MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is a topic that won’t die down in 21stC Biz Dev. I covered it – and its weaknesses earlier, but had a practical personal example this week when I launched my London FinTech Podcast
One summary of MVP theory is “you should be embarrassed by your first version” – the whole point of that methodology being to get something out there and iterate fast.
However there is a very interesting and very relevant principle in Taoism here … Continue reading
Funny how some weeks you see lots and lots of the same pattern. As if the universe is trying tell you something… The one I kept noticing this week in BizDev conversations was one of the most common roadblocks I see folks confronted by in Business Development. Namely being “stuck with the facts”.
Now there is nothing wrong with facts or descriptions. That is unless you are trying to do BizDev 🙂 For BizDev we need messages, we need to arouse emotion (emotion drives action), we need to convey the essence of what we are trying to get across.
Once folks are stuck in this descriptive place there is no easy way out. The logical parts of the psyche are in control and the logical parts of the psyche don’t like anything that’s not logical 🙂 Like creativity or seeing the way out of the logic trap 🙂
But there is a great Brain Hack. A way out of the cul-de-sac of prosaic and unsexy explanation…
I first saw Hawkind in 1978 at a gig that the local evening paper suitably described as “a weird evening”. Never mind that punk had happened – every hippy and assorted entity who lived under a stone had been drawn there as if by a tribal dog whistle.
The previous year they had written a song called micro-man, which has a key line which has only become more applicable over time:
It’s the age of the micro-man, who sees the detail and never the plan
Which is highly relevant to business development today. In this world of speciation and specialisation we are all admonished to be ever more detail focused and ever less plan focused – to drill into and live amongst the pixels. This, de facto, means less time attention and thought for the big picture.
Detail is fine and dandy – and essential in many professions, or even the arts – ever seen a ballet rehearsal?. However time and time again I see that it’s The Big Picture that makes the biggest difference. No amount of tactics will make up for strategic drift.
One Tao of BizDev strategic consultancy gig was Continue reading
