Afleveringen

  • Blank Page to Billions: How an “Ideas Guy” Strategizes

    Blank Page to Billions: How an “Ideas Guy” Strategizes

    · Strategic Minds

    How do you identify and develop the ideas that generate a multi-billion-dollar business using strategic thinking? In this episode, Rich sits down with Bill Harris, former CEO of TurboTax, PayPal and Intuit, and current founder of Evergreen Money. Bill is a prolific founder and “ideas guy” who has spent 30 years building and leading companies at the intersection of investing, tax and technology. Bill shares his framework for startup strategy, his advice for interacting with the board, and the competitive advantage of starting with nothing.

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    Key Quotes:

    “The two most important words in my life are purpose and curiosity, and it's a flare and focus function.”

    “What was important in order to change my life that way was to admit to myself that there were things that I was not good at, and some of those things that I was not good at were central to my understanding of myself.”

    “If you're going to start a business
, it better be new, different, and better.”

    “That is my competitive advantage. I have nothing. And having nothing in a period of rapidly accelerating change is an incredible strategic advantage if you know what to do with it.”

    “I have been blessed by being pretty deep in financial technology, but always being able to find the next vertical or the next use case where I had not done it before. I could see enough into the process to understand what might be done and how it could be improved. Then with inspiration, you start to focus on it and hone the idea.”

    “If you're in trouble, then you have the opportunity to really change the business, the basic foundation and DNA of a corporation.”

    “..starting young companies–going zero to one–strategy, is really product strategy. We're thinking of putting a product together and then how do we go to market and who's our customer base and what are their needs and what is our business model?”

    “I'm talking from my own perspective, which is a startup. You can never focus enough. You can never shave off enough bells and whistles. You can never identify your customer sharply enough. You can never focus your efforts of yourself and your company enough. You have to pick the single most important thing and get it to the single best segment of people who will appreciate it.”

    “The biggest failure is when management feels that it has to go to boards with all the questions answered.”

    “If it's a highly fragmented market, or if you are a new player doing something different, which just means that you're going to be tiny in relation to everybody else who's out there, competition is meaningless.”

    Practice Makes Profit segment: A key criterion of strategy is the trade-off. A trade-off is made when you focus on one area and intentionally exclude others. A method for practicing trade-offs is to use a Trade-off Matrix. Consider where you and your team allocate your resources—time, talent, people, budget—and then evaluate your current tasks, initiatives, meetings, etc. and determine if they should be placed in one of four quadrants: Eliminate, Decrease, Increase, or Create. As Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix said, “If you are not genuinely pained by the risk involved in your strategic choices, then it’s not much of a strategy.”

    The League of Strategic Minds segment [listener question]: What are the primary steps in developing a strategic plan? There are five steps in the strategy development process: 1) Discovery 2) Strategic Thinking 3) Strategic Planning 4) Strategy Rollout 5) Strategy Tune-up

    Winsight: Idea for Advantage segment: Richard Branson, billionaire founder of the Virgin Group said: “The number one thing I take with me is a notebook. I could never have built the Virgin Group into the size it is without those few bits of paper. If you have a thought and don’t write it down, by tomorrow morning, it may be gone forever.”

    Where are you recording your insights each day and how often are you going back to review them?

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    Time stamps:

    (1:41) Deep Dive Interview with Bill Harris

    (47:32) Practice Makes Profit

    (49:21) League of Strategic Minds

    (51:50) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage

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    Links:

    Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds

    Bill Harris LinkedIn

    The Investment Tax Guide, by Bill Harris


    Rich Horwath on LinkedIn

    Rich Horwath on YouTube

    Rich Horwath on Instagram

    Strategic Thinking Institute Website

    Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book

    New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System
    Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter

    [Subscribe to the Podcast]
    On Apple Podcasts

    On Spotify

  • Gold-Medal-Winning Strategy

    Gold-Medal-Winning Strategy

    · Strategic Minds

    How does a winning Olympic coach approach strategy? In this episode, Rich sits down with Hugh McCutcheon, the Assistant Athletics Director and Sport Development Coach at the University of Minnesota. Hugh coached the US Men’s Volleyball team to the gold medal at the 2008 Olympic games, then coached the US Women’s volleyball team to the silver medal at the 2012 Olympic games. He shares his thoughts on coaching, competition, practice, and team-building.

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    Key Quotes:

    “As a coach and a leader, we're a service provider. The service we're providing is helping the people who are investing the most precious resource they have, their lives, in our endeavor. We're trying to help them to achieve this goal. And that's a significant responsibility.”

    “I've got nothing wrong with tradition, right? But tradition should only be the right reason for doing anything when it's the right reason. We shouldn't just keep doing stuff just because that's the way we've always done it. We should be basing our stuff in best practice methods.”

    “There's not just a physical element to the moment of competition, but there's a mental one, and even a social component that goes on in competition. And the mental is not just about performance and executing. It's also about emotional control, which, by the way, is not emotional suppression. We all have emotions. It's creating a space between the emotion and the action.”

    Practice Makes Profit

    At it’s foundation, a plan should answer two questions:
    What are you trying to achieve?

    How will you achieve it?

    To answer these questions clearly and consistently I developed the GOST Framework, which stands for goals, objectives, strategies and tactics. Goals and objectives answer the “What” question—goal is generally what you are trying to achieve and objectives are specifically what you are trying to achieve. Strategy and tactics answer the “How” question—strategy is generally how you will reach the goal and tactics are specifically how you will reach the goal.

    Example:

    Goal: Build a culture of high performance.

    Objective: Retain 90% of high performers (those rated 4s & 5s) through Q4 of this year.

    Strategy: Significantly differentiate bonus compensation based on performance.

    Tactics: Create a bonus comparison chart and share with teams; Design a quarterly performance scorecard;

    Communicate top performers’ results.

    League of Strategic Minds

    Question: How often should we be looking at our strategy and making changes?

    Answer: Use a Strategy Tune-up on a quarterly basis consisting of a 2-4 hour review of the current business situation and calibrate goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics accordingly.

    Winsights: Ideas for Advantage

    Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian General and renowned military strategist wrote: “There is no higher and simpler law of strategy than that of keeping one's forces concentrated.”

    Where is the single most important area for you and your team to focus your resources?

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    Time stamps:

    (01:04) Deep Dive Interview with Hugh McCutcheon

    (47:09) Practice Makes Profit

    (50:17) League of Strategic Minds

    (52:39) Winsights, Ideas for Advantage

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    Links:

    Submit a question for Rich to the League of Strategic Minds


    Rich Horwath on LinkedIn

    Rich Horwath on YouTube

    Rich Horwath on Instagram

    Strategic Thinking Institute Website

    Inc. Magazine’s Top 4 book for 2024: STRATEGIC Book

    New executive development platform: Strategic Fitness System
    Sign up for Rich’s free Strategic Thinker Newsletter

    Hugh McCutcheon LinkedIn
    Championship Behaviors, by Hugh McCutcheon

    [Subscribe to the Podcast]
    On Apple Podcasts

    On Spotify

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  • Strategic Minds Trailer

    Strategic Minds Trailer

    · Strategic Minds

    Are you tactical or strategic?

    Research shows that this distinction is the difference between failure and a Kevlar competitive advantage.

    In a world where bad strategy is the leading cause of bankruptcy – and only one out of every four leaders is truly strategic – strategic fitness is the meta-skill of elite executives.

    Welcome to Strategic Minds, the podcast that explores how some of the greatest thinkers, leaders, and achievers use a strategic approach to excel in their fields.

    I’m your host, Rich Horwath, New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of 8 books including, STRATEGIC, and I’ll be your guide as we do a deep dive into conversations with extraordinary leaders and world-class experts to learn new ways to think, plan, and act strategically.

    You’ll discover game-changing insights, tips, and techniques to turbocharge your strategic leadership performance and position you as a true difference-maker in your arena.

    Welcome to Strategic Minds.