Strategy

Confronting Reality

Denial is the opium of losers. Truth is the inspiration of winners.

It is not always easy to hear the truth about your current situation. Too much self-reinforcing “happy talk” can easily permeate organizations and take away the drive for dramatic improvements and excellence. This presentation covers the two key methods that companies can use to take a hard look from an internal and external perspective to truly confront reality.

Internal Reality: The first method is to conduct “Due diligence on yourself.” Typically due diligence is a part of transactions to buy or sell companies. It is a very rapid, non-emotional, non-political view of the business. There is no reason to wait until the company is up for sale to take a hard look at sources of untapped business value. See how in two weeks a failing public company stopped and reversed what seemed like a helpless slide that was improperly blamed on uncontrollable external factors.

External Reality: The second method is to conduct an outside-in assessment that puts you in the context of a Market Map based on customer needs and segmentation. This has allowed companies to realize who the real competitors are and where there are growth opportunities beyond the immediate fence-lines normally viewed in day-to-day planning. See how this led to a technology leader to breaking out from a plateau to unlock the next move to over several billion in revenues.

Takeaways include how to launch a due diligence process on your company and how to create a market map view that allows you to see your  opportunities and challenges from the outside in.