Quotes About Strategy

The time to develop a multiple income source strategy is not when you run out of money. Then it will be too late.

I'm imagining that your colleagues aren't stupid. But when the world changes, the rules change. And if you insist on playing today's games by yesterday's rules, you're stuck. Stuck with a stupid strategy. Because the world changed. Some organizations are stuck. Others move quickly. In a changing world, who's having more fun?

Amazon appears to be building a permission asset, not a brand asset.

Don't fall in love with a tactic and defend it forever. Instead, decide once and for all whether you're in a market or not. And if you are, get through that Dip.

Leaders understand a different calculus. Leaders understand that change is not only omnipresent, but the key to success.

Successful people don't just ride out the Dip. They don't just buckle down and survive it. No, they lean into the Dip. They push harder, changing the rules as they go. Just because you know you're in the Dip doesn't mean you have to live happily with it. Dips don't last quite as long when you whittle at them.

Every day you stay is a bad strategic decision for your career because every day you get better at something that isn't that useful—and you are another day behind others who are learning something more useful.

Strategic quitting is the secret of successful organizations. Reactive quitting and serial quitting are the bane of those that strive (and fail) to get what they want. And most people do just that. They quit when it's painful and stick when they can't be bothered to quit.

The obvious winners are the mid-sized and smaller companies looking to increase market share. These are the companies that have nothing to lose, but more important, they realize that they have a lot to gain by changing the rules of the game.

Differentiation is a zero-sum, advertising-based game.

Stick with the Dips that are likely to pan out, and quit the Cul-de-Sacs to focus your resources. That's it.

marketers have turned advertising into an interactive process. Using relationships and frequency and permission

Are you overinvesting (really significantly overinvesting) time and money so that you have a much greater chance of dominating a market? And if you don't have enough time and money, do you have the guts to pick a different, smaller market to conquer?

REDO THE MISSION STATEMENT AND THE BUSINESS PLAN EVERY THREE MONTHS

You need a formal business reinvention process. Put it in your calendar. Every three months, take your most trusted advisers, employees, backers, and even customers and get away from the phones for a little while. Start from scratch. "If we were starting over—no office, no employees, no customers—would we choose to be where we are today?" If the answer isn't, yes, then it's time to take a hard look at the path you took and the impact it has had on your business.

There are two ways to grow: by stealing from the competition or by growing the market. The first path is slow and painful and difficult. The second path is where the magic of fast growth kicks in.

Ben & Jerry's avoided temptation for years. If they didn't have a super-cool flavor or a great promotional idea, they did nothing. Yes to free ice cream once a year at every scoop shop, but no to 5 percent off any pint this week at your local store.

Tribes are about faith—about belief in an idea and in a community. And they are grounded in respect and admiration for the leader of the tribe and for the other members as well. Do you believe in what you do? Every day? It turns out that belief happens to be a brilliant strategy.

Low price is the last refuge of a marketer who has run out of generous ideas.

Strategic quitting is the secret of successful organisations. Reactive quitting and serial quitting are the bane of those that strive (and fail) to get what they want.

The best marketers are farmers, not hunters. Plant, tend, plow, fertilize, weed, repeat. Let someone else race around after shiny objects.

What's a bootstrapper to do? You have to go where the other guys can't. Take advantage of what you have so that you can beat the competition with what they don't.

Permission Marketing represents a huge threat as well as a huge opportunity.

In other words, they believe it's wiser to focus more on increasing sales to a smaller percentage of your existing customers than to find new ones.