A guide on how to outthink your competition.

1. The Fourth Option
How to Outthink your Competition
European American Business Club
May 11th, 2011
Helmut J. Albrecht | Headway International Consulting LLC

2. Objectives
learn from innovative thinkers in
other competitive domains
cover the role of pattern
recognition in business
innovation
show how successful
companies innovate beyond
their products and solutions
unleash your strategic thinking
skills to develop a playbook for
success
learn how to connect the parts
with the whole

3. Formation
Wood
Imagination ter
Wa
Breakout
Fire
The five phases of innovation
M
et
h
art
al
Discontent E Consolidation

4. Better horses
Better jockeys
Better care & training
4

5. What sets them apart?
Alexander the Genghis Khan
Napoleon Bonaparte Sun Tzu
Great
Hannibal Col. John Boyd
Mao Tse-Tung

6. What sets them apart?
Bill Gates Anne Mulcahy
Steve Jobs
Soichiro Honda Henry Ford
Richard Branson

7. What sets them apart?
Martin Luther Mahatma Nelson Confucius
King, Jr. Gandhi Mandela
Mother Teresa Mohammad
Thomas Benjamin
Yunus Franklin
Jefferson

8. The most
successful
players
have the
ability to
see the
Michael Jordan Pele
strategic
options
their
opponents
ignore.
Dick Fosbury

9. 1-2-3
A-B-C
THE ACCEPTED WAY OF DOING THINGS.
SEE THE ONE THAT TAKES THEIR MARKET
AND COMPETITORS OFF-GUARD.

10. The Fourth Option
The strategy to outthink the competition®.

11. Grand master Master Expert

12. Identifying highly-competitive companies
They see
Revenue what others
CAGR fail to see –
They do what
Profit others
(EBITDA Return choose not
Margin) (TRS) to copy.

13. Identifying the most powerful stratagems

14. Identifying the most powerful stratagems

15. Identifying the most powerful stratagems
7 that most frequently
trigger breakthrough
growth, profitability, and
value-creation

16. Seven Key Strategies
Partner with someone unexpected Who else benefits if you win?
Move early to the next battleground Where is the next battleground?
Lock up resources What inputs can you control?
Launch a two-front battle With whom can you launch a
two-front battle?
Introduce a new piece to the game What player do you wish was in
board the game?
Coordinate the uncoordinated Who could you coordinate?
Embrace what others abandon What has been abandoned?

17. 5. Partner with someone unexpected.
Who else benefits if you win?

18. Seven Key Strategies
Partner with someone unexpected Who else benefits if you win?
Move early to the next battleground Where is the next battleground?
Lock up resources What inputs can you control?
Launch a two-front battle With whom can you launch a
two-front battle?
Introduce a new piece to the game What player do you wish was in
board the game?
Coordinate the uncoordinated Who could you coordinate?
Embrace what others abandon What has been abandoned?

19. 22. Move early to the next battleground.
Don’t skate to where the hockey-puck is,
skate to where it is going to be.

20. 22. Move early to the next battleground.
Where is the next battleground? What are
you doing now to prepare for it?

21. Seven Key Strategies
Partner with someone unexpected Who else benefits if you win?
Move early to the next battleground Where is the next battleground?
Lock up resources What inputs can you control?
Launch a two-front battle With whom can you launch a
two-front battle?
Introduce a new piece to the game What player do you wish was in
board the game?
Coordinate the uncoordinated Who could you coordinate?
Embrace what others abandon What has been abandoned?

22. 10. LOCK UP
RESOURCES.
Analyze what is
fueling resistance
and lock up its
supply.
Minnetonka
locked up
the pumps
which
gave them
the time
they needed
to over take
the market.

23. Seven Key Strategies
Partner with someone unexpected Who else benefits if you win?
Move early to the next battleground Where is the next battleground?
Lock up resources What inputs can you control?
Launch a two-front battle With whom can you launch a
two-front battle?
Introduce a new piece to the game What player do you wish was in
board the game?
Coordinate the uncoordinated Who could you coordinate?
Embrace what others abandon What has been abandoned?

24. 7. LAUNCH A TWO-FRONT BATTLE
With whom can you launch a two-front battle?

25. 7. FORCE
YOUR
COMPETITOR
INTO A
TWO-FRONT
BATTLE

26. Seven Key Strategies
Partner with someone unexpected Who else benefits if you win?
Move early to the next battleground Where is the next battleground?
Lock up resources What inputs can you control?
Launch a two-front battle With whom can you launch a
two-front battle?
Introduce a new piece to the game What player do you wish was in
board the game?
Coordinate the uncoordinated Who could you coordinate?
Embrace what others abandon What has been abandoned?

27. 32. Introduce a new piece to the game board –
What do you wish was in the game?

28. Seven Key Strategies
Partner with someone unexpected Who else benefits if you win?
Move early to the next battleground Where is the next battleground?
Lock up resources What inputs can you control?
Launch a two-front battle With whom can you launch a
two-front battle?
Introduce a new piece to the game What player do you wish was in
board the game?
Coordinate the uncoordinated Who could you coordinate?
Embrace what others abandon What has been abandoned?

29. 34. Co-ordinate the uncoordinated.

30. 34. Co-ordinate the uncoordinated.

31. 34. Co-ordinate the uncoordinated.
Combine and coordinate
independent elements
within your environment
to orchestrate
much greater power.
Who could you coordinate?

32. 34. Co-ordinate the uncoordinated.
Who could you coordinate?

33. Seven Key Strategies
Partner with someone unexpected Who else benefits if you win?
Move early to the next battleground Where is the next battleground?
Lock up resources What inputs can you control?
Launch a two-front battle With whom can you launch a
two-front battle?
Introduce a new piece to the game What player do you wish was in
board the game?
Coordinate the uncoordinated Who could you coordinate?
Embrace what others abandon What has been abandoned?

34. 27. Embrace what others abandon.

35. 27. Embrace what others abandon.
Adopt a forgotten or abandoned model,
idea or technology to differentiate yourself and build power.

36. Seven Key Strategies
Partner with someone unexpected Who else benefits if you win?
Move early to the next battleground Where is the next battleground?
Lock up resources What inputs can you control?
Launch a two-front battle With whom can you launch a
two-front battle?
Introduce a new piece to the game What player do you wish was in
board the game?
Coordinate the uncoordinated Who could you coordinate?
Embrace what others abandon What has been abandoned?

37. No
“Crazy”
brainers
Wastes of
Tactics
time

38. What can we do to stay in
our framework?

39. Innovation Success
It is all about IDEAS

40. And let it be noted that there is no more delicate
matter to take in hand, nor more dangerous to
conduct, nor more doubtful in its success, than to
set up as a leader in the introduction of changes.
For he who innovates will have for his enemies all
those who are well off under the existing order of
things, and only the lukewarm supporters in those
who might be better off under the new.

41. Thank You!

42. Q and A

43. Helmut J. Albrecht
Headway International Consulting LLC
Outthink your competition® | SMARTConversations®
German American Trade Association
Seminars | Workshops
Consulting
International Business Development
585 406 2296 (m)
904 225 8869 (o)
helmut.albrecht@headwayconsult.com
www.headwayconsult.com
www.linkedin.com/in/helmutalbrecht