Notes from Playing to Win

Source

• Strategy is intimdating as you need to make choices (and say NO)
• Intellectual challenging
• research based view of the world
• Strategy is an integrated set of choices that compels desired outcome action.
• Compel as a difference to force

Five questions

• What is your winning aspirations? What are your trying to accomplish?
• Where will you play? (What is your battlefield)
  • where do customers get a benefit
  • what customers are we talking
  • what distribution channel
  • finished product or component to be integrated
• How will you win?
  • How can you solve that problem on a much lower cost?
  • How will you be better
  • For cost leadership you need to have enough scale
  • Differentiation is often easier
• How can you be better than your customers?
• What capabilities do you need to have that enables you?
  • Is there a learning curve?
• What enabling management systems do you need to have in place.
  • to build and maintain the moat
• The ultimate way to compete to win is to never actually be forced to compete
• Don’t try to hold back the tide
  • Water finds a way to flow
• What is the single most painful gap that I’m currently facing?
• Great strategists have one thing in common – they practice doing strategy again and agin

Playing to Win (instead of just playing to play)

Either via lowest cost option … or .. by a real differentiator.

Understand customers as best as possible. And can you deliver that in a different way?

Good reference to Helmer and the 7 Powers Notes from the 7 Powers - Strategy

• as a good categorization of the factors for building a competitive moat

Important - Customer need to lack something that we can provide

• compelling customer action

Linking

• Webinar with Markus - this initiated the search for strategy insights
• Notes from the 7 Powers - Strategy
• We are what we repeatedly do - Quote reflection

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