This collection of ten articles on business strategy is a testament to the quality of the Harvard Business Review. The articles are top notch, and teach a lot of the difficult art of business strategy. The benefit comes in the fact that this is a collection. Rather than having to search out through disparate books you get all of them in one nice package. The main focus of these articles rests on three foundations: placing your business into a strong position, organizing your company into an efficient machine, and recognizing the environment you are operating in.

What is Strategy? by Michael E. Porter

The main thrust of this article, by the guru of business strategy shows that when companies compete on operational effectiveness, they are bound to lose over the long run, as other companies will be able to copy their practices quickly, and businesses will start to look alike. Whereas, by using strategic positioning by putting a business into a distinctive position that is hard to copy a company can thrive. One does this by performing different activities from rivals, or doing similar activities in different ways.

The Five Competitive Forces that Face Strategy by Michael E. Porter

Here Porter analyzes all the major factors facing a company. These are the customers, suppliers, entrants, substitute offerings, and established rivals. One must look beyond the competitive rivals to place oneself in a strong strategic position. These forces can all work against a company, but a smart strategist will use them all to his or her advantage. One cannot merely list out the options for each of these forces but look deeply and creatively into the problems they propose.

Building Your Company’s Vision by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras

To truly succeed in business, a company needs two things: a core ideology and an envisioned future. The core ideology is a guiding light or ideals that explains why the company exists, beyond making money. It is something that can never be completely achieved but always striven for which keeps the company on track. The envisioned future is the reachable goals that a company must set for itself along that path. They should be “big hairy audacious goals (BHAGs.) These are attainable but fluid goals that can change with changing market conditions. This duality of a core ideology and an envisioned future can apply to one’s life in addition to one’s business.

Reinventing Your Business Model by Mark W. Johnson, Clayton M. Christensen and Henning Kagerman

To truly succeed in business and life one needs a great business model. Impressive business models remake entire industries and create amazing development. Knowing whether to change your business model is a difficult question to answer, but there are some steps that make it easier. 1. Articulate what

makes your existing model successful. 2. Watch for signals that your model needs changing, such as tough new competitors on the horizon. 3. Decide whether reinventing your model is worth the effort. The answer’s yes only if the new model changes the industry or market. If you do decide to take the plunge and reinvent your business or life model, I wish you luck and expect great returns.

Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Ki and Renee Mauborgne

This is possibly my favorite article in the book. The article tells businesses and individuals to stop competing in overcrowded industries, or red oceans. These markets and industries become cutthroat and the water fills with blood. Instead find uncontested market spaces where the competition is irrelevant, blue oceans. If you can find this uncontested space, and it is everywhere, you can make enormous profits and thrive for years to come. Read this article if you only decide to read one.

The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution by Gary L. Neilson, Karla L. Martin and Elizabeth Powers

Even if you have a great strategy, found your uncontested space, and are poised to make unbelievable gains, all this is for nothing if you do not execute. Implementation is one of the hardest parts of strategy development but it does not have to be. In fact it can be quite easy if you plan for two things in your strategy; who gets to make what decisions, and ensuring information flows where it’s needed. Be critical of who is best situated to make certain decisions. Do not hoard them because you feel special or powerful, there is probably someone more capable or knowledgeable to make certain decisions effectively.

Also be sure to keep your business in tiptop shape by having people work together to spread information. Managers need to move both laterally and vertically, so as not to create silos in your company. If people work together they are bound to share best practices and much needed information. With these two things implemented into your strategy things get much easier.

Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton

Most companies self evaluate solely using the budget. Which makes sense, there are easy to follow numbers on a budget. It is much harder to track the intangibles. But the intangibles are where the strategy meets its greatest obstacles, and where the greatest success lies. So in addition to tracking the budget of a company, leadership should also focus on three things. 1. A company’s relationship with its customers. 2. The key internal processes. 3. Its learning and growth. By adding these things into a quarterly and yearly review, there will be more cross business buy in and a focus on true implementation of the strategy.

Transforming Corner-Office Strategy into Frontline Action by Orit Gadiesh and James L. Gilbert

A company needs a strong strategic principle that it follows at all times. If a company has one and focuses on it, all employees can base their decisions off of it. If a decision applies to the principle, even though it is something that hasn’t been done before it is likely to be a good idea. Think Southwest Airlines, “Meet customers’ short-haul travel needs at fares competitive with the cost of automobile travel.” If a decision that needs to be made follows this principle, Southwest implements it. If not, they don’t do it even if it might make them more money in the short term. By sticking to a simple and easy principle, decisions about strategy become much simpler.

Turning Great Strategy into Great Performance by Michael C. Mankins and Richard Steele

Strategy rarely delivers in the business world. But you can make it more likely that it will if you follow certain principles. These include keeping your strategy simple and concrete, identify priorities, challenge assumptions, and continuously monitor performance as you roll out your strategic plan. If these rules are followed, your strategy has a much higher chance of continued success. Which is all anyone really wants.

Who Has the D? How Clear Decision Roles Enhance Organizational Performance by Paul Rogers and Marcia Blenko

Who decides what? That is the eternal question. It is what gives strategy teeth and accountability. But it is often forgotten and lost in the hubbub of business meetings and the day to day life. Paul Rogers and Marcia Blenko advise using the RAPID system to make decisions. Each letter corresponds to a role for someone in a decision making process. Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, and Decide are the core people of any decision. It gives certain roles, and makes decision making more fluid and less challenging. It also gets rid of the bike-shed problem of most businesses. Where no one argues the production of a manufacturing plant, but everyone has an opinion of what the bike shed next to it should look like. Once the person that gets to make the decision decides, it is final and the right people are held accountable. You will be amazed at how RAPIDly your business improves.

All of these articles serve as great guidelines in managing not only your business but even your life. They allow one to see the opportunities that no one else sees, while understanding the trade offs that come in life. Strategy is simple to understand, but hard to implement. These great authors do their best to lighten the load. Read this book to better grasp an elusive topic. It may not be for everyone, but those that need it can find no better substitute.

“Everybody is fighting something.”

Renzo Gracie, the famed Brazilian Jujitsu fighter, could not have said it any better. We are all facing challenges everyday. Whether it is addiction, the office nemesis, our diets, our self-image, our debt, etc., we are all fighting to survive. That is life.

Most of us would prefer not to be fighters. We dislike casting things in a live-or-die scenario, and the mental grit to succeed against opponents of all kinds is not something we are born with. However, it can be developed, and it should be developed.

The stories told in this book remind the reader that the human body is capable of amazing, miraculous things. One simply has to get their mind right. That means you will have to destroy your ego, build your mental toughness, and never stop improving.

To be the best, at fighting or anything else, one needs to accept that they can lose. Failure is an option. It does not matter how well trained you are or how well prepared you are for a task. There is still a chance of failure. However, once you accept this, the likelihood of failure drops.

Maturity is a big part of success in fighting.  Maturity means you understand the game – you understand that losing is part of the game. It doesn’t mean letting yourself be conquered, but it does mean knowing you can win again, and that at the right time you can be great. The key to doing well in competition is to accept. Accept you can lose, that you [cannot] perform. Take this big bag of rocks out of your backpack, take that pressure off, and you’ll do better. Once you understand that, man, you can do well. (Ricardo Liborio, p.70.)

“The most humble guys, who are the most open and willing to learn, are the ones who become the best (p. 81.)” You have to be willing to lose, and know that it is a part of life. If not, you will always lose your battles because you are fighting the man or woman in the mirror instead of the opponent in front of you. Tell yourself “I am just like everyone else. My work can be great, but I’m nothing special (p.197.)” Once the ego is crushed and left on the curb, the real fun begins. Training is all about mental toughness.

“It never always gets worse” is the mantra of David Horton, a legendary ultra-marathoner. The phrase tells you everything you need to know about pain. This is a man that runs ungodly distances, without stopping, distances that would break most of the toughest men and women in the world. Once you understand that whatever hardship or pain you are going through doesn’t always stay bad, you can truly fight through any pain. Pain becomes an illusion.

Ghandi said, “ Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I

cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability (p.18.)” Your body and mind can handle much more than you are willing to admit. Believing in yourself is a great way to train your mind to suffer any hardship. This is not ego, because you have a goal. You cannot just expect to be the greatest because you want to be, you have to be striving for something. “The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win,” Roger Bannister, first man to run a mile under four minutes (p.13.)

Anyone who has ever achieved at the highest levels, whether in sport, business, war, or life, is constantly improving. There are no natural talents that come without work. Demanding work.  We live in a world of the highlight reel; comparing ourselves to people’s accomplishments and activities they are willing to show the world. I blame Facebook, but the point is that no one shares the amount of work they put in to get to the top of the mountain.  Getting to the top is not easy, and will take over your life, but it is the price to pay for greatness. “The real guys know if they keep at it they can win a title (p.102.)” What ever you are fighting against you must be willing to put in the reps and the work to be able to face your opponent straight on, knowing that you left nothing up to chance. You prepared for every contingency. If you can do that you can win.

“Fighting has that beautiful bottom line: win (p.111.)” Winning is the thing we all want to do. It means we get to survive until the next fight, we get to sleep through the night and reap our rewards. This does not come easily, especially when you are pursuing ambitious goals. This book shows you how to keep attacking and how to keep not taking no for an answer.

The only person standing in the way of your dreams is you. Will you get out of the way? You can have an easy life or an awesome life, your choice, but choose wisely.

Looking for one book to improve your business, relationships, and life? I cannot recommend How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie, enough. This book will teach you the one skill that is always in demand in any business or personal setting, the skill of being a people person.

Dale Carnegie was a master people person. In this book, he shares everything that he learned.  This book will teach you how to handle people, how to make them like you, how to win people over to your way of thinking, and how to be a leader.

Handling people is one of the skills that makes a great people person. Without it, one often finds people to be obstinate and challenging. Carnegie demonstrates that the easiest way to handle people is to arouse in the other person an eager want. Remembering that nobody ever does anything without wanting to do it themselves will make your life much easier. Get someone to want what you want, and you are on your way. “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in our ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from our own,” Henry Ford (p.35.)

Making people like you depends on many skills. The easiest is probably to be genuinely interested in other people, and to listen while encouraging others to talk about themselves. Of course, becoming genuinely interested in other people means that you like other people. You can’t expect someone else to like you if you don’t like him or her back. Publilus Syrus said, “We are interested in others when they are interested in us (p.61.)” When you care about the other person, they are more willing to open up. Listening to other people is also important, especially when you can get them to talk about themselves. Everyone’s favorite topic of conversation is himself or herself, so if you want them to like you, do not waste your time trying to steer the conversation to you. Be a good listener and appreciate the other person, and they will like you.

A person’s toothache means more to that person than a famine in China which kills a million people. A boil on one’s neck interests one more than forty earthquakes in Africa. Think of that the next time you start a conversation (p.88.)

Now when you want to start influencing people, the fun really begins. Remember the only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it. As much as I am loath to admit it (and my family would agree,) even if I “win”when I argue with people, I never really win. As Benjamin Franklin said, “If you argue and rankle and contradict, you may achieve a victory sometimes; but it will be an empty victory because you will never get your opponent’s good will (p.112.)” If these words don’t encourage me to argue less, I don’t know what will.

To bring others around to your point of view, do as Socrates did and get them

to say yes a couple of times. After they say it once they are more likely to say it again. But if they say no to something at first they are much more likely to continue saying it. Get them to make small concessions up front, that make the big asks more palatable down the road. The Chinese have a saying, “he who treads softly goes, far (p.149.)” It is also important when seeking to influence someone to let them do most of the talking. Often they will convince themselves of your point of view, or give you the ammunition you need to convince them. So pay attention, shut your mouth, and things get much easier.

Do you want to know the one sentence you can say that will disarm another person and make them willing to hear your point of view? It is quite simple. “I don’t blame you one iota for feeling as you do. If I were you I would undoubtedly feel just as you do, (p.167.)” As Henry Ford said, seeing through the eyes of the other person makes life much easier to manage and influence.

Being a leader means having to handle people, getting them to like you, and winning them over to your way of thinking. The best ways to do that are to begin with praise and honest appreciation and to give the other person a fine reputation to live up to. People hate to be criticized; it puts them on the defensive. They will be unwilling to listen to anything you have to say once you begin with criticizing. But as a leader you will often have to critique your followers to get them to change. To do this, start by complimenting them honestly for what they have done or about them, and then state your criticisms. You will butter the person up and they will be more likely to accept your criticism.

Have you ever heard the phrase “Fake it till you make it?”  It works both ways, if you would like a follower to exhibit a certain trait act like they already have it. Tell them they are honest, and they will try to remain honest to not lose your trust. Tell them they are lazy, and that is what they will become. People don’t want good opinions of themselves to be wrong, so they will do their best to live up to them. There is an old saying, “Give a dog a bad name and you may as well hang him (p. 224.)” Don’t give your employees and followers a bad name, give them a good name to live up to, and you will be very impressed.

The principles in this book are simple, obvious and easy-to-follow. Yet, most people forget them most of the time. I know I do. But if we improve on them a little bit at a time, every day, we can truly become great people people. I hope you read this book, and learn even more of the principles of influencing people and making friends. However, if all you do is take the advice I have summarized here, you will be well on your way. Keep reading, and enjoy the journey of your life.

Execution is one of those business books that deal with a topic everyone thinks they know about, but few can deliver on. This book delivers. If you have ever set a goal and failed to reach it, and wonder what happened or how can I improve next time; this is the book to read. Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan effectively and methodically break down the “discipline of getting things done” in such a way that if followed amazing results are bound to occur.

Bossidy and Charan take as much of the variables out of the equation of success, by answering for as many of them as they can and getting rid of as many that they can’t. Rather than setting stretch goals without a plan to get there; one must always be willing to ask: how will I do it, who is going to accomplish this, what will we do if things aren’t going according to plan?

Some people and companies seem to always get the job done. They follow through on their promises and achieve their audacious goals. Most people think this is luck, but in reality there is nothing further from the truth. These individuals and companies execute because they have no other option. They understand the problems they face and the process they will use to overcome them that the obstacles fade into the rearview. They are executors, they get things done.

To be a leader that executes in business and in life, there are certain skills/knowledge that one needs to have to succeed.

• Know your people and your business
• Insist on realism
• Set clear goals and priorities
• Follow through
• Reward the doers
• Expand people’s capabilities
• Know yourself

These are all important things to keep in my when starting any business venture or change in your life, and I am going to go into each of these a little more specifically. Sure everyone can say they know their people and their business. But how much do you really know? Do you know what each of your employee’s strengths and weaknesses are? Do you know what gets them going in the morning to come into work? You should know the company and people inside and out. Don’t just listen to what is reported to you, go out and verify, ask tough questions, be fanatical in finding out the truth. Live for your people and your business and you will succeed.

A leader must also insist on realism in everything they do if they are going to execute. It is okay to have goals and dreams to achieve, but if you don’t know how to get there you might as well say you want to fly. You cannot lie, be honest about mistakes and failures. Figure out where you can improve. Ask people HOW and if they don’t have a good answer, make them find one or else they are likely to fail.

Setting clear goals and priorities is extremely important. There are few things that someone must focus on to succeed, but if they don’t know what they are they are languishing. “A leader who says ‘I’ve got ten priorities’ doesn’t know what he is talking about – he doesn’t know himself what the most important things are (p.69)” It doesn’t matter how fast you run if you’re running in the wrong direction. Set your goals, and figure out how to get there.

Follow through is how goals get accomplished. Make people or yourself accountable to goals. Do not just have good ideas, assign their completion to certain people, or to yourself with deadlines. If you think your people are not willing to do what you need to do, set up a system where you will both know quite quickly if there was follow through. It is amazing what a nudge of accountability will bring out in your employees and yourself.

Rewarding the doers is the easiest task of the great leader. The people and goals that succeed deserve rewards. Those that don’t achieve their goals don’t get rewards. People won’t work hard if the incentives aren’t right. Getting that right is important, but once you do, you are golden. Be careful not to reward those who reached their goals due to no fault of their own though, it is better to reward those who missed their goals but executed better than anyone else could have in their situation. If people have a reason to execute and actually get to their goals, they are more likely to accomplish them.

How do you expand people’s capabilities? You coach them. You can’t expect your team to succeed if you don’t share with them the knowledge and insights you have gained over the years. Make your people better by making them work on their weaknesses. If someone fails at a goal, do not berate him or her, but teach him or her how to do it better next time. Teach them to analyze their problems and see what they need help on. If you teach people to plan realistically within their own capabilities, you will generate more executors than you will know what to do with (this is a good thing.) Create challenges for people rather than problems, and people will rise to the task at hand, rather than languishing in defeat.

By far, the most important aspect of being a leader that executes is knowing yourself. Be realistic about your strengths and weakness, what you know, what your goals are, what you can improve on. Develop emotional fortitude to accept where you are weak, and strive to get better. Be the most authentic version of you that you can be. If you are aware of who you are, and be that person every day without lying to yourself or others, eventually you will be able to master yourself. Your actions are the best actions for you, your ego doesn’t take over, you can change and adapt to new ideas and actions, and be true to yourself. However, the most important aspect of all of this is humility. Without humility, you are merely a tyrant forcing your will on others. That is not a good leader, and you should strive for me. You can listen more to others, and be able to learn from anyone and anything. This skill most of all will propel you towards success.

These skills will allow any leader to excel and be on the path to execution at all times. Mistakes will happen, but they will become less and less over time. This is not all that Execution has to offer, but I hope it is enough to whet your appetite. Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan truly do tackle this subject in much more depth than I

could ever do justice in a post like this. So do yourself a favor, get one thing done for me. Read this book, and put your life on track for success.

The Federalist Papers is a collection of eighteenth-century political propaganda essays written to convince the people to ratify the Constitution of the United States of America. Written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison anonymously under the pseudonym of Publius, the name of a founder and savior of the republic of Rome. The consistency of the writing of the three under the penname is remarkable, so much so that I do not care to distinguish who wrote which essay (though there is much scholarly debate.) It is not just a history lesson, but also a lesson in psychology and political affairs. These essays changed the course of human history, and are some of the best writing I have ever read. It made me fall in love with America with every page (I already loved America a lot.) This should be required reading for all elected officials in our national government. This collection of essays demonstrably and categorically outlines republican government, man, and the U.S. Constitution.

My biggest pet peeve in the world is when I hear about the “democracy of America.” Let me be very clear, America is not a democracy, and never was a democracy. America is a democratic republic, huge difference. This allows for the public to choose the people who make choices for them rather than having a winner takes all strategy. The real benefit of this is that the wolves and dogs have to fight over who gets the sheep. It also means that major changes in policy aren’t enacted that the public will soon regret just because the public is embroiled over a recent controversy. (Or at least that is what is supposed to happen.)

The two great points of difference between a democracy and a republic are: first, the delegation of the government, in the latter, to a small number of citizens elected by the rest; secondly, the greater number of citizens and greater sphere of country over which the latter may be extended (No. 10)

Why do people think America is a democracy? Because no one seems to have read the Constitution, ever; and the media and the public all shout to the heavens of the beauty of democracy. Democracy is fine, but if we want to live there we need to change the Constitution. The main reason the U.S. is a republic is to prevent any one man or woman to become too powerful in government. Because as Publius says “Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm (No. 10.)” Sadly many of the precautions set up in the Constitution to prevent the accumulation of powers have been slowly degraded over time.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions (No. 51.)

The United States was designed to protect the interests of free men, in the best way the founders knew how, by creating a republic. They did an admirable job. The founders took into account the great history of government, and their knowledge of the human condition to create a set of laws that helped shape the world. They understood the virtues and vices of men, and protected posterity accordingly.

As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves. The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of propriety originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests (No. 10.)

I don’t believe that any man or woman alive truly believes that they are perfect. Much less that the people they elect to positions of power are perfect. Human nature is a beautiful thing; it cannot be contained, constrained, or ordained. However, men have decided that governments are necessary to provide guidance and power over others in the interest of the common good. This is why we need a set of laws like the Constitution.

But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary (No. 51)

The U.S. Constitution is one of the finest pieces of writing ever created. I admit it, I love America, and refuse to apologize for it in any way. I may not like certain politicians, or actions that the government has taken, but I believe in the promise of America. This promise is the hallowed words inscribed and agreed on over 200 years ago. They are the words that allowed for prosperity to encompass the world. They are words that brought freedom to more countries and peoples than the world has probably ever seen. Many throughout the world may hate America, but we have given those people the right to hate us. It is their right as free men and women.

The framers of the Constitution understood that the best kind of government is the government that governs the least, and they designed the federal government the best they could under this framework.

The powers delegated to the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign

commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State (No. 45.)

We as a nation have not always lived up to the promises of the Constitution. The powers of the federal government have certainly increased over time, some would argue unbearably so. Yet the beauty of America still shines through, because we have a foundation of stone. The Constitution of the U.S. is a beautiful piece of writing, and enlightening in its own right. I recommend everyone read it before they try to tackle the Federalist Papers, but if anyone reads both, I imagine they would find new pride and love towards the United States of America. So please read the Constitution, remind yourself the frailties of human nature, and remember the Republic for which we stand.