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Vision

A vision provides a clear picture of where we want to be, without dictating how to get there. It is something that fires our imagination, and gives us energy and courage.

Vision is the place you want to shoot for and values are the principles used to guide you there.

"a DREAM with a DEADLINE"

Visions without Actions are Dreams
Actions without a Vision are Nightmares

1920s: Ford "a car in every home"

1980s: Apple "a computer in every home"

1990s: "Information at your finger tips, with a computer in every desk and in every home"
-- Bill Gates, Chairman Microsoft

2000: "putting the Internet into every employee's pocket"
-- Jorma Olilla, CEO Nokia
Describes an inspiring new reality

"New World Network" - where voice calls over the Internet will be free
-- John Chamber, CEO Cisco

Digitization is enabling the convergence of the three networks; the Internet, as a global network of networks, makes it possible to transmitvoice, data, and video over one network in propietary networks.
Is advisable within a specific time period

Mission

The Mission Statement can be defined as the distillation of both Values and Vision.

Provides context for major decisions within organization
Describes an enduring reality
Is capable of indefinite fulfillment and not subject to a time frame

Strategic Plan

A strategic plan takes the values and vision, distills them into a mission statement, throws in a bit of market analysis, defines strategies and finally outlines initiatives which then break down into to tasks. It acts like a funnel, going from broad ideals to achievable measurable goals.

Strategy

"Strategy means choice!"
-- Peter Lorange

"Strategy is fundamentally about choice (a function of possibilities) and action (a function of capabilities) under contitions of uncertainty."

The corporate strategy, when aligned in pursuit of a vision, and motivated by appropriate goals and objectives, can result in a corporate advantage, which justifies the firm's existence. (The Value Creation Logic)
A competitive advantage results from Cost leadership (lower cost) or Differentiation (price premium).
You have to have as much of a single strategy as possible. There are separate businesses and there are separate competitive battles, but it's got to be within one jihad.
-- Bill Gates

Creativity

"We stand facing the fifth kind of society: the Dream Society. Future products will have to appeal to our hearts, not to our heads. Now is the time to add emotional value to products and services."
-- Rolf Jensen/The Dream Society: How the Coming Shift from Information to Imagination Will Transform Your Business.

"The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests."
-- from the Ritz-Carlton Credo

"Creativity has to do more with the elimination of the inessential, than inventing something new"
-- Helmut Jahn, architect

Effectiveness

"Effectiveness comes from recognizing interdependence;
independence is something of a myth."
-- Adam Brandenburger

Core Values and ideas

"The only sustainable competitive advantage comes from out-innovating the competition"
-- James Morse
"Chance favors the prepared mind"
-- L. Pasteur
"In god we trust, all other we monitor"
National Security Agency, 2002
"IBM means service"
"Never kill a new product idea" (3M)
"Sell it to the sales staff" (HP)
"Pure Gaming" (Xbox)
"regress, play more" (Xbox)
"If only HP knew what HP knows, we would be three times more productive"
-- Lew Platt, when CEO of HP
"Culturally, we're better when we're no.2 It forces us to think, and our creativity gets tested and judged. We can be scrappier. It's more fun to grow the business than protect it."
-- Lachlan Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch encouraged rapid decision-making, instant feedback, and a high threshold for risk.
100 years ago, Karl Marx wrote:
"One capitalist always kills many"
meaning that a constantly diminishing number of capitalists would eventually monopolize everything

Ideas That Spread, Win

Seth Godin’s Purple Cow has a relatively simple premise that new products need to be truly remarkable in order to succeed. His book is packed with great examples and insights. In this video, Godin starts off by explaining the failure of the sliced bread machine and explaining that ideas that spread, win.

Apple

March 2007: Apple's Design Approach

Pixel Perfect Mockups
While it adds time upfront, it "removes all ambiguity" and the need to correct mistakes later down the line.
10 to 3 to 1
Designers mock up 10 different unrestricted designs for a given feature. From these, 3 are chosen for further development until a final one is chosen.
Paired Design Meetings
Two meetings. One is for free thinking ("go crazy") without worries about any technical constraints, while the other meeting addresses implementation and practical considerations. Both of these meetings continue throughout product development.

April 13, 2003

1976: Wozniak was the technical genious and Steve Jobs was the visionary who sought "to change the world through technology."
In the 90's Apple was shipping the Mac Classic, a $999 computer intended to compete with low-priced IBM clones.
Apple pioneered the first usable personal computers (Apple II) but IBM has been the company who has brought PC's into the mainstream.
The 90's are the years when the dominant standard moved from "IBM-compatible" to "Wintel" (Microsoft Windows and Intel microprocessors).
2002: Personal computers has become a $220-billion global industry.
2003: Apple with a 3% market share, and a lot of cash in the bank, is certainly looking at the next strategic steps...
Strategic Acquisitions are certainly something they are considering: Apple Computer seems in talks to buy Universal Music for as much as US$6 billion, according to a Los Angeles Times report. Apple would become one of the biggest music publishers in the world (Apple-branded music download service), as well as the maker of one of the best-regarded portable music devices (iPod). Check out Padawan.info for more comments.

This could seem a radical move, but Apple knows that:
1. Low market share = Less software available = Less Sales
2. Less Sales = Less money to maintain and develop OSX
Big danger of loosing another competitive advantage
3. Action: Potential Diversification in the music industry

Analogy with the game console market

The sales of PC's are driven by the software.
The same goes for Game Consoles... Buyers have a strong incentive in buying a Sony PSII because there are many more games available (broad choice of available entertainment is more valuable than the Microsoft proposition of a technically superior console).

Check out the continuos price cuts of the Microsoft Xbox Console (last one.. another 20% here in Europe), a desperate effort in trying to gain market share.

1.   Low market share = Less software available = Less Sales
2.   MSFT Action: Sell HW at a loss (dumping) to increase Xbox sales
3.   Expected result: higher market penetration = incentive to create more games

Forces driving industry competition

by Michael Porter

Suppliers
:. a supplier group is powerful if it is
dominated by few companies
Potential Entrants
Buyers
:. a buyer group is powerful if it faces
low switching costs
Substitutes
Rivalry among existing firms
:. High exit barriers
Threat of Entry:
:. Economies of scale
:. Capital requirements
:. Access to distribution channels
:. Government policy

Strategies for customers lock-in

contractual commitments
loyalty programs
brand-specific training

Dilemma del Prigioniero

Le possibili scelte per due prigionieri in celle diverse non comunicanti sono parlare (accusando l'altro) o non parlare.

Se entrambi non parlano avranno una pena leggera;
Se entrambi parlano, accusandosi a vicenda, avranno una pena un po' più pesante;
Se faranno scelte diverse, quello che parla avrà la libertà e l'altro avrà una pena molto pesante.

Il confronto tra equilibrio di Nash e ottimo paretiano smentisce quindi quanto sostenuto da Adam Smith, ritenuto, fino a prima della formulazione della teoria dell'equilibrio, il "padre dell'economia moderna". Egli infatti riteneva che se ogni componente di un gruppo persegue il proprio interesse personale, non può che accrescere la ricchezza complessiva del gruppo. Oggi invece sappiamo che se ogni componente del gruppo fa ciò che è meglio per se, il risultato cui si giunge è un equilibrio di Nash ma non necessariamente un ottimo di Pareto: è quindi possibile (e, si è poi dimostrato, molto frequente) che se ogni agente fa solo il proprio interesse personale, si giunga ad un'allocazione inefficiente delle risorse. Nel caso del dilemma del prigioniero, ciò è evidente: il valore minimo possibile di anni di carcere è 0 per il singolo e 2 per il gruppo, ma se entrambi scelgono la propria strategia dominante, ne ottengono 6.