Comments on: Are You A Level 0 Manager?

By: Daniel Sweet

Daniel Sweet — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 13:01:26 +0000

It always amazes me when I talk to a business owner / manager and ask them how they’re better / different than their competition. After mumbling the standard nonsense (”It’s our people!”), they admit that they really don’t know.

How is it that you can say that you’re so much better than the competition and that I should you use for whatever if you have no idea what the competition is doing?

What’s more, why did you start a business at all if you didn’t see a hole in the market?

I haven’t met many Level 1 or 2 managers / owners in my time.

Dan

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:40:55 +0000

Wally, great point. I didn’t mean to imply that differentiation was the complete goal of strategic thinking.

By: Terra Andersen

Terra Andersen — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:03:28 +0000

I believe a good combination of all levels is ideal. If we went around wondering what our competition was doing all of the time.. we’d let other aspects of the business suffer, such as customer service or good PR.

By: Lord

Lord — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:15:33 +0000

I wonder if higher level managers are more effective in mature, stable, slow growing industries, but less effective dealing with disruptive technologies, with which only 0 level management may be possible.

By: Wally Bock

Wally Bock — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:36:45 +0000

Great post, Rob, but it only deals with part of the strategy issue. There’s more to strategy than differentiation. The goals of strategy, as I see it, are to create long term competitive advantage and profitability. The key to the former is your people, their relationships and your culture. The key to the latter is delivering high perceived value within your target market. Differentiation is a vital part of that, but it’s not the whole thing.

By: Andy Swan

Andy Swan — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:07:25 +0000

I think you are right…this is not really something entrepreneurs should worry with. If you are a level 0 company, you should be a level 0 manager.

Blinders on for maidens.