The hottest Strategy Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Business Topics

Revenue is a Poor North Star Metric

TeamCraft • 0 implied HN points • 14 Aug 23
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Revenue should not be the sole metric to focus on for growth
  2. It's important for companies to align on meaningful objectives through frameworks like OKRs
  3. Choosing the right North Star Metric can lead to more efficient growth and long-term success

Did Netflix Just Make Their Best Strategic Move in the Last Five Years?

The Entertainment Strategy Guy • 0 implied HN points • 25 Jan 24
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Netflix made a strategic move by acquiring WWE rights, addressing growth limitations by expanding into live content.
  2. The deal with WWE signals Netflix as a potential bidder for other sports rights, which may affect the future of sports media rights.
  3. Despite past skepticism, Netflix's strong performance in 2023 suggests the need for a rethink of their competitive position.
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Gleneagles GC at McLaren Park #2 & #11

Wigs on the Green • 0 implied HN points • 02 Feb 24
🎾 Sports Strategy
  1. The Gleneagles GC at McLaren Park features a switch from strategic to penal architecture.
  2. Focus on the green complex which presents challenges for players on holes #2 and #11.
  3. General strategy off the tee involves controlling distance and prioritizing a controlled shot.

Taming the Annual Budget

Build To Scale • 0 implied HN points • 24 Oct 23
💼 Business Strategy
  1. When setting an annual budget, use a top-down approach for better efficiency and success in funding key initiatives.
  2. Departments need to create their own annual plans that align with overall company goals to ensure success and mitigate risks.
  3. As the business evolves, flexibility is key in budget management, with regular check-ins to adjust spending and headcount based on actual performance.

How And When to Do Layoffs

Build To Scale • 0 implied HN points • 21 Sep 23
💼 Business Strategy
  1. If you've missed your targets significantly for two quarters and haven't adjusted costs, it's likely time to consider layoffs to prevent worsening financial situations.
  2. When doing layoffs, it's better to make deeper cuts of at least 15% rather than small reductions to significantly impact the company trajectory.
  3. Focus on top initiatives during layoffs by identifying key projects to prioritize, being clear about what will be stopped, and re-aligning the organization for critical goals.

What Does Your Brand Stand For?

Build To Scale • 0 implied HN points • 28 Aug 23
💼 Business Strategy
  1. A brand is the promise a company makes combined with the customer experience. It's crucial to focus on delivering quality products and services that align with this promise.
  2. The success of a brand is not just about logos or taglines but about creating products customers can't live without. Constant innovation and differentiation are key.
  3. Maintaining a strong brand requires consistently delivering on the promise and continuously improving products to meet customer needs.

What Are The Patterns?

Build To Scale • 0 implied HN points • 18 Aug 23
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Identifying patterns among customers is crucial for building and scaling a startup. This skill is valuable for optimizing sales and marketing strategies.
  2. Understanding qualitative aspects of customer situations can lead to better targeting and product optimization. It's essential to focus on specific customer segments and use cases rather than aiming for broad generalizations.
  3. Talking to customers and salespeople is key to uncovering valuable patterns. Customer visits and sales insights can help identify buying trends and inform marketing strategies.

Four Laws of Brand-Building in the Digital Age (Part 2 of 4)

The Intersection • 0 implied HN points • 06 Apr 21
💼 Business Strategy
  1. In the digital age, brands are shifting focus from Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to Point of View (POV) as a more powerful marketing tool.
  2. Brands are facing challenges in protecting their USP in the digital world due to rampant copying and mimicry, highlighting the importance of having a distinct POV.
  3. The driving force for success in today's competitive landscape lies in having a strong Point of View (POV) that is unique, consistent, and resonates with consumers.

Four Laws of Brand-Building in the Digital Age (Part 1 of 4)

The Intersection • 0 implied HN points • 14 Mar 21
💼 Business Strategy
  1. In the digital age, transitioning from organizational scale to functional speed is crucial for building successful brands.
  2. Establishing a brand in the 21st century requires a shift from traditional marketing methods to adapting to digital trends.
  3. The ability to adjust speed appropriately, like Google, Facebook, and Disney did, is essential for brand-building in the evolving digital era.

🤯 How much should I be investing in brand?

the case for brand 💼 • 0 implied HN points • 01 Mar 24
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Brand marketing and growth marketing are not mutually exclusive - you need both for long-term success.
  2. The optimal split for investing in brand versus demand (activation) is typically 60% brand and 40% demand.
  3. Overinvesting in lead generation is a common mistake - balancing brand building and demand generation can lead to exceptional results.

Seed is the New Series A

Equal Ventures • 0 implied HN points • 19 Dec 23
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Seed stage investing has evolved to become as prominent and important as Series A investments in recent years.
  2. Seed investors have seen success, leading to larger investments, pushing Series A rounds to later stages.
  3. The venture capital landscape is changing, with early-stage investing maturing, causing a shift in investment strategies towards earlier-stage opportunities.

Open-Sourcing Equal’s Framework For COVID-19 Scenario Planning

Equal Ventures • 0 implied HN points • 31 Mar 20
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Founders need plans for various potential scenarios caused by the pandemic, leading to the creation of a standardized framework for strategic planning.
  2. The framework is divided into 3 key sections: current impacts analysis, short-term scenario planning, and long-term implications discussion.
  3. Personalizing the framework template for different business categories is important to account for varying impacts and parameters.

How to Drive Meaningful Change - Delivering your proposal

Joseph Gefroh • 0 implied HN points • 09 Mar 24
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Effectively delivering a proposal is crucial for its approval by decision-makers and stakeholders.
  2. Summarizing your proposal concisely is key - leaders are busy and need clear, quick information to make decisions.
  3. Using the right medium, such as presentations or written documents, is important to communicate your proposal effectively.

How to Drive Meaningful Change - Crafting your proposal

Joseph Gefroh • 0 implied HN points • 03 Mar 24
💼 Business Strategy
  1. When driving meaningful change, it's crucial to formulate your idea and gain approval from various stakeholders within an organization.
  2. Thorough research is essential before proposing any idea to ensure credibility and avoid unknown unknowns that might lead to rejection.
  3. Crafting a compelling narrative is just as important as presenting facts; having a structured story helps decision-makers understand the problem, solution, and value of the proposal.

On hiring - A-players and the folly of the ideal candidate

Joseph Gefroh • 0 implied HN points • 26 Feb 24
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Startup leaders often seek perfect, 'A-player' candidates but end up damaging their companies by delaying hiring unnecessarily.
  2. A-players aren't flawless - they have weaknesses and can't excel at everything. It's better to hire adaptable 'B-players' with potential.
  3. Fix your hiring strategy by focusing on teamwork, being realistic about needs, and considering a mix of generalists and specialists.

Making decisions - When should you trade off between speed vs. quality?

Joseph Gefroh • 0 implied HN points • 11 Feb 24
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Startups prioritize speed for short-term gains but may suffer in the long run if quality is sacrificed.
  2. There are two main kinds of shortcuts: reducing quality and reducing scope. It is advised to prioritize reducing scope over sacrificing quality.
  3. Quality shortcuts can result in increased costs for startups, impacting speed and effectiveness. It might be better to invest in sustainable practices upfront.

Test Week: Scale and Speed

Joshua Gans' Newsletter • 0 implied HN points • 19 Aug 20
🏥 Health & Wellness Strategy
  1. Widespread testing for Covid-19 requires cheap tests and fast results to isolate infected individuals quickly.
  2. Lowering costs and increasing speed of testing are essential for successful mitigation of Covid-19 spread.
  3. Using a strategic testing approach, combining low-cost, rapid tests with high sensitivity tests, can significantly enhance the effectiveness of mitigation strategies.

Snapchat chooses execution over control

Joshua Gans' Newsletter • 0 implied HN points • 13 Feb 17
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Snapchat prioritizes execution over control to drive user engagement and product innovation.
  2. An execution strategy can be more profitable than a control strategy, as it allows for quicker market entry and cost-saving experiments.
  3. Snapchat's strategy mirrors Apple's approach of focusing on innovation rather than building barriers to entry, though profitability execution remains unproven.

How content is trapped

Joshua Gans' Newsletter • 0 implied HN points • 26 Oct 16
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Digitization exposes weak links in traditional content business models and breaks them, emphasizing the importance of understanding the connection between content and returns.
  2. Successful businesses recognize early the need to adapt and delink aspects of their operations to stay profitable in the digital age.
  3. Content providers need to focus on social elements and consumer value, not just information, to remain relevant and successful in the changing media landscape.

Ford hedges to deal with disruption

Joshua Gans' Newsletter • 0 implied HN points • 20 Apr 16
💼 Business Strategy
  1. The auto industry is facing disruption from electric batteries, autonomous vehicles, and mobile phones. Traditional car companies like Ford are trying to catch up with new business models.
  2. The rise of mobile phones and ride-sharing apps present a challenge to carmakers' traditional business model of selling cars to individuals. Companies are exploring new approaches like car-sharing partnerships and separate business units.
  3. Ford's strategy of creating Ford Smart Mobility, LLC to focus on connectivity and mobility services is a unique response to disruptive technologies in the automotive industry. The move reflects Ford's effort to adapt to changing consumer needs and market trends.

Twitter needed strategy

Joshua Gans' Newsletter • 0 implied HN points • 27 Jan 16
🕹 Technology Strategy
  1. Twitter lacked a clear strategy compared to Facebook, affecting its growth and innovation.
  2. Entrepreneurial strategy involves clear initial choices like defining customers, technology, identity, and competition.
  3. Twitter's lack of a founding strategy still hinders its development and understanding, suggesting it might need a fundamental change to reach its full potential.

Neither right nor wrong

Venture Prose • 0 implied HN points • 10 Feb 19
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Entrepreneurship involves managing paradoxes like optimism amidst challenges and excellence alongside growth for progress.
  2. Balance reason and emotion as they both hold truth individually but can coexist without merging.
  3. Understand and balance paradoxical elements to make informed decisions and adapt to situations for success.

Les 7 Portes Du Corporate Venture

Venture Prose • 0 implied HN points • 01 Feb 16
💼 Business Strategy
  1. It's crucial for companies to stay updated with technological advancements and industry changes to avoid rapid decline.
  2. Corporate Venture can offer solutions to cope with fast, unexpected changes through avenues like incubators, VC fund investments, and strategic direct investments.
  3. The Corporate Venture model involves various approaches like Spin-Offs, thematic investments, majority investments, and Corporate Studios, each serving different purposes in fostering innovation and adaptation within companies.

The A-founder’s genome

Venture Prose • 0 implied HN points • 02 Jan 16
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Cohesion among the founders is crucial for success.
  2. Each founder should be assessed as a Leader, Manager, or Doer.
  3. Founders' learning curve, strategy mix, and friendliness are important factors to consider.

Product Managers, here's how to change someone's mind

The Kahneman Bot • 0 implied HN points • 26 Sep 23
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Deal with disagreement by starting with empathy, bringing evidence, and experimenting towards a solution.
  2. Create a shared sense of purpose to transform disagreement into constructive discussion.
  3. Affirm values, understand different perspectives, and dive into details with an open mind to facilitate changing someone's mind.

WOData: CrossFit Open 24.3

Austin's Analects • 0 implied HN points • 26 Mar 24
🎾 Sports Strategy
  1. Austin shares his strategy and analysis for CrossFit Open Workout 24.3, revealing his overly ambitious plan and the consequences of it on his performance.
  2. The workout consisted of thrusters, chest-to-bar pull-ups, bar muscle-ups, and strict time caps per round, showing Austin's struggle with pacing and transitions.
  3. Austin reflects on his execution, acknowledging his mistakes, overestimations, and areas for improvement in future attempts at the workout.

WOData: CrossFit Open 24.1

Austin's Analects • 0 implied HN points • 04 Mar 24
🎾 Sports Strategy
  1. This post gives insight into optimizing performance for the 2024 CrossFit Open workout 24.1, emphasizing the importance of strategic planning and understanding workout tests.
  2. The author shared their workout strategy, performance analysis, and a tool to help others analyze their own performance in the CrossFit workout.
  3. Determining whether to retest a workout depends on factors like consistency in performance across rounds and feeling of leftover energy, offering specific ways to improve scores.

Build A Real Estate Portfolio From Scratch in 2023

Austin's Analects • 0 implied HN points • 02 Jun 23
💼 Business Strategy
  1. Define your market by choosing locations where money is flowing or near natural beauty.
  2. Choose a strategy based on your resources like house hacking or flipping, and stick with it.
  3. Build a strong team including a property manager, contractors, and a real estate agent before executing your real estate investment strategy.

Centipawn Loss Distribution

Chess Engine Lab • 0 implied HN points • 13 Apr 24
🎾 Sports Strategy
  1. Average centipawn loss (ACPL) gives an overview of the quality of a chess game by indicating the average number of centipawns a player loses during a game.
  2. Looking at the distribution of centipawn loss (CPL) in a game can provide more insightful information than just relying on ACPL, especially in drawn games.
  3. Analyzing CPL distribution for multiple games by the same player can show patterns in their play, including frequency of blunders and small mistakes compared to other players at their rating.

Gambling with House Money

The Radar • 0 implied HN points • 02 May 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Strategy
  1. Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) airmen play a critical role in providing air support to ground forces, especially in close-quarters combat situations.
  2. The Air Force's decision to reduce TACP workforce by 44% over three years lacks transparency and may leave a gap in crucial air support during intense combat situations.
  3. The reduction in TACPs could have severe consequences if ground forces find themselves in a conflict without adequate air support, putting lives at risk.

Strategic Wins and Inspirational Drives

The Small Business Corner • 0 implied HN points • 10 Jun 24
💼 Business Strategy
  1. The newsletter delivers a weekly rundown of articles and resources, making it a short and convenient read for subscribers.
  2. Articles cover a range of topics like mastering skills, tax guides, budgeting, business loans, and small business grants.
  3. The podcast recommendation explores the psychology of money and provides practical tips for better financial management.

Tháp thành công

Thái | Hacker | Kỹ sư tin tặc • 0 implied HN points • 30 Apr 17
📖 Philosophy Strategy
  1. Success hierarchy includes attitude, approach, and goal as top priorities, not just strategy or tactics.
  2. It's crucial to identify personal goals before diving into tasks like learning programming languages or choosing operating systems.
  3. Being proactive, valuing time, willing to learn from mistakes, and questioning things are key attitudes for personal growth.