What I Didn't Learn in Business School

• There are always underlining assumptions and biases behind every decision or recommendation.
• Get to know the political landscape, the key stakeholders, shakers and movers.
• Don’t rely too heavily on analytical tools or frameworks when assessing complex problems.
• You will never have perfect information.
• Communicate so that there are no surprises. Keep key people informed of progress.

• Different assumptions lead to different outcomes. The real question is, where do those differences come from in the first place?
• Know who the critical stakeholders are. Know who can implement the recommendations, and even more important, who can stop them from being implemented.
• Have a good sense of the political landscape long before you make your final presentation.
• Use both analysis and change management to transform those likely to resist your recommendations into supporters.
• Even sophisticated financial analysis can be easily swayed by individual biases or corporate politics.

The five forces framework does a great job of helping to identify the competitive threats in an industry. But using this tool to estimate the overall attractiveness of an industry is usually not that helpful.

The five forces are kind of like the wind, the direction that competition within an industry is moving. Strategy is about positioning the firm relative to the prevailing winds and a way to make sure that the firm gets to where wants to go, no matter what direction the wind is blowing

The Five Forces model is widely used to analyze the industry structure of a company as well as its corporate strategy. Porter identified five undeniable forces that play a part in shaping every market and industry in the world, with some caveats. The five forces are frequently used to measure the competition intensity, attractiveness, and profitability of an industry or market.

Porter's five forces are:

1. Competition in the industry

2. Potential of new entrants into the industry

3. Power of suppliers

4. Power of customers

5. Threat of substitute products

• Keep in mind whenever you see someone apply one of these analytical tools, whether it’s the five forces framework or net present value analysis or whatever, they are just tools. It’s the skills, interests, and motives of the person using the tool that determine whether the outcome of the analysis is reasonable.
• When managers present a point of view, assume their point of view reflects some combination of how things actually are and how they want things to be.
• Many managers do an analysis to reaffirm what they already believe.

Three things to think about when considering cooperating with other businesses within a firm to gain synergies:

• Will it be good for business? Will it increase revenue or cut costs?
• Could we achieve cost or quality advantages on our own without cooperation?
• Could we realize these advantages by working with an outside provider?

• Value: Is the strategy valuable? Does it increase a firm’s revenues or reduce its cost compared to not pursuing the strategy?
• Rarity: Does a firm possess unusual skills or other assets that the strategy would utilize?
• Imitate: How long will it take other firms to imitate your strategy? Strategies that are hard to imitate – assuming they are also valuable and rare – are more likely to be a source of long-lasting competitive advantages.
• Organization: Is a firm organized to execute and protect its sources of advantage?

• Have a list of questions prepared before you enter your interview.
• Make it clear that you need to work through your protocol (list of questions) and then just keep going back to it. I usually send mine ahead of the interviewee, along with a summary report of what we know and what we need to know.
• A brief bio and engagement summary prepared in advance will help interviews go better.
• Always ask for names of other people that you should follow up with after the interview is over.
• Always ask for more information sources when you send a thank you note to the people you interview.

Core competencies are activities in the value chain that create economic value, that are rare among a firm’s competitors, and that competitors find difficult to imitate.

Technologies by themselves are not core competencies. But actions firms take to exploit these technologies can be core competencies. And they can sometimes be a source of sustained advantage.

There are a number of reasons why it may be difficult for one firm to imitate the strategy of another, such as…

• Team-based skills
• Legal restrictions on imitation
• Reputation or brand
• Switching costs
• Search costs
• Application experience

• Ability to evaluate business alternatives independently and subjectively
• Working with a team of extremely smart people who can get access to a great deal of good information
• The time to focus on the future of the company rather than being caught up in the day to day responsibilities of running it
• Be well rounded but figure out where your unique area of strength is. Every successful consultant I know has a world-class spike of experience in some area.

• Be aware of the politics of the situation and work them into your strategy.
• Preview leaders ahead of time. No surprises.
• Try to anticipate questions members of the top management team might have about your process or your recommendations.
• Keep key players and clients informed of progress.
• Always address the group, not the screen when giving presentations.