Strategic Discipline Blog

It’s been asked of me, “Why all the emphasis on Outthinking?”

DISRUPTION IS COMING TO YOUR BUSINESS.  If it hasn’t already, it will be.  This graph shares the evidence we’ve already seen in business and industry’s affected by disruptive technology.

It’s why I’ll be sharing this concept with those of you joining our Scaling Up Business Growth Workshop in Cedar Rapids, IA, November 1^st.  If you haven’t signed up or downloaded the flyer please do.  Discover the details by clicking on the link, or find the invitation at the right on your desktop, or near the bottom of this blog on your mobile device.

Several of my blogs share the 5 most commonly used strategies by Outthinkers to disrupt their competition to achieve success, according to Outthink the Competition: How a New Generation of Strategists Sees Options Others Ignore by Kaihan Krippendorff:

1. Move Early to the Next Battleground
2. Coordinate the Uncoordinated
3. Force a Two Front Battle
4. Be Good
5. Create Something Out of Nothing

You may wish to review them.  They contain examples of several companies already enjoying the disruptive capabilities Krippendorff shares in his book.

Your OUTthinker Score

Kaihan Krippendorff will keynote our Monday morning Coaches Summit in St. Louis.  Gazelles coaches meet two days before our Scaling Up Summits to sharpen our skills, recertify, and learn best practices. Kaihan Krippendorff, the developer of the Outthinker Process®, a past keynote speaker at Gazelles Growth Summits, is now partnering with Gazelles International Coaches to develop a customized version of the Outthinker methodology tailored for our Gazelles Coaching community. I’ve already begun this process, completing an on-line workshop Krippendorff offers.

One of the first steps to develop any process is to benchmark where you are now.  Create a baseline.  “Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.”

In the Outthinkers course Krippendorff provides a self-assessment on where you currently are in the Outthinker concept. 

How do you believe your business is doing as an OUTthinker?

Success KEY: Differentiating Yourself From Your Competition

Ever since I began studying advertising and business success in college, I’ve relentlessly pursued how businesses' can differentiate themselves..  When Al Reis and Jack Trout began their books series on Positioning with an article, Industrial Marketing, published in 1969, I voraciously devoured any ideas to help my customers learn to differentiate.  Positioning Systems is named with the intention to coach my customers how to differentiate.

Your businesses’ success depends on your ability to differentiate yourself from the competition. The more unique you are, the longer competitors will become attracted to your success and copy you, the longer you can maintain faster growth and greater profitability.

Krippendorff developed The Outthinker Score to measure your level of competitiveness. The higher your score, the easier it will be for you to grow fast and profitable. Krippendorff research shows, if you can increase your score over your competition, you will achieve 40% faster growth and/or profitability.

The graphic you see here is the Outthinker Assessment.  If you’d like to have you and your team discover and calibrate your current Outthinker Assessment Score, follow the link to download the form.  Complete the assessment, thinking about how your company is today, not as you want it to be in the future.

If you are working on a brand-new company you should complete the assessment thinking about what your current plans are. In other words, many of the dimensions ask about what your current thinking or business plan says you would do.

For each of the 8 dimensions, rate your business as being “behind” the competition, “competitive” with the competition, or “different and superior” to the competition. Read each statement. Circle the one that best describes your business. Place your score in the last column.

When I was in radio I recall one of our customers who owned a car wash.   He didn’t feel he truly had any competition.  I asked, “What are customers who are not using your product or service now doing instead?”  Turns out his competition were the people who washed their own cars by hand.  The point?  Ask the question(italics): Your answer, is your competition.

Complete the assessment to determine where your business is. It will be helpful as we continue this discussion on developing a much better plan for next year and your near future.  It will create urgency and focus you on a vital difference your business needs to survive. 

Looking to do this type of exercise with your team for your business? Plan to attend Scaling Up Business Growth Workshop in Cedar Rapids, IA. We’ll share ideas on how to Outthink Your Competition our Scaling Up and Strategic Discipline principles.

Want to discuss OUTthink the Competition with your business?  Contact dwick@positioningsystems.com.  Or take our Four Decisions Needs Assessment to discover how your business measures against Scaled Up companies. Then we’ll contact you.

The Beginning Of A Great Strategy: Clarity On What You Want – Next Blog

Kaihan Krippendorff believes, as do I, you can have anything you want from your business … but most companies, even very large, established ones, don’t know WHAT they want.  How do you gain clarity and build urgency in your strategy and planning? Great companies solve problems that matter.  Next blog we develop a great question for your business to do exactly that.