xi It's all about having the right strategy.
That's because strategy sets the competitive direction, strategy dictates
product planning, strategy tells you how to communicate internally and externally, strategy tells you on what to focus.
p.63 To be successful, a company must become competitor-oriented. It must look for weak
points in the positions of its competitors and then launch marketing attacks against those weak points.
p.70 strategy should be developed from a deep knowledge of and involvement in the actual tactics of the
business itself.
p.72 A strategy is not a goal. Like life itself, a strategy ought to be focused on the journey, not the
goal...In our definition, a strategy is not a goal. It's a coherent marketing direction.
p.77-78 as experts, people tend to give them credit for more knowledge and experience than they sometimes
deserve... Conversely, the generalist is rarely given credit for expertise in many fields of endeavor
no matter how good he or she may be.
p.92 As Henry Mintzberg, professor of management at McGill University, said, "Management is a curious phenomenon.
It is generously paid, enormously influential and significantly devoid of common sense."
p.98 The average person doesn't think too deeply about anything much beyond money, sex, gossip, and body
weight.
p.115 First, how do you find the proper direction? To become a great
strategist, you have to put your mind in the mud of the marketplace. You have to find your inspiration down
at the front, in the ebb and flow of the great marketing battles taking place in the mind of the prospect.
p.136 Another problem with goal setting is that it creates a certain
amount of inflexibility. When you're focused on a goal, you tend to miss opportunities that present themselves when
you take a different direction.
