January 2024

I really enjoyed Jordan Raynor’s previous book, Redeeming Your Time, and gave it a glowing review. It was well written, founded in Biblical truths, yet very practical today (leveraging/responding to modern technologies), and Raynor is funny and easy to read. When I saw that he was coming out with a new book that he wrote “to help you see how 100% of your time at work can matter for eternity and not just the 1% of time you spend ‘sharing the gospel,’” I knew I had to read it.

The Sacredness of Secular Work releases today and is broken into two parts. The first part introduces three theological concepts that challenge what the author believes most churches teach. The second part teaches four ways that our work can have eternal impact.

Click the link below to read my full review, but bottom line, the book offers valuable practical ways that we can be intentional in making our daily work have more of an eternal impact. In fact, I might go so far as to say that this book is essential reading for anyone interested in better integrating their faith into their work. Unfortunately, nearly half the book is spent putting forth theological arguments seemingly meant to be controversial. While I think I largely agree with the author on most theological points, I fear that the positioning and posturing of this theological content may keep many readers from ever benefitting from the very useful practices taught in the second half of the book (and in the downloadable accompanying workbook). 

In other words, if you care about integrating your faith into your work, read this book, and don’t let the first half scare you away.

Read my full review here.

Over the holiday season I had some time to work on my “side gig” — SDG Games — my business designing and selling educational board and card games for the glory of God. I originally launched SDG Games in February 2021 with the release of Journeys with Jesus. Over the past three years I’ve launched an additional 4 board and card game products and a free web-based game.

Heading into 2024, the SDG Games business faced a number of challenges:

– The games are too expensive and delivery times are too long

– Margins are incredibly thin

– Product awareness is very low in the target market

If a client described a business like this to me, my natural response would be “why are you even in this business?” To answer my own question — most of the games I’ve created first for me — to help me learn specific Biblical truths. I enjoy designing them, enjoy playing them with family and friends, have learned a lot, and want other families to be similarly blessed by the games. Given my commitment to my main consulting business, I can’t spend too much time on SDG Games, but I do want it to operate better and bless more families.

With that context, I put on my consultant’s hat and set about solving the performance challenges while keeping it a simple business that won’t distract me from my main focus on consulting. Over the past few weeks I’ve specifically focused on improvements in three areas:

– Production

– Distribution

– Marketing

Click the link below to read the full article, but the short version of those improvements involve:

– a major refresh of the flagship game, 

– a new production approach for a brand new game, 

– a new supplier, 

– a new website, and 

– a new online store. 

It was a lot of work over a few weeks but I think it sets the business up to be more successful without requiring much of my attention.

Click here to read more about how I approached the challenges.

Over the past few months, I’ve told the stories of various companies that have successfully launched new categories that fundamentally improved how industries operate and the world works. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at a company in the midst of launching a new category today.

Electronics can’t work without a healthy “heartbeat”. That heartbeat is in the form of clock signals that tell processors when to execute the next instruction, tell networking equipment when to send the next packet, and place highly precise timestamps on data so that it can be correctly interpreted and correlated by intelligent software. For nearly a century this heartbeat has most often been provided by a quartz crystal oscillator.

However, the Connected Intelligence revolution has placed tremendous new demands on electronics, demands that quartz crystals are struggling to meet:

– Everything is getting faster. 

– Today, as connected intelligence is built into every type of product, processors and networking (with their clock sources) are increasingly expected to operate reliably in harsh environments, with wide and rapid temperature swings, constant vibrations, and regular shocks. 

– Increasingly Artificial Intelligence-driven systems are making life-and-death decisions based on data collected from a variety of distributed systems. 

In 2003 Aaron Partridge and Markus Lutz saw the opportunity to build a better resonator and timing oscillator using MEMS technology. They decided to name their company SiTime because they were going to build timing products entirely using silicon (Si is the scientific symbol for silicon) and semiconductor processes. Like most disruptive technologies, their first products weren’t nearly as good as the best oscillators on the market. But, while quartz-based oscillators were barely improving (constrained by the industrial-age processes around physically cutting crystals), SiTime’s products were improving much more rapidly (benefitting from the computer-age/Moore’s Law advances in semiconductor technology).

Click here to read how, over the next two decades, SiTime continued to improve MEMS-based oscillators so that they are at least at parity with quartz oscillators on all the factors that have traditionally mattered most to engineers and significantly (2x or more) outperform on the factors that matter most in the Connected Intelligence revolution: size, resilience, reliability, and stability.

Today SiTime is in the midst of launching the Precision Timing category. Click here to read how they have:

1. Defined the problem, the solution, and the category.

2. Launched the category with a “lightning strike”.

3. Are continuing to lead and expand the category.

Are you redefining your industry? Do you need help defining and launching a new category? Reach out, maybe I can help.

Read the full story here.

I started ClearPurpose in 2020, making 2023 our 4th year. Each year I like to look back and see which of the ClearPurpose articles caught your attention. I specifically look at the full catalog and identify the articles that got the most attention in this calendar year.

It’s fascinating to me how balanced your favorite articles are. There are either 2 or 3 from each of the 4 years we’ve been publishing. There also are a range of different types of articles: 4 book reviews, 2 stories of companies working through strategic decisions, 2 articles about specific tools used in strategy work, and 2 articles more broadly covering strategic topics.

With that brief overview, here’s the countdown of your top 10 articles of 2023, with a brief snippet from each:

#10: Book Brief: Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution (2023)

Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution is full of insights and advice for entrepreneurs based on one man’s experience at some very successful startups. There’s a lot in it that I agree with and would probably give the same advice to companies I was advising. There are some things I disagree with and I would give counter-advice. As long as the reader takes the content for what it is — one man’s opinion — this can be a very valuable book for entrepreneurs.

#9: T-Mobile Finally Sells Sprint Fiber (2022)

According to Fierce Wireless, T-Mobile has agreed to sell the wireline business the company gained as part of its acquisition of Sprint to Cogent Communications for $1. In 2004, when I was director of strategic planning for the division of Sprint that managed the wireline business, we first seriously looked at selling this asset. Over the next 10 years in that role and as vice president of corporate strategy, we considered the possibility of selling Wireline several more times, even going so far as holding exploratory conversations with potential buyers.

#8: The Customer Network Strategy Generator (2021)

Some strategy tools are analysis focused. They collect and present information to help drive clarity for decision making (e.g. the BCG Growth Share Matrix). Some provide a framework for developing and representing strategic hypotheses (e.g. the Business Model Canvas). Still others can help identify resource and capability mismatches that can lead to strategic failures (e.g. the Diamond and Square Framework).

The Customer Network Strategy Generator, on the other hand, is more like a pilot’s pre-flight checklist, walking a strategist through the steps necessary to develop winning customer-facing strategies in the new digital age.

#7: What is a Business Operating System (2022)

I think the analogy of a computer operating system to a business operating system is valid. … With that analogy in mind, here’s my working definition of a business operating system.

A Business Operation System is the intentionally designed, consistent set of business practices that optimize business operations in alignment with the business’ strategy and culture.

#6: Book Brief: Competing in the Age of AI (2020)

Bottom line, I strongly recommend Competing in the Age of AI to anyone wanting to understand how the digital revolutions are transforming how firms operate and industries compete. As with any book, there are areas where I don’t completely agree with the authors, but in general, they provide perhaps the best treatment of the topic to date.

#5: Book Brief: The Discipline of Market Leaders (2020)

What It Teaches: Companies must choose to provide the best offering in the marketplace by excelling in one of three specific dimensions of value while maintaining threshold standards on the other two dimensions. Those three dimensions are best total cost, best product, and best total solution.
When To Use It: The Discipline of Market Leaders is all about competitive strategy. Review the key lessons in the book when preparing for discussions about competitive strategy and the follow-on planning around culture, organizational structure, core processes, management systems, and information technology necessary to achieve the chosen competitive strategy.

#4: Book Brief: HBRs 10 Must Reads on Strategy (2020)

What It Teaches: As the title implies, this book contains 10 classic articles on strategy from Harvard Business Review. Many of these articles became full length books, so to some extent, this one small book serves as a much quicker way to learn the key messages contained in some of the top strategy books.
When To Use It: The ten articles featured in this book roughly break down into five on strategy development and five on strategy execution. The topics covered range from industry analysis to vision development to management scorecarding to front line decisions and actions. So, in effect, the book covers the entire strategy lifecycle and may prove useful in many diverse situations. It’s certainly worth becoming familiar with the content once and then keeping it handy for quick reference when needed.

#3: What is Strategy (2022)

So, to hit on all the things we’ve talked about so far, a strategy:

Is a framework with depth and dimensionality to deal with uncertainty

Provides long-term vision

Defines the goal being pursued

Sets a direction forward

Identifies critical near-term objectives

Communicates all of the above clearly and coherently, and therefore

Enables decision making

#2: Nextel Helped Work Get Done (2023)

I like to describe the value that carriers like Nextel brought to pre-iPhone software developers as being in three buckets: bits, bills, and bags. First, Nextel provided the core data capabilities (bits) including the packet data network, the development platform, and the GPS data. Second, the company provided the business infrastructure (bills) including the “bill on behalf of” capability and frontline customer support. Third, Nextel served as a sales channel for the software companies (bags), both through the download site as well as through the growing Nextel salesforce, many of whom were focused on the specific industry verticals being targeted by the mobile business application developers.

#1: The Diamond-and-Square Framework (2021)

Eisenmann introduces the first tool this way: “how can an aspiring entrepreneur know whether she has actually identified an attractive opportunity and determine what types of resources are required to successfully capitalize on it? The diamond-and-square framework provides the answers.”

I’m glad that articles from years ago are still providing value to you, my readers. Every week I receive a report letting me know which articles received the most attention that week. These reports are typically dominated by my most recently published pieces, but it’s always a joy to see ones from deep in the archives receiving new attention. I’m glad that my book reviews are helpful, that the stories I share might be inspiring you in your strategic journeys, and that tools I’ve uncovered are helping you day by day.

Most of all, I’m thankful for you and your continued encouragement. Let me know if there are any topics you’d like to see me cover, and feel free to reach out at anytime if there are ways that I can help you as you wrestle with the hard decisions leaders are continuously facing.