Business
Play long-term games with long-term people.
Engineer systems to go from 0 to 1 at the speed of inspiration to create virtuous feedback loops that build trust by spreading goodwill.
Concepts
Context
Convictions
Conviction: Every business must be capable of betting and running innovation projects to remain relevant. Success in life and trade is all about your capability to make connections:
- Connect People through their sense of purpose.
- Connect with People you can trust
- Creativity is about connecting things
- Connect supply to demand at the right price
- The best way to grow a network of trust is through a trusted endorsement
In the age on unlimited intelligence we can only compete on culture
Profitability
It is easier and more profitable to sell more things to customers where a trusted connection exists than to find and start a new relationship. The more chaotic the environment the greater the risk and potential reward.
Engineer virtuous cycles that improve customer experience while increasing profits.
Revenue
Increase Revenue Growth Upwards:
- Sell More Items Per Sale
- Sell More Frequently
- Grow Distribution
- Increase Prices
- Reinvest in Growth
- Invest Profits
Decrease Expenses
- Cost of Production
- Cost of Sales and Marketing
- Cost of Business Admin
Production to Distribution
Minimize time and effort to deliver a change of state with nothing wasted.
- Understand what drives people to act as the do
- Monitor tech innovation's impact on market forces
- Imagine scenarios for potential opportunities and threats
- Model probabilities of potential outcomes
- Leverage tech to optimise operating models
- Create a strategy to deliver a strong point of difference (identity)
- Underline commitment with appropriately sized bets
The Sovereignty Game is not an alternative to venture capital; it's a revolution.
Operating Model
Critical documents to capture the essence of intent and plan of action to achieve desired outcomes.
- Business Model provides the foundation for activities and desired outcomes.
- Business Strategy guides the direction and target benchmarks for long-term objectives.
- Business Development drives seasonal growth initiatives aligned with the strategy.
- Operations Playbook ensures efficient execution of key activities outlined in the business model.
Your Platform is your Product.
Business Model
Sets the foundation for operations, outlining the core elements of how the company operates, including its value proposition, target market, revenue streams, cost structure, and key activities.
Example: Defines the overall structure and operations, such as how your company connects with customers, generates revenue, and manages costs.
Business Strategy
Guides the long-term direction for competitive positioning of products, markets, and partnerships. It outlines how the company plans to achieve its goals and outperform competitors.
Example: Determines how your company will expand into new markets, innovate products, and form strategic partnerships to maintain a competitive edge.
Business Development
Drives the execution of initiatives (time-bound project experiments) to fulfil the business strategy. It involves identifying and pursuing new opportunities for growth.
Example: Involves launching new product lines, entering new markets, or forming partnerships to drive growth and achieve strategic objectives.
Operations Playbook
Details the processes and procedures for how to run and improve key activities outlined in the business model. It ensures consistency and efficiency across the organization.
Example: Outlines specific steps for managing inventory, executing marketing campaigns, and providing customer service to ensure that all teams follow a consistent approach.
- Culture First
- Prioritize direct customer feedback on user experience (feel the pain)
- Maintain hands-on approach in product development and key decisions
- Stay deeply involved in operations, not just high-level strategy
- Flat hierarchy with cross-functional teams for special projects
- Trust your instincts and vision over conventional management advice
- Set clear expectations to challenge and replace underperforming employees
- Continuously innovate to create stories that feed belief systems.
Leveraging AI
Create a system for investing how to leverage AI to it's maximum potential to drive operational efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance customer experiences through the use of AI technologies.
- Start experimenting early: Explore AI applications to gain a first-mover advantage.
- Encourage internal experimentation: Encourage all teams to experiment with AI and find creative applications, rather than mandating specific use cases.
- Focus on customer-facing workflows: Enhance customer success, handling disputes and inquiries.
- Improve documentation and knowledge bases: Clear, detailed documentation is crucial for training AI systems effectively.
- Reduce reliance on multiple enterprise systems: Consolidating information into a centralized knowledge graph improves collaboration and AI effectiveness.
- Balance building vs. buying AI solutions: While buying existing solutions can be faster, building in-house allows for valuable learning experiences and customization.
- Use AI to augment human creativity: In marketing, AI tools are used to help bring creative ideas to life more quickly and efficiently.
- Implement AI gradually: Start with AI as a co-pilot or assistant before fully automating processes.
- Prioritize customer satisfaction: Ensure AI-driven solutions maintain or improve customer satisfaction compared to human-driven processes.
- Consider regulatory compliance: For regulated industries like banking, ensure AI implementations comply with relevant regulations.
- Leverage AI for internal knowledge management: Help employees access and navigate company information more efficiently.
- Be transparent about AI use: Inform customers when they are interacting with AI systems.
- Use AI to improve efficiency: Significant time savings potential in customer interactions and marketing campaign development using AI tools.
- Anticipate industry disruption: Prepare for AI to transform financial services by developing AI-driven financial advisory capabilities.
- Explore personalization opportunities: AI can be used to create highly personalized product recommendations and marketing materials.
See AI business model analysis for more.
Jobs to be Done
For each role use Jobs to be Done analysis to establish where AI Products/Smart Agents can be leveraged to run a specific function more effectively.
- Product Manager (productboard / aha / airfocus)
- Market Researcher (exploding topics / trendhunter / sparktoro)
- Product Validator (validately / userfeed / prelaunchhero)
- Programmer (cursor.ai / replit / claude 3.5)
- UX Researcher (maze / hotjar / usertesting)
- UX Designer (v0 / playground / galileo ai)
- Idea Machine: (gummysearch / treendly / glimpse)
- Startup Founder: (stripe / producthunt / angellist)
- Venture Capital: (crunchbase / pitchbook / cb insights)
- Customer Success: (intercom / front / chatdesk)
- Lead Magnet: (gamma.io / mailerlite / systeme.io)
- Pitch Deck Creator: (beautiful.ai / gamma / pitch.com)
- Public Relations: (prezly / onepitch / prowly)
- Sales Flow: (apollo.io / outreach / gong)
- Copywriter (jenni.ai / copy.ai / anyword)
- Email Marketer (beehiiv, substack, convertkit)
- Faceless video producer (revid / pictory / vidyo.ai)
- Marketing Strategist (semrush / ahrefs / moz)
- Growth hacker (mutinyha / growthbook/ voyantis / phlanx / viral-loops)
- Community Manager (tribe.so / circle.so / mighty networks)
- Podcast producer (synthesia / riverside / descript)
- SEO Specialist (surfer / clearscope / marketmuse)
- Social Media Manager (zaap.ai)
- Video Producer (runway / descript / veed)
- Business Analyst (holistics / metabase / preset)
- Data Scientist (obviously.ai / h2o.ai / datarobot / bigml / rapidminer)
- Financial Analyst (finta /runway / pulse)
- Legal Assistant: (donotpay / lawdepot / wonder.legal / spellbook)
- Project Manager (clickup / notion / coda / linear)
- Recruiter (dover / fetcher / gem)
What is the Most Important Question you should be asking yourself?