I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Practically Radical is one of the best books you’ll ever read on strategy. I’ve tried to give you a snippet of what you will learn in this fascinating read.
Vuja De thinking – the best way to look at a problem
Deja vu is when you experience a situation that seems very familiar to a past experience. Vuja De thinking is looking at a situation and analyzing it like you have never been in this circumstance before. Looking a a problem with fresh eyes, logically understanding the problem, looking at other industry’s for similar situations and not letting past bias’s hinder your solution.
Quoted from the book:
“One way to look at problems as if you’re seeing them for the first time is to look at a wide array of fields for ideas that have been working for a long time. That’s the real virtue of vuja de.”
It’s a remarkable way of thinking about handling problems. Most of the problems we can not solve are because we haven’t looked at in a different light. Sometimes thinking objectively will get you much further when analyzing things like market trends and business strategy. Sometimes experience is a detriment when developing a new strategy.
Vuja De thinking is not ignoring the past, it is acknowledging the past and understanding ‘why’ things happened but not letting that information bias your decisions and opinions you encounter in your day to day.
How are you going to shake up your industry?
You can’t have the same strategy as your competitors, remember? Competing in the red ocean is not a wise choice nor long-term sustainable. You need a super power, you need something different, something that no other company has.
From Practically Radical: “It’s not good enough to be “pretty good”at everything. You have to be the most of something, the most elegant, the most colorful, the most responsive, the most focused. In the new world of business, the middle of the road has become the road to nowhere.”
From Practically Radical: “Why does Zappos pay recuirts $2,000 to quit? Because there is a kind of zealotry about Zappos culture, which means it’s not for everybody. Zappos wants to learn if there’s a bad fit between what makes the organization tick and what makes employees tick.”
How are you going to develop your radical strategy? Can you shake up your industry? Can you do something different? What would your customers change if they had the chance?
It’s question like these that we need to begin asking ourselves to develop a deeper understand of our true business strategy.
From Practically Radical: “Even the most creative leaders recognize that success is not just about thinking differently. It is also about caring more. The question isn’t just what separates you from the competition in the market place. It’s what holds you together in the workplace.”
From Practically Radical: “In a world of endless choice, companies must engage customers emotionally, not just satisfy them rationally. Remember, if your customers can live without you, eventually they will.”
Are you a ‘humbitious’ leader?
Humbition is the intersection of humility and ambition. A magical state where a leader is so driven to accomplish something yet humble enough to never take all the credit. You want to be a part of whatever they are doing, they lead by example and never put themselves first. These are by far the best people to work with/for.
From Practically Radical: “Humbition is the blend of humility and ambition that drives the most successful businesspeople – an antidote to the humbris that infects so many executives. The Smartest leaders are smart enough to admit they cannot take all the credit for their success.”
This is just a snap shot of what you learn in Practically Radical. Combine your hedgehog strategy to create a radical revolution in your industry and you will have created your own blue ocean. Want to chat about your Business Strategy further? Call me.
