What is the real purpose of your business? Your company needs profits to live, but profits are not what the business is for. The objectives are to provide value to the population and  to make the community better. When this vision is lost then we lose sense of purpose, the feeling of belonging, the sight of why we work, and why our business exists. Start a business when you have a passion for something and want to create something that you can be proud of. Inspire yourself and your people with a clear vision. Define shared values and let values rule. Achieve your sustainable competitive advantage by continuously developing existing and creating new resources and capabilities in response to rapidly changing market conditions. Focus on strengthening your distinctive capabilities – leadership, teamwork, processes, tacit knowledge, etc. – which cannot be replicated by competitors.

Know What

Finding the right balance in your business will help you refine your goals and hasten you towards them. Organizations prosper by achieving strategy through balancing the four major factors or perspectives: Financial; Customer; Process; and Growth.

Know Where

Remember the old joke about the car mechanic who’s called in after every other mechanic failed? He listens to the engine for a few minutes, then hauls off and gives it a big swift kick in a certain strategic spot. Lo and behold, the engine starts humming like a kitten. The mechanic turns around, gives the car owner his bill for $400. The owner is flabbergasted and demands an itemized breakdown  and explanation.

The bill says... '$1 for my time, and $399 for knowing where to kick.'

Know When

Timing is everything. You have to know not only how to make a move, but when. “The value of actions lies in their timing,” said Lao Tzu. Customer value derives from timely delivery. Change is unavoidable, but if you can anticipate it and understand business cycles, you can ride with change instead of being run over.

Know Who

"In the end, all management can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profits. People come first," said Lee Iacocca  Your corporate vision is worthless, strategies powerless and shared values are corrupt without the right people to execute.

Know How

Manage processes, not people. Focus not on what they do, but on how they do it. Establish a synergistic enterprise-wide and an end-to-end (cross-departmental, and often, cross-company) coordination of work activities that create and deliver ultimate value to customers.