‫This narrative is particularly valuable if you gave yourself a low score on product or positioning there's
‫an ancient Chinese phrase which says remove the firewood from under the pot.
‫Basically says if the pot is boiling don't try to burn your hands by touching the pot instead reach
‫under the pot and remove the fuel.
‫The first strategy that you want to apply to your business is that strategy.
‫Don't look at the pot look at the fuel look at the inputs.
‫Ask yourself what are the resources that my competition is going to need to fight with me and how can
‫I remove or gain control over those resources.
‫This is an extremely powerful strategy.
‫Think of soft soap for example the leading liquid soap company.
‫We all know the company but actually we shouldn't you know the company what should have happened is
‫that this relatively small company which was the first to develop a liquid soap with a pump.
‫It was about to launch its product in the market and what should have happened is Procter Gamble and
‫Colgate-Palmolive should have seen their success and used their superior power in the grocery stores
‫to squeeze them off the shelves with a copycat product that's what usually happens.
‫Now the management of SASO knew that was going to happen.
‫So they applied this strategy.
‫They looked at what are the inputs that Procter and Gamble would need to compete with me and they decided
‫that they could lock up for a little bit of time at least the little pumps that you need to make a soft
‫soap like product.
‫They bought way more pumps than they needed.
‫So then when Procter Gamble noticed that they were growing that this soft soap brand was growing.
‫They went to try to put together a competing product but they couldn't get the pumps.
‫They went to manufacturers and the manufacturers said well we're already committed to soft soap.
‫We're going to take a few months to be able to gear up to build the produce pumps for you and that gave
‫soft soap enough of a lead time enough time on the shelf that it could establish its brand if it is
‫today still the leading liquid soap brand.
‫Look for an input to lock up one client that we work for is an accounting firm.
‫And they were looking at ways to expand and they looked at this strategy.
‫What are the resources that our competitors need to compete with us and how can we improve our control
‫over those resources and what they realized was if they invested in recruiting or rock star accountants
‫and got really good at that then they could get the higher quality accountants before their competition.
‫They're now growing at 30 percent a year after being flat with zero growth for many years.
‫So what you want to do now and you have a worksheet to do this you want to sit down for a good 10 minutes
‫and brainstorm as many ideas as you can of resources that you can lock up.
‫Think about tangible resources like machinery technology inputs but also think of intangibles.
‫Think of things like intellectual property your brand.
‫Those kinds of things and come up with his many ideas that you can put into play to increase your competitiveness
‫by locking up a resource.