My Strategy - Part 2

A good strategy is about choosing to run a different race than your competitors, not trying to run faster the same race. The real Eureka moment for my Manager’s Toolbox strategy was when I realized that

I have no competitors!

And that is no coincidence. That is a result of the strategic choices I explained in my earlier post. There are no competitors because nobody else could internalize knowledge for me. There are no competitors, because I chose not to compete with thousands of other sites providing advice to managers. I am sticking to my original idea to organize the best practices I have found during the years. I build Manager’s Toolbox for myself, thus I am my only customer and I have no competitors.

As I have no competitors, my strategy is a Blue Ocean Strategy. I have created a market place where no competitor exists and I do not need to waste my resources trying to produce more, faster or cheaper than they are producing. I fact in a blue ocean I can break this value / cost trade-off. I can align all Manager’s Toolbox activities in pursuit of differentiation and low cost – not choose differentiation or low cost as in a red ocean. In the book, Kim & Maurborgne show how companies can grow tremendously in their blue oceans. Their case example is Cirque du Soleil who reinvented the circus business grew from street performers to a global market leader.

Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, defines a Hedgehog Concept. A concept which helps you, the hedgehog, to beat your competition, the fox, no matter how hard he tries. My Manager’s Toolbox strategy is in the intersection of the three elements he defines for the concept

1. What you can best in the world at – I am best in the world to internalize knowledge for myself


2. What drives your economic engine – Manager’s Toolbox has been my wish and hobby for several years, there are no costs and no revenue is necessary


3. What are you deeply passionate about – I am deeply passionate about learning new things and developing new things

The question of economic engine is an interesting one. I could of course be doing all this in a notebook, but there are reasons why I chose to blog this. One is that the blog is available for myself anytime, anywhere. But now, let me repeat my question from my earlier post

Are you performing unique activities or just trying to produce more, faster and cheaper than your competitors?

Could you make strategic choices that make your competition irrelevant?