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Sustainable competitive advantage you may be overlooking

Sustainable competitive advantage you may be overlooking I received a video from Sakti Mukherjee, who runs a consulting firm in India. The video is about my bio on FIRMSconsulting.com/kris and overall FIRMSconsulting's work. Here is what Sakti said in the video: "Something interesting that I want to share. I printed the story of Kris Safarova from the FIRMSconsulting site. And I read through it, and there wasn't a single page where I didn't highlight so much because there was tons of learning, and at many points, it brought me to tears. And being 62 and a practicing consultant I still would like to take this as a piece of reading every now and then. And I just want to share this with whoever is going to see this video, and I am going to really suggest that one goes through the site. Reads, learns, and practices what this powerful woman has done and achieved. God bless." Sakti also took the time to record a more elaborate video, which I posted on the Firmsconsulting YouTube channel. You can watch it here. Another message that stood out for me recently was from one of our amazing Insiders. The email refers to a webinar I hosted for our…

Sustainable competitive advantage you may be overlooking I received a video from Sakti Mukherjee, who runs a consulting firm in India. The video is about my bio on FIRMSconsulting.com/kris and overall FIRMSconsulting's work. Here is what Sakti said in the video: "Something interesting that I want to share. I printed the story of Kris Safarova from the FIRMSconsulting site. And I read through it, and there wasn't a single page where I didn't highlight so much because there was tons of learning, and at many points, it brought me to tears. And being 62 and a practicing consultant I still would like to…

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What makes you wealthy

What makes you wealthy Summer is the season that reminds many of us to come alive. The warm summer breeze, going for a walk in shorts, the day trips to the beach, the perfect ice cream cone, and the chance to spend time with family and friends. As a person who faints if I am exposed to the sun for too long (this has happened to me multiple times in life, including at the most inopportune times, such as while attending a McKinsey event), I can't partake in many summer activities. However, I still love summer and am looking forward to it all year—and so do many people. So, in the spirit of this summer season, which we all tend to love, I want to talk today about something you may feel resistant to talk about: passion. Passion towards your work.  I was going through some feedback from our community. A lot of emails, comments, and LinkedIn messages accumulated, as I don’t have the capacity to see all of them. Yet, from time to time, I spot-check the communication we receive from our community, which our support team generally handles. And one obvious thing came out as a pattern: Many…

What makes you wealthy Summer is the season that reminds many of us to come alive. The warm summer breeze, going for a walk in shorts, the day trips to the beach, the perfect ice cream cone, and the chance to spend time with family and friends. As a person who faints if I am exposed to the sun for too long (this has happened to me multiple times in life, including at the most inopportune times, such as while attending a McKinsey event), I can't partake in many summer activities. However, I still love summer and am looking forward…

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How to Create Value from Your Time

How can you get more things done in the same… 24 Hours You Have? In this new Legacy program, How to Create Value from Your Time, Michael shares how, as a leader within an organization, you can accomplish a lot more with the 24 hours per day you have. Some specific insights covered include: Setting up rules for how to work with unorganized people to get things moving and allow for some sanity (2:00) The process Michael follows to develop original thinking (3:00) How can you set up so that from every engagement, you can have a thought leadership piece and adopt those articles for internal and external publications (3:50) Working with clients to help you come up with new approaches in a way where everyone benefits (5:00) A key role you need to create on your team that will allow you to get a lot more done (7:42) A specific team structure that allows you to successfully manage multiple demanding projects in parallel. Michael explains why you give it a precise structure, use distinct terminology, track it, and give credit (9:00) How Michael worded and structured things when he would pull people in to work on proposals that resulted in elevating the work and making it much…

How can you get more things done in the same… 24 Hours You Have? In this new Legacy program, How to Create Value from Your Time, Michael shares how, as a leader within an organization, you can accomplish a lot more with the 24 hours per day you have. Some specific insights covered include: Setting up rules for how to work with unorganized people to get things moving and allow for some sanity (2:00) The process Michael follows to develop original thinking (3:00) How can you set up so that from every engagement, you can have a thought leadership piece and adopt those…

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It holds you in a place like little chains

It holds you in a place like little chains A lot of people like to plant, but not many like weeding. When I was a child, I used to go with my grandmother to the dacha. Dacha was a little piece of land that was allocated to former Soviet Union families by the government to grow their own produce. Our dacha was about 2 hours from the edge of Samara city, by bus. The bus was full, often with no available place to seat. So we would be very tired by the time we arrive at our stop point. Once we would get off the bus at our bus stop, which was next to the field of sunflowers, my grandmother and I would walk for about 40 minutes, passing many other dachas to get to ours. We would carry with us boiled eggs, bread, cucumber, and water, which was our food for the day. One of my tasks at the dacha was picking up “koloratskii zhuk”, a little bug on potatoes. In English, it is called the Colorado potato beetle. There were many of them. I was very scared of them, but I soldiered on. I would put on big…

It holds you in a place like little chains A lot of people like to plant, but not many like weeding. When I was a child, I used to go with my grandmother to the dacha. Dacha was a little piece of land that was allocated to former Soviet Union families by the government to grow their own produce. Our dacha was about 2 hours from the edge of Samara city, by bus. The bus was full, often with no available place to seat. So we would be very tired by the time we arrive at our stop point. Once…

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Are you focusing on the essence or wasting time on the fringes?

Are you focusing on the essence or wasting time on the fringes? There is a lot to be said for clarity. And there is something about FIRMSconsulting.com and StrategyTraining.com that is not clear, and I would like to take every opportunity to rectify this. Guess what is the number one reason why FC community members, for a long time, don’t take advantage of training that gives them an extremely powerful competitive advantage? They could have been much further ahead by now if this was clear, but it is not. They think that Insider and Legacy membership programs are just for consultants. It is not. Most of our clients are in corporate roles.  It takes them time to figure out that most of our clients and members are actually not even in consulting. And, in fact, using the skills we teach outside of consulting is even more powerful because those skills are so rare outside of consulting. It is even rare in consulting. Want to test this? Just hire an ex-consultant from a major firm and see for yourself. Most people leave consulting (or were asked to leave a firm they worked for) way before they have an opportunity to develop a strong…

Are you focusing on the essence or wasting time on the fringes? There is a lot to be said for clarity. And there is something about FIRMSconsulting.com and StrategyTraining.com that is not clear, and I would like to take every opportunity to rectify this. Guess what is the number one reason why FC community members, for a long time, don’t take advantage of training that gives them an extremely powerful competitive advantage? They could have been much further ahead by now if this was clear, but it is not. They think that Insider and Legacy membership programs are just for consultants.…

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Literally, everything is on the line

Literally, everything is on the line The world is going through enormous changes. Wealth can be made and lost in a few years. We're starting to recover from a period of inflation (it peaked at 9.1% in June 2022) that anyone (living in the US) below the age of 40 has never experienced before. Critical decisions on infrastructure, legislation, and technology determine which countries will win or lose. Giants like GE and IBM fade away. Technology players like Netflix can experience a 40% erosion in their share price in one day. The rise of AI requires almost all companies to respond in some way if they want to survive. In just a few years, technology, legislative or demographic changes can render an entire sector built around, for example, combustion engines irrelevant. Each and every sector is facing wrenching changes, where wrong decisions can lead to billions in lost shareholder value, mass retrenchments, and obsolescence. For example, if we look at the energy sector, we know it ripples across to all companies, into households, into everything. Climate change and the risk of wildfires are bankrupting utilities and forcing many to take on the costly task of moving electricity lines underground. And those costs…

Literally, everything is on the line The world is going through enormous changes. Wealth can be made and lost in a few years. We're starting to recover from a period of inflation (it peaked at 9.1% in June 2022) that anyone (living in the US) below the age of 40 has never experienced before. Critical decisions on infrastructure, legislation, and technology determine which countries will win or lose. Giants like GE and IBM fade away. Technology players like Netflix can experience a 40% erosion in their share price in one day. The rise of AI requires almost all companies to respond in…

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A project many others will find in·sur·mount·a·ble

A project many others will find in·sur·mount·a·ble It's very valuable to have a book you can be proud to share with colleagues, prospective and current clients, and potential partners. The kind of book that immediately meaningfully increases your credibility. The kind of book that allows your reputation to precede you. But to have a book like that, you need to: Have enough quality content for an entire book. Pitch your book to professional publishers and deal with a lot of rejection. Maybe decide to self-publish your book instead after seeing that none of the publishers are interested, and most likely, they are not going to promote it anyway, so you might as well publish it yourself. Write the whole book, draft after draft, potentially hiring a ghostwriter or writing coach to help or do it for you. Edit your book. Figure out the right dimensions, type of paper, margins, type of cover, etc. for your book. Develop a professional design for your book. Professionally lay out your book. Design a professional cover for your book. Get all administrative things set up, such as getting ISBNs, bar codes, etc. Create your book in all necessary formats. Review final files and fix…

A project many others will find in·sur·mount·a·ble It's very valuable to have a book you can be proud to share with colleagues, prospective and current clients, and potential partners. The kind of book that immediately meaningfully increases your credibility. The kind of book that allows your reputation to precede you. But to have a book like that, you need to: Have enough quality content for an entire book. Pitch your book to professional publishers and deal with a lot of rejection. Maybe decide to self-publish your book instead after seeing that none of the publishers are interested, and most likely,…

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The problem with following role models

People say, “Success leaves clues.” The advice you often hear is find someone who achieved something you want to achieve, watch them carefully, repeat their steps, and you will achieve success too. It is useful, but to a point. There is one big problem with this approach. Each of us has a unique set of assets (talents, experiences, family, connections, personality, etc.). The person you are watching from afar and emulating as closely as possible will have a very different set of assets. Plus, they will have a different value system. What they will value in life will differ from what you value. The missing ingredient in this advice is to carefully study (if such information is accessible): WHY someone does something, not only WHAT they do.  You also need good visibility on HOW they do it. This is something that most people will not be willing to openly share with you. Alternatively, they may give you some of the steps but leave out a few details that make the process they shared with you ineffective. Noteworthy This program aimed to drive improvements through Abhi, a mid-level executive with developing skills. We chose a strategy that required minimal new skills. The program shows…

People say, “Success leaves clues.” The advice you often hear is find someone who achieved something you want to achieve, watch them carefully, repeat their steps, and you will achieve success too. It is useful, but to a point. There is one big problem with this approach. Each of us has a unique set of assets (talents, experiences, family, connections, personality, etc.). The person you are watching from afar and emulating as closely as possible will have a very different set of assets. Plus, they will have a different value system. What they will value in life will differ from what you…

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[NEW EPISODES] Season II, The Bill Matassoni Show

The Bill Matassoni Show Season II (Not To Be Confused With Season III, Which Is Also Being Released) We just released new episodes of The Bill Matassoni Show, Season II (31 episodes overall). Below is an excerpt from one of the episodes. Because it is taken from a video episode, it may not be as polished as our usual edited text in emails. I think it is more beneficial for you to see Bill's actual words versus the edited version. To see Bill's entire conversation, please refer to the training program on StrategyTraining.com. "The first two years of my career at McKinsey were crucial... When I was hired, they mentioned that if things went well, I'd be a partner in two years. Well..., it takes eight years to make partner at McKinsey if you're a consultant, a regular consultant. So two years went by, and all of a sudden, I got a phone call Saturday morning saying, "Bill, we just elected you to be a partner at McKinsey." I was surprised, but a lot of good things had happened. One of them was Ron Daniel, the managing partner. Ron pretty much left me alone... When I joined McKinsey, I asked, "Is there a job description?"…

The Bill Matassoni Show Season II (Not To Be Confused With Season III, Which Is Also Being Released) We just released new episodes of The Bill Matassoni Show, Season II (31 episodes overall). Below is an excerpt from one of the episodes. Because it is taken from a video episode, it may not be as polished as our usual edited text in emails. I think it is more beneficial for you to see Bill's actual words versus the edited version. To see Bill's entire conversation, please refer to the training program on StrategyTraining.com. "The first two years of my career at McKinsey were…

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