How to gain a stronger understanding of the business world

Key quotes:

• "People are not putting out their best work because they’re just not invested in making the company succeed."
• "“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” — Theodore Roosevelt Strong relationships will strengthen your company in two key ways: In over 40 years of being an entrepreneur, starting my own businesses, and helping others succeed, I’ve learned that you can’t be a successful business owner without building excellent relationships."
• "If they don’t have a real, personal connection, your people won’t feel invested in your company."
• "We can always find others doing the same thing or selling the same product; it’s the personal connection that makes the difference.” — Nader Cserny Setting yourself apart in an untouchable corner office will not make you or your company great."
• "“A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe It’s been said that you don’t build a business."

Key quotes:

• "When coming up with new directions for innovation, or when you’re taking the first steps on your startup journey, it’s all about understanding the problem you want to solve."
• "But besides customer centred information, you’ll probably also do market research, look at competitors, get insights on trends and technological developments, and try to divine what the future may hold in terms of e.g."
• "Don’t worry too much about connecting them yet, it’s fine to take a bit of time to look at e.g."
• "(If you have more time, it can pay off to do all of them) The Uncertainty Matrix has two axes: The horizontal ‘impact’ axis defines the magnitude of the impact a trend may have on your business."
• "But it is not just daydreaming: scenario planning helps you to connect each of the scenarios you come up with to the world of today, by looking for evidence in the trends underlying that scenario."

Key quotes:

• "This is a no non-sense blog post intended to provide you with strictly actionable steps to build strong business acumen (in case you are a beginner) or further strengthen your acumen (in case you are experienced)."
• "Case in point — I started with commenting on the posts of others on LinkedIn back in my second semester and participated in several case study competitions which were related to my major or the job function I’d interned in."
• "So, if you follow Step 4 to the core, you’d be moving towards having in-depth knowledge about a particular industry, have insights as to how it is evolving, develop deep user empathy — essentially enough for you to begin developing your own perspectives."
• "I understand technology companies well and with just a basic reading through the concepts of CapEx, OpEx, EBITDA, Operating Margins, I was able to analyze the S-1 filings of Uber and Lyft just before their IPOs."
• "Of course, there’s an element of luck involved in Steps 3 and 4 as you cannot quite control where you end up studying/interning."

Key quotes:

• "Thought leadership isn’t about sharing rambling opinions via social media; it’s about leveraging deep industry knowledge to provide valuable education and shine a light on the trends and challenges within your line of work."
• "Even if the blogs you’re creating aren’t directly related to your product offering, the most important thing is that your content conveys your company’s authentic and knowledgeable voice to industry stakeholders."
• "Not only is the Hubspot blog geared toward helping customers better manage their software, it also goes a step further by providing insightful productivity tips to help marketers and sales teams achieve their business goals in high-impact ways."
• "I’ve also incorporated many of the report’s findings in the WebPT Blog’s monthly Founder Letters, where I share my opinion about opportunities and challenges within the industry to spark positive change and help physical therapists reach their highest potential."
• "It might seem obvious to not take advantage of your industry, but I’ve seen several health tech companies use manipulative tactics and fear-mongering to sell their customers products they don’t need."

Key quotes:

• "A good business strategy is a set of long-term choices that differentiate you from your competitors."
• "The success of a business strategy is measured in a company’s ability to generate long-term profits."
• "(One way to determine the dynamics specific to your industry is by using Porter’s Five Forces, a framework created by economist Michael Porter that asks leaders to access their competitive environment through five different lenses: threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, and rivalry among competitors.) Let’s take Uber, for example."
• "In other words, if you can’t differentiate from your competitors and your costs are about the same, it’s unlikely you’ll generate strong returns."
• "Best practices are what you should do the same as your competitors, while strategy is about choosing what you’ll do differently."
• "It forces you to articulate clearly where you compete, your unique value, your strategic resources, and capabilities, and how you’ll defend against competitors."