Business and Strategy | Push Manifesto

When the question is "why would anyone pay for this?" or "where does this fit?", these are the lenses. Most are established models (Porter, Osterwalder, Covey, Kelly) stripped back to the questions they make you ask. Use them to test a proposal, not to decorate a slide deck.

Shared Value Creation🔗

"Shared value creation" is a business strategy that focuses on creating economic value in a way that also addresses social and environmental issues. It is a way of doing business that goes beyond traditional corporate social responsibility and focuses on creating value for both the company and society.¹

The concept of shared value creation involves identifying and addressing societal needs that are also relevant to the company's business operations and core competencies. By doing so, companies can create new market opportunities, improve their operations and increase their competitiveness while also positively impacting society.

Some examples of shared value creation include:

A company working with local farmers to improve crop yields and reduce costs while also improving food security in the community.
A company investing in renewable energy to reduce its carbon footprint and lower energy costs while also contributing to the transition to a low-carbon economy.
A company providing training and education programs for employees to improve their skills and increase productivity while also reducing poverty and unemployment in the community.

Shared value creation has the potential to create a win-win situation for companies and society, creating economic value for the company while also addressing important social and environmental issues.

Value, Uniquenesses, Scarcity, and Pattern Interruption🔗

Value: Value refers to the benefit or usefulness that a product, service or idea provides to its customers or users. It is often considered as the ratio of benefits received to the cost incurred. Understanding the value that a product or service provides is important for businesses to be able to communicate its benefits to potential customers and charge a fair price for it.
Uniquenesses: Uniqueness refers to the qualities or characteristics that make a product, service or idea different from others. It can be the design, features, brand, or the way the product is delivered. Uniqueness can be used as a competitive advantage and can help businesses to stand out in a crowded market.
Scarcity: Scarcity refers to the limited availability of a product or service. It can be created by factors such as limited resources, exclusive distribution, or limited production run. Scarcity can be used to increase the perceived value of a product or service, as customers are willing to pay more for something that is rare or exclusive.²
Pattern Interruption: Pattern interruption refers to breaking established patterns or routines in order to gain attention and influence behavior. This can be used in marketing and advertising to disrupt the normal flow of information, and capture the audience's attention. By interrupting a pattern, businesses can create interest and curiosity, and make their message more memorable.³

By understanding the concepts of Value, Uniquenesses, Scarcity, and Pattern Interruption, businesses can create products and services that are more valuable and more memorable.

Information: Information refers to the content that is provided by a website or application. This can include text, images, videos, and other types of media that are used to educate, inform, or entertain the user. Information can be presented in a variety of formats, such as articles, blog posts, product descriptions, and user manuals.
Navigation: Navigation refers to the way that users interact with the website or application. This includes the structure and layout of the website or application, as well as the tools and features that are used to help users find what they are looking for. Navigation can include menus, search bars, and breadcrumb trails, and it should be intuitive and easy to use.
Transaction: A Transaction refers to the process of buying or selling products and services through a website or application. It includes features such as shopping carts, checkout pages, and payment gateways. These features should be easy to use and secure, and they should provide a positive user experience.
Comparison: Comparison refers to the ability of a website or application to help users compare products, services, or information. This can include tools such as product comparison tables, ratings and reviews, and pricing comparisons. Comparison tools can provide users with the information they need to make informed decisions and find the best products or services for their needs.

In general, a website or application should provide a balance of all of these features, Information, Navigation, Transaction, and Comparison, to provide a comprehensive user experience.⁴ These features should be designed and implemented in a way that is user-friendly, easy to use, and provides the necessary information to enable users to make informed decisions and complete transactions.

Digital Business Model🔗

A Digital Business Model is a type of business model that leverages digital technologies to create new opportunities for growth and innovation. The key elements of a Digital Business Model include:⁵

Operational Backbone: This refers to the underlying infrastructure, processes, and systems that support the day-to-day operations of a business. This includes everything from financial and accounting systems to human resources and supply chain management.
Digital Platform: This refers to the technology and digital tools that enable a business to connect with customers, partners, and other stakeholders. This can include e-commerce platforms, social media, mobile apps, and other digital channels.
Developer Platform: This refers to the tools and resources that developers and IT teams use to create and maintain digital products and services. This can include software development kits (SDKs), APIs, and other resources that make it easier for developers to create, test, and deploy digital products and services.
Accountability Framework: This refers to the set of policies, processes, and systems that ensure that a business is accountable for its actions and decisions. This can include compliance and regulatory requirements, as well as internal policies and procedures that govern how a business operates. A strong accountability framework helps to ensure that a business is transparent and accountable to its customers, employees, and other stakeholders.

Overall, a Digital Business Model is designed to help organizations stay competitive in today's digital economy by leveraging digital technologies to create new business opportunities, improve customer engagement, and reduce costs.

Business Models🔗

The 10Ps Marketing Matrix is a marketing strategy tool that helps businesses to identify and prioritize different marketing activities. It is made up of 10 key areas of marketing, including product, price, promotion, place, people, process, physical evidence, packaging, positioning, and performance.⁶ By considering each of these areas, businesses can develop a comprehensive marketing plan that addresses all aspects of their marketing efforts.
A Segment Profile is a tool used to identify and profile different segments of a market. This can include information on demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral characteristics.⁷ By understanding these segments, businesses can tailor their marketing efforts to specific groups of customers, resulting in more effective and efficient marketing.
Porter's 5 Forces is a model that helps businesses to understand the competitive forces in their industry. The model identifies five key forces that shape competition in an industry: the threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of buyers, the threat of substitute products or services, and the intensity of competitive rivalry.⁸ By understanding these forces, businesses can develop strategies to compete more effectively in their industry.
The Lean Canvas is a visual tool that helps businesses to map out the key elements of their business model.⁹ It includes sections for customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partners, and cost structure. The Lean Canvas helps businesses to identify the key components of their business model and to make sure that they are aligned with their overall strategy.

Strategies🔗

Vision🔗

The elements of a strategy statement: roughly a SWOT analysis plus mission and position. Porter's test is whether the choices fit together into a position competitors cannot easily copy;¹⁰ Rumelt's is whether there is a diagnosis, a guiding policy and coherent action.¹¹

Opportunity: Identifying potential areas for growth or expansion within the market. This could include identifying new customer segments, products, or services. It is important to consider both short-term and long-term opportunities in order to align them with the overall vision of the organization.
Mission: A statement that defines the purpose and goals of the organization. It should clearly communicate the organization's values and objectives, and serve as a guiding principle for all decision-making.
Position: The unique value proposition of the organization, which differentiates it from its competitors. This includes identifying the target market, unique selling points, and the overall value the organization can bring to its customers.
Strengths: The unique advantages or resources that the organization has at its disposal. These could include a strong brand, a talented workforce, or proprietary technology.
Weaknesses: Areas where the organization may be lacking or vulnerable in comparison to its competitors. These should be identified in order to address them and minimize their impact on the organization's success.
Resources: The tangible and intangible assets that the organization has available to it, such as financial resources, human resources, and technology. These should be leveraged in order to achieve the organization's goals and objectives.
Threats: External factors that may negatively impact the organization, such as economic downturns, new competitors, or changes in regulations. It is important to identify and plan for potential threats in order to minimize their impact on the organization.
Trends: Identifying and analyzing trends in the industry, market, and society can help organizations to anticipate and adapt to changes in the environment. This includes identifying changes in customer behavior, technology, and the economy that may impact the organization's strategy.

RASCI🔗

RASCI is a framework for identifying and assigning roles and responsibilities within a team or organization.¹² It stands for:

R (Responsible): The individual or team responsible for completing a specific task or delivering a specific outcome. They are accountable for the results and have the authority to make decisions and assign work within their area of responsibility.
A (Accountable): The individual or team accountable for the overall outcome or deliverable. They have the ultimate responsibility for ensuring the task or outcome is completed successfully and on time.
S (Supportive): The individuals or teams that provide support to the Responsible and Accountable parties, such as providing information, resources, or assistance.
C (Consulted): The individuals or teams that need to be consulted or kept informed of progress, decisions, or changes related to the task or outcome.
I (Informed): The individuals or teams that need to be informed of progress, decisions, or changes related to the task or outcome, but do not need to be consulted.

The RASCI framework helps to clearly define roles and responsibilities within a team or organization, which can lead to better communication and collaboration, improved decision-making and accountability, and ultimately better outcomes.

12 Forces (Kevin Kelly)🔗

Kelly's twelve verbs for the technological trends of the next thirty years, one chapter each.¹³

Becoming – We are in a state of unceasing change and are continually learning and adapting (we are constant ‘newbies’) to the new that is unlike anything that was before.
Cognifying – Applied intelligence will be available just like electricity was over 100 years ago. It will be embedded into everything and change the nature of how things work.
Flowing – Stocks to flows, ownership to use. Atoms and bits are now flowing from creators to consumers who are themselves creators. We want things that flow, in time and space.
Screening – We will interact with information through screens. All information will become fluid, linked and tagged. All content and libraries will become symbols on screens we interact with.
Accessing – The availability of anything, atoms or bits, immediately without owning. Whatever you need you can get, and get the latest and best. Ownership is no longer necessary.
Sharing – Everyone creates and it’s all shared. Any idea, thought, expression or artifact can be contributed to by anyone and experienced by anyone if they so desire.
Filtering – Attention is the scarce resource. Allocating it to an exponentially expanding universe requires filtering based on who we are. Future filters will both serve us and surprise us.
Remixing – Whatever is new is a remix of what exists. Remixing requires radical deconstruction and the ability to find the pieces to recombine and transform into something new.
Interacting – We will interact with our devices and with others in realistic virtual and augmented worlds. Our devices will ‘know’ us and we will know worlds and others through our devices.
Tracking – We will track and be tracked everywhere and everywhen. What we track will expand exponentially and become extra ‘senses’. ‘Coveillance’ will emerge where the watchers and the watched are transparent.
Questioning – Billions of connected people are creating a new level of organization where questioning is the norm and answers emerge from the collective. Unimagined questions beget unimaginable answers.
Beginning – Now is the time in which, 30 years hence, people will look back and say, ‘that was the dawn of the era we are living in’. These forces will shape our future and we are only at the beginning.

Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2011). Creating shared value. Harvard Business Review, 89(1–2), 62–77. hbr.org ↩
Cialdini, R. B. (1984). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. William Morrow. The six principles are reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking and scarcity; the 2021 expanded edition adds unity. ↩
Pattern interruption comes from Milton Erickson's hypnotherapy, as described in Bandler, R., & Grinder, J. (1975). Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. (Vol. 1). Meta Publications. ↩
Broder, A. (2002). A taxonomy of web search. ACM SIGIR Forum, 36(2), 3–10. doi:10.1145/792550.792552. Broder's three intents are navigational, informational and transactional; comparison is the addition here. ↩
Ross, J. W., Beath, C. M., & Mocker, M. (2019). Designed for Digital: How to Architect Your Business for Sustained Success. MIT Press. MIT CISR's model has five building blocks: the four listed here plus shared customer insights. See MIT CISR. ↩
Chaffey, D. The 10 Ps marketing matrix. Smart Insights. smartinsights.com ↩
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Marketing Management (15th ed.). Pearson. Chapter 9 covers segmentation. ↩
Porter, M. E. (1979). How competitive forces shape strategy. Harvard Business Review, 57(2), 137–145. Updated in Porter, M. E. (2008). The five competitive forces that shape strategy. Harvard Business Review, 86(1), 78–93. hbr.org ↩
Maurya, A. (2012). Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works (2nd ed.). O'Reilly. The Lean Canvas adapts the Business Model Canvas of Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business Model Generation. Wiley, for the practice described in Ries, E. (2011). The Lean Startup. Crown Business. ↩
Porter, M. E. (1996). What is strategy? Harvard Business Review, 74(6), 61–78. hbr.org ↩
Rumelt, R. P. (2011). Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters. Crown Business. Rumelt's "kernel" of a strategy is a diagnosis, a guiding policy and coherent action. ↩
RASCI extends the RACI responsibility-assignment matrix with a Supportive role. RACI charts are described in Project Management Institute. (2017). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) (6th ed.), section 9.1.2.2. ↩
Kelly, K. (2016). The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future. Viking. Each force is a chapter. kk.org ↩