A batch of the best highlights from what Felicity's read, .
The key to competitive success—for businesses and nonprofits alike—lies in an organization’s ability to create unique value. Porter’s prescription: aim to be unique, not best. Creating value, not beating rivals, is at the heart of competition.
Understanding Michael Porter
Joan Magretta
Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz say, in their excellent book Lean Analytics: “A good metric is comparative. Being able to compare a metric to other time periods, groups of users, or competitors helps you understand which way things are moving. Increased conversion from last week” is more meaningful than “2% conversion.” A good metric is understandable. If people can’t remember it and discuss it, it’s much harder to turn a change in the data into a change in the culture. A good metric is a ratio or a rate. Accountants and financial analysts have several ratios they look at to understand, at a glance, the fundamental health of a company. You need some, too… . A good metric changes the way you behave. This is by far the most important criterion for a metric: what will you do differently based on changes in the metric?”
Radical Focus SECOND EDITION
Christina Wodtke
Many companies like to describe themselves as winning through operational effectiveness or customer intimacy. These sound like good ideas, but if they don’t translate into a genuinely lower cost structure or higher prices from customers, they aren’t really strategies worth having.
Playing to Win
A. G. Lafley, Roger Martin, A.G. Lafley, Roger L. Martin