Small Business Strategy Resources

What: Learn your top 5 StrengthsFinder themes.
Why: In order to develop a strategy, you first need to know yourself.

​Our recommendation:
The essence of strategy is making choices: determining how to get to where you want to go. The most foundational thing you can do to clarify where you want to go is develop a more robust understanding of yourself, for “you cannot be anything you want to be – but you can be a lot more of who you already are.”

This is why StrengthsFinder (SF) is extremely helpful. Basing it on Gallup’s 40-year study of human strengths, a group of scientists and psychologists created the first version of this self-assessment tool in 2001 and it has helped millions of individuals and teams gain a more accurate and applicable understanding of themselves ever since.

Although I have taken many self-assessments (e.g., MBTI, Enneagram, Birkman, DISC, HPI, HPVI, etc.), I and many of my clients, colleagues, and friends have found SF the most readily applicable of the assessments in work settings. It is for this reason that we at LIFT SME offer it as a foundational self-assessment tool  and use it to orient leaders and their teams.

From the StrengthsFinder website: 
Having a clear picture of who you are and your biggest strengths and weaknesses is one of the most strategic approaches to addressing the complexities in your business.

• Top 5 CliftonStrengths Access gives you a partial view of your CliftonStrengths profile and basic strategies to help you start using your CliftonStrengths 1-5 to succeed.
• NOTE: Gallup recommends CliftonStrengths 34 for a comprehensive and powerful way to maximize your full potential.
• This digital product includes one access code to complete the CliftonStrengths assessment.
• After you complete the assessment, you will receive your personalized results for CliftonStrengths 1-5 and supporting tools and resources.

Purchase the book (which often comes with a code for the top 5 themes assessment) from Amazon here, or purchase the $19.99 initial top 5 theme assessment directly from the Gallup Strength Center here.

READY TO EXPLORE A STRATEGIC LIFT?

What: Learn this framework that covers most major Western business strategies.
Why: Leading with a portfolio of strategy options will give you and your business a competitive edge.

Our Recommendation:
Although there are many classic business strategy authors (e.g., Porter, Pareto, Ansoff, etc.) worth reading, if we were to recommend only one business strategy book to read, this would be it. Published in 2015 by a few thought leaders at Boston Consulting Group, Your Strategy Needs a Strategy articulates a five category strategy framework within which many of the more prominent strategy approaches are organized and described.

We especially appreciate its strategy palette approach, “a robust way to select the right [strategy approach] for the right circumstances,” which avoids the all too frequent mistake of “a hammer assuming that everything looks like a nail.” Given its clear explanations, interesting case studies, and solid quantitative and qualitative foundation, both veteran strategy hands and those newer to the field will find this a worthwhile read.

From Amazon:
Executives are bombarded with bestselling ideas and best practices for achieving competitive advantage, but many of these ideas and practices contradict each other. Should you aim to be big or fast? Should you create a blue ocean, be adaptive, play to win—or forget about a sustainable competitive advantage altogether? In a business environment that is changing faster and becoming more uncertain and complex almost by the day, it’s never been more important—or more difficult—to choose the right approach to strategy.

In this book, The Boston Consulting Group’s Martin Reeves, Knut Haanæs, and Janmejaya Sinha offer a proven method to determine the strategy approach that is best for your company. They start by helping you assess your business environment… They show how existing strategy approaches sort into five categories–Be Big, Be Fast, Be First, Be the Orchestrator, or simply Be Viable… In-depth explanations of each of these approaches will provide critical insight to help you match your approach to strategy to your environment, determine when and how to execute each one, and avoid a potentially fatal mismatch.

Purchase from Amazon here.

If your business is wrestling with a strategy challenge that you either have not been able to solve or need to have solved quickly and effectively, contact us at LIFT SME to schedule an initial scoping call at your earliest convenience.

CONNECT WITH US TODAY

What: Learn the business growth stages and the key managerial areas to focus on during each one, including during the difficult transitions.
Why: You will understand where your company is, what you need to focus on, and what to think through for the next stage ahead.

Our recommendation:
A company’s growth journey can be compared to that of a person’s: after the womb, there is infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Out of the 1 in 10 startups that survives its first 3 years, a few become “gazelles” (as former MIT professor David Birch called fast-growth companies on the verge of breaking out) but all that survive eventually find themselves in that awkward life stage called adolescence.

It is for this adolescence stage of business, which Tatum calls “No Man’s Land,” that we cannot recommend his book highly enough. This is a stage where companies severely struggle, as they are now “too big to be small, but too small to be big.” Drawing on hundreds of case studies, Tatum articulates the unique challenges of 4 (or actually 5) distinct managerial areas along with potential solutions that every company in “No Man’s Land” will benefit from.

From Amazon:
“If you’re an entrepreneur, this book will help you make your company all it can be and all you want it to be.”

Purchase from Amazon here. Picture
​
​If we at LIFT SME can lead you and your team through a “No Man’s Land” strategy consultation during which we assess your company’s current state and together distill the best path out of this difficult phase, please contact us today.

READY TO EXPLORE A STRATEGIC LIFT?

What: Introduction to Seth Freeman’s IFORESAWIT Negotiation Framework.
Why: Negotiations are 90% preparation, and this is one of the best preparation tools available today.

Learning from Professor Seth Freeman at NYU’s Stern School of Business was a treat. Smart, witty, and kind, Seth kept all us MBA students engaged in the classroom and seemed to be just as happy having a beer with us at Half Pint on W4th afterwards whenever he could afford the time (as he was also busy teaching students uptown at Columbia University). We are sharing his IFORESAWIT negotiation framework here simply because it is one of the most thorough, memorable, and effective negotiation preparation frameworks available today. If you’re curious, you can Google his name to read of his many accolades and other resources he’s generously made available.

Introduction

• Each letter in the mnemonic follows a loose order, though you can jump around.
• It can be used profitably in even 10-15 minutes, although more preparation is almost always better.
• It helps you articulate: (1) what you each really want and why, (2) negotiation context, (3) creative thinking, (4) empathy, (5) alternatives to agreement, and (6) targets and priorities.
• It is thorough and will feel like too much for some, but it is not exhaustive. 

The Framework

• Interests.  Mine, hers, ours. Why do we each want what we say we want? Rank the answers in order of importance, including intangible interests (e.g., face-saving).
• Factual Research.  Knowledge counts. What are the market prices? What do industry experts say? What published information is there? The other person? What is the history of the relationship? Cultural norms? Legal constraints? Err on the side of exhaustive learning.
• Options. – Brainstorm possible deal terms. Think of solutions that might satisfy each side’s interests. Don’t critique until you’ve generated at least six for each topic you wish to discuss. Then review and refine your options and select the one(s) you feel would be your first preference.
• Reactions and Responses. Do this last. Once you develop offer(s) using the rest of the mnemonic, practice proposing your offer(s) to the other negotiator and try predicting her reactions to your proposal and to the situation generally. Then consider how you might respond.
• Empathy and Ethics. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Speak or write a paragraph in his voice about the situation. Empathizing is perhaps the hardest and most important task. A related concern is the ethical and spiritual dimension. 
• Setting and Scheduling. (a) Where will you negotiate? By phone? By letter? In person? (b) When will you negotiate? Before something else happens? After? Why? Timing can be crucial. 
• Alternatives to Agreement. If there’s no deal, what will you do instead? What will she? Try to improve your alternatives with research. Rank yours; which is your best alternative? Your worst? Rank hers. Alternatives matter. 
• Who. Who can influence the outcome of the talks? Is there someone else who would be better to deal with instead? If you reach an impasse? Who do you each answer to? What do they want? Who else should you involve in the process?  Learn as much as you appropriately can about them.
• Independent Criteria. What objective standards can you appeal to so the other person feels your offer is fair and reasonable? Look for something the other person is likely to trust.
• Topics, Targets, and Tradeoffs. This last letter is where you turn your preparation work into a focused one page guide to the talks. Set an agenda, develop goals for each, prioritize, and add some promising creative options.

Next Steps

Have you gained a sense of the type of thorough preparation that world class negotiators do? If so, why not give it a whirl? If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the details above, perhaps try a few runs with just the information above and see the difference it makes. If you’d like more info, go to Seth Freeman’s site where he delves into his framework with much more detail, provides free worksheets, etc. Remember, successful negotiations are most often won in the preparation.

Click for more lift tips