
Something you cannot remember
Something you cannot forget

Something that cannot be coded
Something that cannot be analyzed or optimized

Something that has not been done before

A thing worth doing

You may call it art

A Genuine Conversation

Can there be a genuine conversation between two individuals?

Extremely Rare.

Can there be a genuine conversation between a CEO and a Consultant?

Infinitely rare.

Let’s assume the CEO is 100% transparent in the conversation which is 99.9% unlikely.

We still have the Consultant.

If the consultant is insecure about what he brings to the conversation, he will compensate for that. So the conversation’s genuineness is already gone and thus its potency is diminished.

If the consultant is “confident” about what he brings to the conversation, still many problems may arise. A consultant often brings an angle to the conversation.

He might need to teach something, usually a method. So he will push for this methodology in the conversation. Or in an acute case, his whole practice is based in a methodology. How can the conversation be truly genuine then?

He might have an outstanding reputation or track record. And now he feels the need to maintain it. How can the conversation be genuine then?

This consultant might feel the need to help the CEO with advise. This is also problematic and hinders the genuineness and potency of the conversation.

The only chance at a genuine conversation that transforms the CEO so that he can achieve his highest potential begins with a Consultant that needs nothing from the conversation and has a non negotiable compromise to explore the raw truth of the CEO and his company.

Does the CEO even want to have this conversation?

Do you?

The Unanswered Question

A question worth asking 
has not been answered before.

No method 
No algorithm 
can solve it.

It has nothing to do with
benchmarking.

There is a difference between 
being productive 
and doing something mechanically.

When you lead an organization
most questions are unanswered.

So why do you spend your time 
figuring out what already has been solved?

Salvation

There is always a method. 
A script.

Five things you must do in order to. 
The seven mistakes to avoid.

There is always a coach. 
A teacher.
A consultant.
A conference speaker.

A product or service.

Something or someone that will save you.

But it is all fake. 
And it is all packaged the same way.

It is all now a Ted Talk.

Does the formula work for you 
Or do you work for the formula?