Don't Leave Change to Chance ... Gain the Edge and Beat the Odds

YES AMAZON #innovates and constantly explores new arenas of #competitiveness – Envied & Feared and the topic of conversation in board rooms and #investorcalls… MY humble suggestion: #FEAR is not the answer, #ACTION is ... #HOPE is not a #STRATEGY … LEARN BUT build YOUR own unique version of future. Is #focus over rated? Here is a post from the guys at CBInsights Guess what: Amazon isn’t just a retail/grocery giant. Or a cloud giant. Or a media/video giant. Or a logistics giant. It’s also an advertising juggernaut. Amazon’s advertising revenue is growing 60% a year, according to estimates. Analysts peg it at $4.5B+ for 2018, and it's already larger than Twitter and Snapchat’s ad business (see This Week In Data, below). Wow. By putting advertising directly into the point where goods are sold, Amazon could:  cut out ad agencies threaten the digital ad dominance of Google and Facebook (which faces other challenges as seen below) and further shift how cons...

A quick story about Gaining the Caterpillar’s Edge from CHINA. Here is an email from an old Chinese student and his interaction with his investor father. I thought it might be an interesting read – here is the email: Dear Professor Sid, A few days ago, I finished reading your book. As soon as I finished it, I got together with my father immediately. We discussed the key points and were reminded that: “ The best time to induce change is when things are good. ” As you know my father invested and established the largest lantern group co. in China. The traditional lantern business has been around for hundreds of years. They have been trying to evolve in the last ten years, but they couldn’t manage to do so. My father saw the reasons as: 1) the board members of the company are afraid of the unknown outcome of making changes -The traditional way has worked for hundreds of years and the industry has been doing just fine, 2) board members were limited by their vision, resources and back...

An advice some executives and managers dish out on how to innovate and change things: “don’t ask for permission first, ask for forgiveness later” … WHAT NONSENSE! The premise: i) move fast, ii) avoid getting tangled up in corporate politics, iii) no need for consensus, and iv) circumvent established processes; Employees, managers and leaders could initiate change without asking for permission. Later, ask for forgiveness about not seeking permission first. Valla! Problem solved : the organization innovated and all red tape and traps avoided. WHAT NONSENSE!   What appears as music and flowers may simply be noise and weeds!   Here are five problems with building, promoting or even tolerating the doomed and poisonous culture of “Asking for forgiveness later”: 1.     Permission to Evolve! Is there a genuine desire to change? Show me an organization that is on its way to demise, and I will show you an organization where innovation and agility requires pe...