Wider Circles and Sweeter Grapes: Insights from Outside the Boardroom
Every time I or a business I work with gets stuck, I realize we have drifted away from what is important. There’s a popular Arab proverb: Do you want to eat the grapes or fight the guard? Strategy is about the grapes; it’s the courage to face the real problem before rushing into solutions. By using data, we can strip away the noise and the internal boardroom assumptions to find the core issue. In the end, the real edge doesn’t come from doing everything; it comes from daring to focus on less and doing it better.
No Dip Sherlock: Tracking the Real Culprit Behind Your Numbers
When business numbers drop, the usual suspects appear: marketing, sales, or the market itself. We rush to patch symptoms, yet rarely investigate the system to name the problem for what it truly is. Defining the problem is everything. Once that’s clear, focus is no longer a guessing game; it’s a choice to let everything else fall away. Most of the time, we over-complicate the investigation, only to realize the problem is as simple as Sherlock Holmes finally noticing he’s out of dip for the party.
Data, Tea, and Two Rabbits: Why Focus Wins Every Time
If you try to catch two rabbits, you’ll catch neither. In a noisy, information-saturated world, the real challenge (and real opportunity) is learning how to find focus. For businesses of any size, real growth doesn’t come from piling on more opportunities or products. It comes from subtraction. Strategic focus is the courage to say: we could do everything, but we choose to do what matters most. It’s the craft of knowing what to prioritize and what to let go, moving you from running in circles to moving forward with intent.