Life is lopsided, and so is business.
Books and essays on finding the few customers, products and decisions that drive most of the results, and on the discipline to act on them.
The books
All books and reading orderThe scarce resource was never the arithmetic. It was the judgment to ask the right questions and the resolve to act on the answers.
From The 80/20 Business Process
One process, one loop
From the new book- Foundations
Think in imbalances
Adopt the Vital Few Principles and 80/20 thinking, and name the biggest obstacle you face: complexity.
- Diagnose
Find the true profit
Build the customer-product matrix from your own transactions, reallocate complexity costs, and read true profitability. With AI, in an afternoon.
- Act
Tip the balance
Simplify the product line, price with precision, sell to the Sweet Spot, streamline delivery, segment, build loyalty and innovate systematically.
- Sustain
Defend the advantage
Turn focus into an economic moat, govern complexity on purpose, and put the vital few people where they matter most.
Then start again, from a higher floor.
The Vital Few Principles
About the bookEntropy
Disorder is the natural state of processes, teams and systems. Order takes continual effort, not a one-time fix.
Simplicity
Complexity slows teams, confuses customers and muddies strategy. Clarity wins, and it is earned by subtraction.
Pareto
A small number of inputs produce most of the results. Find them, and put your time and energy there.
Mutuality
Lasting relationships rest on mutual respect and shared values. Trust compounds over time.
Similarity
Most problems have been met before. Patterns and analogies let you act earlier and with more confidence.
Satisficing
Perfect decisions rarely exist. Good enough, made in time, beats an optimum that arrives too late.
Latest ideas
All essaysTwo hours to the truth
AI has collapsed weeks of profitability analysis into an afternoon. The only remaining excuse for not knowing where you make money is the decision not to look.
Every business needs a strategy for its tail
The long tail is not a choice some companies make. It is a reality every company lives with. You can manage it, or let it quietly consume what the core earns.
The price tag on complexity
Simplifying the product line shrinks the bill. Precision pricing makes sure the bill gets paid. Why pricing should be surgical, not a portfolio-wide crusade.