Your Strengths Are Your Weaknesses

Those things that we do well can also be our greatest liabilities. Like a double-edged sword, a strength is also a weakness. The greater the strength, the greater the potential weakness and liability. Consider that....

• Physical strength can limit your flexibility
• Determination can become stubbornness
• Confidence can become arrogance
• Discipline can make you narrow-minded
• Analytical thinking can lead to over-thinking
• Focus can close you off to new opportunities
• Enthusiasm can make you act without thinking
• Spontaneity can lead to undisciplined action
• Meticulousness may become perfectionism
• Resolve can lead to ruthlessness
• Passion can become zeal and obsession

The list goes on...there is a counterbalance to everything. What personal traits are you most proud of? To what do these traits leave you vulnerable?

How The Mighty Fall

Last week, I went to select a book for a short trip that I could easily carry and read quickly. Two books in my need-to-read pile fit this criteria: "Only The Paranoid Survive" by Andy Groves, and "How The Mighty Fall" by Jim Collins. At the time, I did not consider that these two books addressed the same topic. Both discuss challenges facing companies, and explain that some companies rise to the occasion while others falter. Andy Groves describes how Intel transitioned from memory to microprocessor, dealt with a Pentium flaw in 1994, and managed through the explosive growth of PCs. Intel overcame these potentially catastrophic events thorough disciplined pursuit of its core business philosophies. Jim Collins studies great companies that stumbled or failed in an attempt to understand the underlying causes of business decline.

The Discipline of Market Leaders

I recently gave a colleague this classic book on business strategy by Treacy & Wiersema. Although I will not go into detail about the book's content, I do recommend it to anyone involved in defining business strategy. In brief summary, the authors provide compelling evidence that market-leading companies have single-minded focus on one of three value propositions:

1. Product Leadership
2. Operational Excellence
3. Customer Intimacy

Fair and Equal are Not the Same

Fair and Equal are not the same thing. When individuals are given equal opportunities, their accomplishments are rarely equivalent. Individuals perform differently due to a number of factors including effort, initiative, aptitude, and training. It is not unfair that everyone does not receives the same rewards. It is a fact of life. Not everyone deserves the same rewards. It is more fair to reward people differently for different levels or effort, skill or accomplishment. This is especially true in business.

Made in America

We hear much talk about the decline of manufacturing in America. Some argue that America has lost its manufacturing capacity. The data from the most recent year available (2010) paints a somewhat different picture. Not only is the U.S. by far the largest economy with 23.1% of the world's GDP (China is second with 9.3% of the world's GDP), the U.S. is the second largest manufacturer. In 2010, America's manufacturing output was $1.952 trillion, just behind China's $1.995 trillion. Yes, in 2010 the U.S. lost the title as the world's largest manufacturer that it held for more than a century, but America is far from having lost its manufacturing capacity. America still manufacturers19.4% of the world's goods.