A Good Fit
What exactly is a good fit? A good fit is something that matches your specifications. Fundamentally, it’s where demand meets supply. The clothing and shoe industries do a great job of enabling a good fit. They each provide a variety of styles in multiple sizes to match what you might be looking for. And if the fit isn’t perfect, your local tailor or shoe repairman can make adjustments. The same is true with restaurants that provide a broad menu to fit your taste. They serve hot or cold starters, main courses of meat, fish, or vegetarian, different starches. And if the preparation isn’t...
read moreLearning From Literature
You might have noticed the seemingly bizarre connection I have occasionally made between literature and business transformation. You’re probably wondering, “What’s up with that?” My last literary reference was to William Faulkner, that great American writer. It was in a comment I made to my post, Speeding Lessons. The reference was a phrase within – really the essence of – Faulkner’s wonderful acceptance speech upon receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. Faulkner, normally a shy public figure, chose to mark the tenuous, post-war time of 1950 with his take on the...
read moreSpeeding Lessons
Whether you call it a recession, a depression, or an adjustment, a time of uncertainty is the time to accelerate – if you have the capital and the backbone. I understand this view may be counterintuitive, perhaps seen by some as reckless. Conventional wisdom would ask: How can you think of being aggressive at a time when deals are at risk, satisfied customers are coveted, and the market is jittery? History has shown that post-downturn winners are those who took a long view while others around them only focused inward. Take a look at this chart from Accenture. What do the winners have in...
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