Tag Archives: mismatch

How to Defeat Control Strategies

THERE’S a cannon that’s already lobbed a couple of shells at you, creating geysers more nearby than you’d like. The gunner behind that cannon is your mortal adversary.  He knows that if you can get in close enough, your torpedoes will blow his ship to Kingdom Come – and him with it.  His advantage is long-range cannon power, and the stable platform of a battle cruiser to shoot from.  Yours is that you’re driving the fastest, most maneuverable naval boat afloat. Your engines are red-lining and howling.  You’re racing at his ship in your Patrol Torpedo (PT) Boat at maximum … Continue reading

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Strategy Types: Critical Operations

LET’S take a quick look at some compelling strategy situations … 1.      SURVIVAL By a near miracle, or perhaps an actual miracle, you’ve just survived a night time airplane crash somewhere in the Amazon.  The Amazon is a big place and you don’t know where you are.  It’s also a formidable place, night or day.  You probably wouldn’t last more than several days in this environment before perishing, so you have to quickly make your way to safety. You sense that your chances of finding a village are poor and that perhaps you should try to arrange, instead, for someone else to … Continue reading

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Found Strategies; Busacco

PALACE HOTEL AT BUSACCO  My wife, Barbara, and I were driving around Portugal on a route created by putting red dots on a road map at locations of interesting wineries, and then connecting them via various other places of interest.  Our friend Tim had bootstrapped this process with some helpful maps and suggestions, from his travels there. When we drove into sight of the great old Palace Hotel do Bucaco (alternatively spelled and pronounced Busacco and Bussaco), we knew we were doing something right.  This fabulous old building, with its lavish Manueline architecture, was once a hunting lodge for Portuguese … Continue reading

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The Winds of Patagonia; Cooperative Strategy

Down the E. Coast of Patagonia My friend Marcelo organized a car trip through Patagonia.  As a young guy he had worked on a Patagonian estancia and knew the territory well.  The plan was to start in Buenos Aires, drive down the east side of Argentina through the Pampas, along the Atlantic Coast of Patagonia, cross the Strait of Magellan, spend Christmas week with friends in Ushuaia on the island of Tierra Del Fuego, then re-cross the Strait, head west, drive back north along the Andes Cordillera, and then east again to Buenos Aires.  6000 miles.  We would be stopping … Continue reading

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How to Devise a Strategy: Affordable Coffee

We’re all wired to devise strategies. So you just have to put the right info into your head, and it will take care of the rest.  Let it all sit there.  Give your intuition an opportunity to do its work.  You’re objective will create the pull that draws out the strategy.  Your barriers and available resources, and their many possibilities, will shape it.  It will come to you. Here’s an example of devising a strategy This method is easy, and makes sense.  It follows the natural thinking sequence of  problem > opportunity > solution. Situation: You like to drink a … Continue reading

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Anatomy of a Strategy

Gotta’ have Anatomy Look at the guys in the Rembrandt painting.  They’re old doctors getting an anatomy lesson from the one wearing a hat.  Troubling.  How can you have been a doctor unless you understood the parts of the body and how they work together?  But here these puzzled-looking doctors are, finally getting an anatomy lesson. Reminds me of where we are with strategy today.  We need a small dose of strategy anatomy. It was quite a lag in time before the Western medical profession adopted what should be considered the most minimal understanding necessary to be a practicing doctor.  But in many … Continue reading

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