Ladies and Gentlemen! Are you reeeeeeeady to rumble? From Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
IN THE BLUE TRUNKS...it’s the counter-intuitive book that packs a punch, weighing in at 240 pages from the dynamic duo of
Peter Greer and
Chris Horst—it’s
Rooting for Rivals!
AND IN THE RED TRUNKS...it's the hot-off-the-press pugilist from humble beginnings (12 siblings and cousins living under one roof in a small town in northern India)…
and now the bestselling author of more than four million books. He’s the author of
The Attacker’s Advantage and numerous other brawling business books…please welcome
Ram Charan! Weighing in at 224 pages—this strategic must-read for marketplace menaces has some new moves. It's…
Rethinking Competitive Advantage!
Sorry. I couldn’t resist, but keep reading because you might discern that these two books are at war with each other: Rooting vs. Rethinking. Collaboration vs. Competition. Rivals vs. Relationships. (
Or…can we learn something from both books? Hmmm.)
IDEA: WEEKLY STAFF MEETING DEBATE! Stage a robust ruckus between these two books at your next staff meeting. Debate these two sluggers!
[ ] BLUE CORNER: Rooting for Rivals: How Collaboration and Generosity Increase the Impact of Leaders, Charities, and Churches, by Peter Greer and Chris Horst, with Jill Heisey
[ ] RED CORNER: Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age, by Ram Charan with Geri Willigan
ROOTING FOR RIVALS:
Cheat sheet for blue team debaters!• GOAL. “The goal of this book is to equip leaders of faith-based organizations to become exceptionally generous leaders through a posture of radical openhandedness.”
• METAPHOR. “…in the curious, upside-down way of the Kingdom of God, God converts our competing into rooting and our rivals into allies.
Rooting for Rivalsis an invitation…to view our organizations not as grand murals but as pieces of a mosaic created by and for our Master Artist.”• SHOCKER! When
Hope International created a video of their Rwanda country director’s devotional on Exodus 4:2, “What is that in your hand?”—Peter Greer was shocked at the response from a “competitor.” They received “a voicemail from another organization with a very clear request to stop using this video. The reason?” The “rival” said that “they had trademarked the question God asks Moses.”
(Greer was stunned and wondered, “Doesn’t God hold the copyright?”)• BEST PUNCHES. What’s not to love about two-by-two quadrants that summarize the big ideas in a book? Greer and Horst deliver not just the one-two punch, but pummel faith-based leaders with four whacks and four quadrants with these competing values: Kingdom vs. Clan and Scarcity vs. Abundance.
Quadrant I: Excessive Love (Scarcity + Clan)
Quadrant II: Misdirected Love (Scarcity + Kingdom)
Quadrant III: Deficient Love (Abundance + Clan)
Quadrant IV: Loving Generously (Abundance + Kingdom)
• MOST CONVICTING CHAPTER. Whew! You may want to skip Chapter 4, “Seven Vices vs. Seven Virtues.” That’s the intro to the next seven wallops: Pride vs. Humility, Greed vs. Temperance, Gluttony vs. Temperance, Lust vs. Love, Envy vs. Contentment, Vengeance vs. Grace, and Sloth vs. Steadfastness.
• BEST EXAMPLE. Instead of clobbering each other to get the upper hand (or duplicating services), the authors affirm the 2017 partnership collaboration of 10 Bible translation agencies.
Stunning! By working together (a New Testament concept!) under the banner of
illumiNations, the 10 have accelerated the translation of the New Testament into 99.9 percent of the world’s population by 2033 (100 years ahead of the original timelines!).
Blue Team: good luck and may the best book win! RETHINKING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE:
Cheat sheet for red team debaters!• GOAL. “This book has two main purposes: to fully explain the sources of a digital giant’s formidable competitive advantage [Amazon, Facebook, Google, Alibaba, and others], and to help other companies see a path to building theirs.” Ram Charan adds, “These new rules explain what
any company—whether it is a digital giant or a traditional company—must do to prosper in this digital age.”
• 6 NEW RULES. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every book has six this, seven that, and eight axioms…yada, yada, yada. But…the author argues that when thinking about your “competition” (or rooting for your rivals per Peter Greer),
the world has changed so dramatically that Chapter 2, “New World, New Rules” is a must-read. (And just in time. This hot-off-the-press book was published just last month.)
Attn: Old School Leaders! “The old adage, ‘stick to your knitting,’ for example, a colloquial version of ‘build on your core competence,’ tends to narrow a company’s imagination.” As much as I appreciated
In Search of Excellence, Charan is very convincing on this point.
Wake-up call!• THE ECOSYSTEM. Rule 3 is also noteworthy:
“A company does not compete. Its ecosystem does.” Hmmm. Ram Charan wants your organization to rethink competitive advantage—and he focuses on customers and ecosystems. What’s an ecosystem?
“In the digital age, competitive advantage goes to those who build an ecosystem, or network, that leverages digital technology for the benefit of the consumer and paves the way to multiple streams of revenue.”His counter-intuitive message: “Digital giants pay no attention to what industry they should or should not be in. They focus relentlessly on the consumer and are determined to provide a new consumer experience when they see an opening.”
• STARBUCKS. Maybe you should have this debate at Starbucks, but is the line at your Starbucks too long? Perhaps it’s because
“…it offers 170,000 possible beverage options at its stores, according to the company’s website.” (Attn: Nonprofits! While you’re rooting for rivals, you might also want to give your donors and clients more choices, maybe?) Charan notes that the use of data by Starbucks, plus “…sensors, the cloud, and artificial intelligence now allows it to engage with customers in an even more personalized way.”
• MIND-BENDING! Almost taking a page from
Rooting for Rivals, Ram Charan features the dramatic changes in the auto industry—and get this—how they are collaborating with competitors in new and stunning ways. (The full-page chart on page 90, “A Complex and Changing Ecosystem,” from
Drive Sweden is mind-bending!
Did I mention I’m Swedish?) Using graphic symbols and interconnecting lines, the chart documents how
BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, GM, Tata Motors, Honda, and other auto companies are now partnering!Charan mentions this 2018
Bloomberg article, “
BMW, Mercedes Pivot from Enemies to Partners in a New Auto Era.”
Hmmm—even for-profits should partner?The point? It’s about the customer. “The famous line from professor and marketing guru Ted Levitt in 1969—that nobody really wanted a quarter-inch drill, they wanted a quarter-inch hole—became newly relevant.” Today, says Charan, “People didn’t necessarily want to own a vehicle; they simply wanted to get from one place to another. The ride-hailers met that need with algorithmic platforms that matched people who needed to go somewhere with drivers who were willing to take them there.”
PUNCHIEST CHAPTER. The winner is…Chapter 7, “Teams Instead of Organizational Layers.” In fact (
don’t quote me, please)—read this chapter first and you’ll have a born-again awakening about the new rules for teams, including this team project:
• THE 20-FOOT SUSIE! The section on “Reinventing the Workplace at Fidelity Personal Investing” is a must-read and features “customer design personas.” The team researched every aspect of “Susie,” who was 37, digitally-savvy, and married with two kids.
“Her life was mapped out on a twenty-foot stretch of wall covered with charts and dozens of Post-its. The pain point in her journey was identified, as were the metrics associated with them.” It is a team member’s “full-time job to curate the wall and keep it up-to-date.” (By the way, that “Susie” is a go-getter. While writing this blog, “Susie” called me about my vehicle’s warranty program! Honest!)
• HARRY AND SALLY. FPI also created two more personas: “Sally,” a widow from Scottdale, Ariz., and "Harry," an active trader. (Reminds me of Lee Strobel’s early book,
Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary.) At Fidelity,
“Those three personas…became the reference points for mapping the end-to-end customer experiences of three major segments of customers." • 250 SQUADS. Instead of multiple organizational layers, the author highlights “A Three-Layer Team-Based Organization” at FPI that includes the president, 10 domains, 60 tribes, and 250 squads. “The work of the domain is divided into tribes, each of which focuses on an objective that its domain is trying to fulfill.” (What a concept! Organize your team around your objectives!)
• DIFFERENT ASSUMPTIONS. Digital giants, says Charan, have “fundamentally different assumptions” about their people and “how best to lead them.” As you lead your teams, don’t risk ignoring those assumptions.
“A boss with a command-and-control leadership style is likely to drive them right into the arms of a recruiter.”Note: Watch for a future review of The Phoenix Encounter Method: Lead Like Your Business Is on Fire!, also by Ram Charan, and three others. Recognizing that “sustainable competitive advantage is a myth,” the book offers a new methodology for orchestrating a radical debate around strategy."
Red Team: good luck and may the best debater win (or maybe…it’s not a debate?). Hmmm. As you prepare for your debate, consider this: Maybe it’s not as much about rooting vs. rethinking—as it is about more collaboration between nonprofits and for-profits—and learning the best from both?
Bob Buford quoted Peter Drucker in the foreword to
Mastering the Management Buckets. Drucker:
“The purpose of management is not to make the Church more businesslike, but more Church-like.”To order these books from Amazon or Libro, click on the links below:[ ]
Rooting for Rivals: How Collaboration and Generosity Increase the Impact of Leaders, Charities, and Churches, by Peter Greer and Chris Horst, with Jill Heisey
[ ]
Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age, by Ram Charan with Geri Willigan. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on
Libro.fm (5 hours, 17 minutes). Check out the three-minute audio teaser. And thanks to Fortier PR for sending a review copy.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: quote Jesus from Matthew 5:9 (MSG): “You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.”
He says it has to do with “their cognition, skills, and psychological orientation.” They can “
with pragmatic matters of money-making, execution, and speed.” (See pages 164-168.)
problem solvers, team players, and learners. At Netflix, for example, the stated expectations for salaried employees are not what you would see among most Fortune 500 companies. They explicitly include things like:
These traits are recurring themes in the digital world. They guide hiring decisions, and their frequent repetition helps shape the culture.”
webpages. And read my review of
. Note the list of “Useless Interview Questions.”
