Perspective – Solutions Focussed Conversations

One day I will wear a pair of shoes like this.  (My daughter says “not if I can help it”)

The footwear market is crowded with brands, all clamouring for attention.  Birkenstocks have responded with shoes that are comfortable but known for their ugly appearance.  It is what Youngme Moon has classified as a ‘Hostile’ brand.

In her book, “Different”, she shows how companies augment products to compete.  They add more features or create specialised versions of products for smaller segments.   Eventually, all offers look the same.

So how do you offer a group of jaded, cynical, bored citizens something they will regard as special?  Professor Moon describes three different strategies:

  • Reversal
  • Breakaway
  • Hostile (the Birkies)

Read the full post here

And what can you do if you find yourself in an over-augmented market?

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Technique – Blue Ocean Strategy

In ‘Blue Ocean strategy’, authors Kim and Mauborgne describe tools and processes to think and execute your way into a niche where you stand alone.

The core thinking and conversation tool is the Strategy Canvas for charting the criteria on which competition is based and for planning the next move.  This is illustrated below:

They share a six step process to define and execute Blue Ocean Strategy:

  • Redefine your market boundaries.
  • Focus on the ‘Big Picture’, not the detailed numbers.
  • Reach beyond your existing demand.
  • Define your offering following the right sequence.
  • Overcome the organisational hurdles to execute your Blue Ocean Strategy.
  • Use fair process to engage your people, win trust and commitment to execute the strategy.

Each of these steps is includes conversation and management tools that can be used by your business to step through the process from struggling be heard in a crowded market place to standing as the only offer in a place where the clamour dies away into irrelevance and your offer stands alone.

In my next newsletter I would like to describe the conversation process a little more.

You can read the full post here.

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A Small Adventure – Brandberg project

This months Small Adventure was a big project.  The Brandberg in Namibia is one of my favourite places.  I have wanted to paint the whole mountain for ages.  But it is so BIG.  A while back my friends at Artsource showed me some huge sheets of 600gm Arches Rough.  They are a little over 1000x1500mm.  So I decided to give it a go.

Here is the result of the second version, Brandberg at Midday:

Brandberg Namibia

You can read about the creation of the paintings here.

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At StrategyWorks we assist leaders who choose to collaborate, with those crucial conversations for clarity, decisions, action and outcomes.  These conversations can be frustrating when people are not heard, the team cannot make decisions or the way forward remains vague.  Leaders contact us at StrategyWorks when they are ready to do something different.  In the process those involved in the conversations feel understood and challenged.  At the end of the intervention, the leaders and their teams feel focused and released around a clear plan of action.

Find out more from our website at:www.strategyworks.co.za or better still contact us at the email address: stephen@strategyworks.co.za to arrange a meeting with Stephen.

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© 2011 Stephen Quirke, All rights reserved.  You are free to use material from this Conversaction newsletter in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear.  The attribution should read:  ”By Stephen Quirke of StrategyWorks.  Please visit Stephen’s web site at https://www.strategyworks.co.za/ for more resources on how to hold effective conversations in your organisation.” (Please make sure the link is live if placed in an eZine or in a web site.)