Musashi's Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone) by Musashi Miyamoto

Author:Musashi, Miyamoto
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stickman Publications, Inc.
Published: 2015-12-13T16:00:00+00:00

Businessman:

This is a nice philosophy, it rolls off your tongue in a pleasantly Zen-like way, but as laudable as having no preferences may be it simply isn’t practicable. In business we must have preferences. Let’s begin with the enterprise itself, the reason that we’re able to compete to sell our products and services to folks who might want to buy them. No company can be all things to all consumers. For example, when we hear Nordstrom we usually think about unbeatable service whereas when we hear Walmart we tend to think of unmatched low prices, right? Imagine for a moment if Nordstrom wanted to go head-to-head with Walmart to compete on price. Could they be successful in that endeavor or do you think they would they get sideways with the culture they have carefully nourished for over 110 years, and crash and burn in the process?

Clearly all businesses must build a strategy that helps them differentiate themselves from their competitors in order to win market share, and then carefully focus all their efforts toward bringing that strategy to fruition. It’s vital to focus on what we’re good at. Straying too far from the path tends to end badly. Consider the AOL/Time Warner merger by way of example. Lots of things went wrong, including cultural clashes and lack of synergies between the two heritage company’s business models. Ultimately this led to over a hundred billion dollars in lost capital, an unprecedented disaster, before the union between the two companies was finally dissolved.

Undoubtedly a merger between Nordstrom and Walmart, were one to be attempted, would end just as badly. Not only are their business models and cultures totally different, but also the very things that makes one enterprise successful could easily undermine the other. We can all control costs, but to drive the lowest prices in the industry while simultaneously delivering the highest customer service is virtually impossible. It’s kind of like the old adage, “You can have it right, you can have it cheap, or you can have it fast… pick two.” There are too many trade-offs to accomplish everything all at once.

Similarly, at a macro-level the three main methods of standing out from the competition include focusing primarily on (1) operational excellence, (2) customer intimacy, or (3) product differentiation.[23] We might be able to get two out of three, but no one can have it all. In fact, most companies can only do one of three really well. Here’s how they work:

1) Operational excellence is defined as providing customers with reliable products or services at competitive prices that are delivered with minimal inconvenience. To succeed with this strategy an organization must become world class in continuously improving efficiencies in order to drive profit margins since they are primarily competing on price. Companies that excel in this space include Walmart, UPS, and Dell.

2) Customer intimacy is defined as precisely segmenting and targeting markets, then tailoring offerings that exactly match the demands of customers in each niche. To succeed with this strategy

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