Experts, Experts Everywhere, and Not a Pause to Think

By Tim Berry

My title for this post is taken (slightly modified, but better known as shown here than in the original) from Coleridge’s The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner: “Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink.” I’m worried that one downside of our amazingly connected world, in relation to small business and entrepreneurship, is that business experts are everywhere,... Read More »

Displacement Principle in Startups and Small Business

By Tim Berry

It’s really pretty simple. Intuitive. I didn’t learn about it in business school; I learned about it while building and running a real business. I decided to call it the displacement principle. Displacement Principle: In the real world of small business, everything you do rules out something else you can’t do. My favorite metaphor is... Read More »

Do Big Tech Companies Become Too Big Not to Fail?

By Tim Berry

I caught this one yesterday on Medium: Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast. It’s by Dare Obasanjo on Hacker Daily (great title, by the way). It’s a well-thought-out discussion of how Google and Facebook culture achieved a substantial shift of strategy in a way that others (Blockbuster facing Netflix, and Blackberry facing iPhone) couldn’t. Here’s the summary. “when... Read More »

Business Strategy Is Useless Without Execution

By Tim Berry

In the last two weeks I’ve posted a three-part series on I’ve posted a series on setting and executing business strategy on the Amex OPEN forum in the last two weeks. I’m happy to see the first of these showing up on top of the trending list there. Here’s a summary: Start with Strategy The... Read More »

Acronyms: Does BS Stand for Business Strategy?

By Tim Berry

What do you think of when you see the acronym “BS?” Do you think of business strategy? Maybe you should. I have nothing against real business strategy. I’ve posted on strategy often here. My favorites include 3 stories your business strategy depends on and defining small business strategy. My sense of it, boiling down three... Read More »

Strategist? No, Please; not Me

By Tim Berry

I don’t want to be a strategist. Yeah, like you, I like to be a thinker. I like analysis. And strategy sounds cool. But the term strategist is too much pomp, arrogance, a relative of using utilize instead of use, or at that point of time instead of then. What reminded me was The Difference Between a... Read More »

New Fremium Formula Pits Revenue Against User Satisfaction

By Tim Berry

What would you think of a restaurant that offered really good food, but the salad is free and the dressing is extra? The potatoes are free but the sour cream is extra. The soup is free but heating it costs extra. And table service is free if you wait two hours, but table service in... Read More »

The Growth is Always Greener in Your Neighbor’s Lawn

By Tim Berry

Have you noticed this? Businesses that sell to small business want to sell to enterprises. Businesses that sell to enterprises want small business. I’ve seen it for 30 years now. On the one hand, it’s good business. Expand. Go from where you are to where there’s more market waiting. On the other hand, damn, I... Read More »