Good morning all. Welcome back to Omnikarma. I have a short piece today on leadership - identifying, creating and winning using strategic sweet spots.
Before I go further, what do I mean by strategic sweet spots. Basically it is a strategic play in which a company or individual occupies a very distinct position from where most outcomes - positive or negative will usually end up with victory and profits for the player occupying the strategic sweet spot.
Let take another example - in the US, the Democratic Party's superior position of (perceived) positive support for Hispanic immigrants (Hispanic voters prefer Democrats to Republicans by a margin of 2-1). Why is this a strategic sweet spot - it hits the soft underbelly of the Republicans that are perceived to be Hispanic immigrant unfriendly. Given the demographic shift in the U.S where Hispanics will become about a third of the population shortly (currently about a fifth of US population is Latino), this is a win win for the Democrats. If the Republicans continue to oppose illegal aliens, they alienate the Hispanics even more helping the Democrats win even more support. If the Republicans support migration, then they play on a winning position already occupied by the Democrats (and potentially endanger alienating your core Republican voters that are less immigrant friendly). In fact, one political paper even indicates that friendly immigration policies can get Republicans to move out of immigrant strong neighbourhoods further eroding Republican voter bases.
Let take another example - in the US, the Democratic Party's superior position of (perceived) positive support for Hispanic immigrants (Hispanic voters prefer Democrats to Republicans by a margin of 2-1). Why is this a strategic sweet spot - it hits the soft underbelly of the Republicans that are perceived to be Hispanic immigrant unfriendly. Given the demographic shift in the U.S where Hispanics will become about a third of the population shortly (currently about a fifth of US population is Latino), this is a win win for the Democrats. If the Republicans continue to oppose illegal aliens, they alienate the Hispanics even more helping the Democrats win even more support. If the Republicans support migration, then they play on a winning position already occupied by the Democrats (and potentially endanger alienating your core Republican voters that are less immigrant friendly). In fact, one political paper even indicates that friendly immigration policies can get Republicans to move out of immigrant strong neighbourhoods further eroding Republican voter bases.
Some other examples come to mind. Lets think of a simple game of tic tac toe. Often, you encounter situations (where a naive opponent has been caught napping) where any move by the opponent can be a losing position. See image below. A great strategic sweet spot for the person playing crosses - eh ?
Here is another one. In the last fortnight, there has been a brilliant manoeuvre in the Indian political space - by the BJP (those not following Indian politics - this is the ruling party in India, the Bharatiya Janata party and the political base of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi). Mr Shashi Tharoor (see picture below) - a popular and firebrand Member of the Indian Parliament but representing the main opposition Congress Party is invited on social media to join Mr. Modi's Clean India campaign. Why is this a strategic sweet spot ? If Mr. Tharoor does not accept Mr. Modi's invitation to be part of Clean India - then most voters would be aggravated and pressurise him to join the movement. If Mr.Tharoor says yes (which is what happened), his own party men are going to make him minced meat (which is what they did) - in both cases delivering a winning hand to the BJP.
So how could corporations or brands identify and occupy strategic sweet spots. In many cases, it almost calls for taking an opposing view of a competitor's strong point and identifying a weak spot to attack. I take the example of one of the brands I managed in my career. This is a toilet cleaner - in order not to offend my ex-employer - I shall just call it Brand X. Brand X is an acid cleaner and a relative newcomer in the European market place. The market is dominated by Brand Y that is a chlorine bleach. Now the exciting part. Chlorine bleaches are extremely good toilet cleaners but they work better on organic stains (basically pooh stains !!) and work by bleaching out the stain (almost like applying whitewash). Bleaches also kill germs well. But chlorine bleaches suffer from three fundamental weaknesses - One, they perform inferior to acid cleaners on limescale removal (limescale build up is usual in countries with hard water). Two, European consumers start to get picky on pouring bleaches down their water pipes. Three, they smell awful. Now what does our Brand X do....all it does is claim "5 times more powerful vs. chlorine bleach". So every time Brand Y says they are a bleach, consumers say - hey, I need Brand X that is 5 times better !!
I hope you enjoyed reading about strategic sweet spots and hopefully you should identify your strategic sweet spot in life and at work. And soon, it should be Heads you win, tails they lose. Happy to hear your comments and feedback !!
Here is another one. In the last fortnight, there has been a brilliant manoeuvre in the Indian political space - by the BJP (those not following Indian politics - this is the ruling party in India, the Bharatiya Janata party and the political base of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi). Mr Shashi Tharoor (see picture below) - a popular and firebrand Member of the Indian Parliament but representing the main opposition Congress Party is invited on social media to join Mr. Modi's Clean India campaign. Why is this a strategic sweet spot ? If Mr. Tharoor does not accept Mr. Modi's invitation to be part of Clean India - then most voters would be aggravated and pressurise him to join the movement. If Mr.Tharoor says yes (which is what happened), his own party men are going to make him minced meat (which is what they did) - in both cases delivering a winning hand to the BJP.
So how could corporations or brands identify and occupy strategic sweet spots. In many cases, it almost calls for taking an opposing view of a competitor's strong point and identifying a weak spot to attack. I take the example of one of the brands I managed in my career. This is a toilet cleaner - in order not to offend my ex-employer - I shall just call it Brand X. Brand X is an acid cleaner and a relative newcomer in the European market place. The market is dominated by Brand Y that is a chlorine bleach. Now the exciting part. Chlorine bleaches are extremely good toilet cleaners but they work better on organic stains (basically pooh stains !!) and work by bleaching out the stain (almost like applying whitewash). Bleaches also kill germs well. But chlorine bleaches suffer from three fundamental weaknesses - One, they perform inferior to acid cleaners on limescale removal (limescale build up is usual in countries with hard water). Two, European consumers start to get picky on pouring bleaches down their water pipes. Three, they smell awful. Now what does our Brand X do....all it does is claim "5 times more powerful vs. chlorine bleach". So every time Brand Y says they are a bleach, consumers say - hey, I need Brand X that is 5 times better !!
I hope you enjoyed reading about strategic sweet spots and hopefully you should identify your strategic sweet spot in life and at work. And soon, it should be Heads you win, tails they lose. Happy to hear your comments and feedback !!
1 comment:
Loved this piece.To identify the strategic sweet spot it would seem like common sense is required,but as they say - ' common sense is not so common' :)
But when the tide is against us ,how do we wade through the competitors sweet spot .What if Company Y came out with a counter claim saying '5 times less toxic than acid cleaners'- or 5 times more environment friendly than acid cleaners.Would it have reduced the damage ? Just curious :)
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