JACK MIXNER STRATEGY

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Michael Phelps - deserve ably - got a lot of press after the Beijing Olympics.  His first Olympic gold medal wasn't in Beijing. It was in Athens, four years earlier. The story of that win forms the first chapter of Phelps' obligatory book after all the medals in China.

There's one quote that sticks in my mind, from his father when Michael was seven (Phelps, 22):

If I was playing sports, no matter what it was, my father's direction was simple: Go hard and, remember, good guys finish second. That didn't mean that you were supposed to be a jerk, but it did mean that you were there to compete as hard as you could. The time to be friends was after the race; during it, the idea was to win.

The quote comes from Phelps' description of his first win (of six golds and two bronzes) in Athens, the Games before Beijing, when he won the 400 meter individual medley; four strokes, the equivalent of the swimming decathlon. Through Phelps' whole story, that paragraph proves crucial. Work hard, absolutely. Win when it mattered, too.

Reference

Phelps, Michael with Alan Abrahamson. No Limits. The Will to Succeed. Free Press. 2008.

Posted by jackmixner at 01:47 PM | Permalink

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I have favorite places that I always think about with these few words, "Don't tell anybody." They're favorite places I like to visit because they're beautiful in their own right, or they're pretty free of traffic or crowds. The 395 north from Victorville to, say, Reno, might qualify over much of its distance. My skiing friends will know all about the 395 because Mammouth is along the way. So will Sierra backpackers.

I sometimes have books like that, as well. "Don't tell anybody," I think, "these are special, just for me." Michael Lewis's book Coach is like that. I like all of Lewis's books, but this one is extra special. It's easy to carry around. You can read it in one session.

Coach is about Lewis's coach in high school. A hard ass kind of guy, Coach made sure that everyone on his teams understood why it was important to work hard. As times went on, Coach's environment changed what with domineering and protective parents butting in every time Coach intimidated little Jimmy. The last time I read Coach, I found some lines that are worth sharing. Having read them, you might decide to get the book for yourself:

I never had any great sense of what Fitz made of the world outside his baseball program. Not much, I'd guess. He was running an organization that, like the Franciscan order or the Marine Corps, depended on a more difficult system of values than that of the greater society.

In a similar manner, we find ourselves in organizations with different value systems. That's what makes them successful.

Reference

Lewis, Michael. Coach. Lessons on the Game of Life. W. W. Norton & Company. 2005.

Posted by jackmixner at 01:30 PM | Permalink

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Bennis, Warren G. and Robert J. Thomas. Geeks & Geezers. How Era, Values, and Defining Moments Shape Leaders. Harvard Business School Press. 2002.

Dickinson, Boonsri. Power Struggle. Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. Wired. July 2011.

L'Amour, Louis. Taggart. Bantam Book. 1959.

Lewis, Michael. Coach. Lessons on the Game of Life. W. W. Norton & Company. 2005.

Mead, Russel. The Tea Party and American Foreign Policy. What Populism Means for Globalism. Foreign Affairs. March/April 2011. 29.

Palermo, Richard C. Do The Right Things... Right. A Step-By-Step Guide to World-Class Performace. The Strategic Triangle, Inc. 2003.

Parinello, Anthony. Selling to VITO the Very Important Top Officer. Adams Media Corporation. 1999.

Paul, Alan. Big In China. My unlikely adventures raising a family, playing the blues, and becoming a star in Beijing. Harper. 2011.

Phelps, Michael with Alan Abrahamson. No Limits. The Will to Succeed. Free Press. 2008.

Prahalad, C. K. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Pvoerty Through Profits. Pearson Education. 2010.

Prud'homme, Alex. The Ripple Effect. The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-first Century. Scribner. 2011.

Reagan, Ronald. Edited by Douglas Brinkley. The Notes. Ronald Reagan's Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom. Harper. 2011.

Rich, Stanley R. and David E. Gumpert. Business Plans That Win $$$. Lessons From the MIT Enterprise Forum. Perrenial Library. 1985.

Schumpeter. The Bottom of the Pyramid. The Economist. 25 June 2011. 80.

Stack, Jack with Bo Burlingham. The Great Game of Business. Currency Doubleday. 1992.

Tanz, Jason. A Thousand Points of Infrared Light. Kinect Xbox. Wired. July 2011. 114.

Goetz, Thomas. The Feedback Loop. How Technology has turned an age-old concept into an exciting new strategy for changing human befavior.  Wired. July 2011. 126.

Posted by jackmixner at 12:40 PM | Permalink

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Two things on Bennis's new book:

• His first book (of forty or so) was entitled Planning for Change. It was published in 1961.
• Proximity is important. Bennis's advice to Colin Powell when he was Secretary of State was to move into the White House, or at least have an office there. Powell didn't do it. The result was that he was the one who had to justify Iraq to a sceptical congress. No one ever really trusted him again.  I'll repeat that advice again. Proximity is important. If you are not close to your teams as they strategize on new strategies and then carry things out, you are much less likely to create successful strategies. Do you have to do everything? No. Does it pay to be close by? Yes.

Reference

Bennis, Warren. Still Surprised. A Memoir of a Life in Leadership. Jossey-Bass. 2010.

Posted by jackmixner at 11:11 AM | Permalink

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Evidence of disruptive technology (Mixner):

• Simple
• Cheap
• Faster to market with new up-grades
• Maybe not quite as good as what out there, but useful.
• One or two unique features that pique folks interest, probably based on very good design elements.

Let's compare that list to the reality of 3-D movies, cameras, laptops, and televisions.

• Manufacturing 3-D, in whatever form, is not simpler than regular technology.
• It's not cheaper either, at least so far.
• It's more complex; upgrades take longer.
• It is better, seemingly, than 2-D, especially in the applications where you don't have to wear some type of special 3-D glasses.
• Yes, 3-D is interesting. It does pique my interest. There's only one problem. It's not cheaper. I said that already.

When 3-D is simpler, cheaper, faster to market, useful, I'll be more interested in buying it. Maybe that means I am a late adopter. So be it. As it stands right now, 3-D isn't disruptive. It's just the next greatest thing that may or may not make it in the marketplace. The movie-going public has voted. They're not willing to pay the $3 to $5 distributors want for a ticket to a new movie release. Directors and producers are scared (Barnes). They should be.

Reference

Barnes, Brooks. As 3-D Falls From Favor, Director of 'Transformers' Goes on Offensive to Promote It. New York Times. 22 June 11. ttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/business/media/22transformers.html?ref=technology

Mixner, Jack. Disruptive Strategy. Small Companies Have the Edge. 23 Sept 2008.   http://mixnerstrategy.com/blog/2008/09/disruptive_technology_smaller.html

Posted by jackmixner at 10:36 AM | Permalink