No, they didn’t have Google back in Sun Tzu’s day. In fact, I’m pretty sure they didn’t have computers either. However, the basics never change. I’ve read a number of blog posts and articles complaining and lamenting that people who create quality content are suffering in the rankings, while sites who plagiarize (“scrape”) content are soaring in the rankings. To be honest, I haven’t really bothered to investigate this claim. Why? Because search engine rankings are highly over-rated. But that’s a story for another day. My main point is this: why would you stake the success of your business on Google? You can’t control what they do. For all you know, they could release the Zebra update tomorrow and the Dolphin update the day after that, resulting in your web site never showing up in search results again. If that happens, there’s nothing you can do about it.
What say Master Sun?
Sun Tzu says several things that I’d like to relate to the Panda update:
“Camp in high places, facing the sun. Do not climb heights in order to fight. So much for mountain warfare.”
“Numerical weakness comes from having to prepare against possible attacks; numerical strength, from compelling our adversary to make these preparations against us.”
“You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended. You can ensure the safety of your defense if you only hold positions that cannot be attacked.”
Look at these three statements. Do you see what I see?
I liken “mountain warfare” to natural competitive advantage. If you have to “climb” in the search engine rankings to match a competitor who’s already on page one for a given term, forget it. You’re already late to the party, and you may be at a natural disadvantage with respect to them anyhow. Now, look at the second and third statements. If you’re worried about the Panda update, you’re at a disadvantage from the start. Why not build the success of your web site on your reputation in the community? Why not focus your efforts on finding raving fans, or making your business easy for your raving fans to talk about? Then, it wouldn’t matter if you appeared in search engine rankings or not. You’d have plenty of people visiting your site directly through referral links.
Your goal should be to position yourself such that your business will still keep making money regardless of what Google does. Odds are, if you’re worried about SEO, your energy is applied to the wrong things.
It’s all about creating new opportunities these days. This isn’t a “bad” economy; it’s a different economy. I’ve observed for a long time that there are two types of people in any field. There are people who seek out ready-made opportunities when they need them, and then there are people who create opportunity. The people who create opportunity are the ones who never have a problem making money. I’ve always strived to be an opportunity creator. However, I realize that the world needs the other type of person as well. If everyone was an opportunity creator, I’m not sure much work would get done. Entrepreneurs aren’t always known for being organized.
I found one quote by Sun Tzu on this subject that has always stuck out for me:
“If…in the midst of difficulties we are always ready to seize an advantage, we may extricate ourselves from misfortune.”
This, for me, is the heart of being an entrepreneur. It’s not just about waiting for the perfect opportunity to float along; it’s about knowing how to recognize an opportunity when it’s difficult to see, and being ready to seize it. The best opportunities are the ones that aren’t obvious. Think about it. The more obvious an opportunity is, the more competition you’ll have. Wouldn’t you rather be in position to grab up and opportunity that no one else even notices?
I don’t think Sun Tzu meant that we should only think of this as a means of getting out of a bad situation. I think he was pointing to something else as well. If we know that we can extricate ourselves from misfortune, doesn’t that free us up to take more risks?
How do you ready yourself to seize unexpected advantages? How can you improve in this area? Comment here.
I’m finding that a lot of small businesses right now are dealing with unsteady cash flow. Businesses in this position are often hesitant to commit to anything. I remember in 2009, right after the initial shock of the recession struck, a few business owners even confided to me that they weren’t sure they’d still be in business in six months. The market is changing continually, and it’s getting more and more difficult to determine the direction that things are going. How would Sun Tzu handle this problem today?
I ask myself this question all week long, and Sun Tzu seems to keep pointing back in a single direction: build teamwork and strengthen my alliances. The first section, “Laying Plans,” discusses the differences between factors that change and factors that remain constant. The section about “Maneuvering” states that we need to “make use of local guides” in unknown territory. These days, is there really any other kind of territory? How can anyone be familiar with an economic climate unlike any before?
I’m not sure how The Art of War would have applied ten years ago. I’m sure that some tactics would remain the same. But the more I study this manual, the more I keep reading the same signal from it: team up, or die.
I’ve always been a believer in building strategic alliances in business, but at times, it’s easier said than done. These days, it requires a new kind of professionalism. We need to be kind and generous, while at the same time, knowing when to be cold-blooded and walk away from the vampires who would gladly bleed our time and energy endlessly. Each of us needs to form a cohesive force in the business world. We need to be seeking out the right opportunities to partner with the people who can truly feed us – and it needs to be a win-win situation. We can’t afford win-lose in today’s climate. Not one of us can afford the luxury of burning bridges or making enemies.
What are you doing to build the right alliances in your business?
I’ve found myself struggling to keep up with my to-do list lately, and I’ve already determined that it’s come down to a question of priorities. I’ve spent the last four years attempting to devise and develop a system of priority that will help me decide how to spend my time and energy effectively. While I’ve gained some skill in that area, I have a long way to go.
What say Master Sun?
“Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances…just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.”
I came across this particular passage while asking myself the question “How do I create a system of priorities. The passage suggests to me that there is no such system, and that I may be chasing a ghost. Maybe, I considered, I need to develop habits that will help me prioritize on the fly. My priorities tomorrow may be different than my priorities today, and my method for deciding where to focus my attention might be completely different. I then asked myself: is there anything that always remains constant? Is there anything I can always count on no matter what? Is there any set of tasks or opportunities that should always occupy the highest position on the priority list?
“Having collected an army and concentrated his forces, he must blend and harmonize the different elements thereof before pitching his camp. After that, comes tactical maneuvering, than which there is nothing more difficult. The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain.”
I get the picture that identifying opportunity is always the most important thing to do – and also the most difficult thing to do. Opportunity takes a lot of different forms, and often appears suddenly and unexpectedly, for very short periods of time.
What are some good practices that you’ve used for identifying opportunities in your midst? Do you have habits and practices in place designed to flesh out opportunity where most people wouldn’t expect to find it?
I’ve found myself having to make a lot of decisions lately that involved weighing multiple options. I often find myself having difficulty deciding which option is the best one. It’s not always clear-cut. The basic problem: how do you decide which door to open when you can’t see what’s behind doors #1, #2, and #3? No one has time to think about it forever. This quote is from the section on “Energy.”
“In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack—the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers. The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle—you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?”
I pondered this a little bit, and I came to the conclusion that in most situations, there aren’t usually more than two or three options available. I wondered if Sun Tzu’s discussion of the direct and indirect methods of attack could be distilled down to a simple decision-making process, or a set of questions that might simplify any given decision. The “direct” method of attack that Sun Tzu describes here, as I interpret it, is like a snake striking its prey. The direct method is necessary when an opportunity threatens to disappear, or when a threat must be handled immediately. The “indirect” method seems more complex. I get the sense that “indirect” methods usually involve preparing for an opportunity to appear.
That gave me one question to ask right off the bat: is there an opportunity that will disappear if not acted upon, or a threat that must be removed? In the case of the decision I needed to make this week, the answer to both questions was “maybe.” Sigh.
This isn’t one of those blog posts that will end with “my brilliant insight was…” There wasn’t one. But I am left with a question to ponder for this week. If I want to uncover an opportunity or a possible threat in hiding, how would Master Sun recommend that I go about this?
Okay, so I admit I’m going a bit overboard here. I’m not trying to slam Google or talk smack about them. I have come to rely on their products quite extensively. I’m really hoping they’ll abandon this distraction soon and go back to being great at search. (By “distraction,” I mean Google+).
Could this just be a temporary dip? Anything’s possible. But Google+ has zero competitive advantage over Facebook. They have offered their end users no real incentive to use the network. I see no logical reason to believe that Google+ is anything more than an expensive flash in the pan.
Small business reality often entails making a little bit go a long way. This isn’t just about money – it’s about energy and time. We’ve all been there, and we all go there continually. Master Sun reminded me this week that executives in large companies don’t have it any better than I do. In fact, I’ll bet there are days when they envy me. After all, I can’t imagine how physically and emotionally exhausting it must be to bear the responsibility for thousands of employees and billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure and inventory.
Regardless, I regularly find myself complaining that I’m too tired, too broke, and too busy to get to the place where I really want to be. I looked to The Art of War to see how Sun might suggest handling this problem.
“In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as Heaven and Earth, unending as the flow of rivers and streams; like the sun and moon, they end but to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away to return once more.”
This led me to think about the seasonality of my marketing approach. There aren’t really any seasons to my approach. I just operate the same way all year long. Maybe that’s my problem. I’ve heard that professional athletes have seasons where they train aggressively to develop their strengths, then other seasons where they go into “maintenance” mode.
I would imagine that, for example, the winter would be a good time to sell information products online. People aren’t doing anything outside, and they’re more likely to be surfing the net and reading.
I’m not really sure how to go about creating a seasonal approach to marketing, but I think the concept is worth looking into.
Have you found that your marketing plan has seasons? Chime in!
Come on. This isn’t rocket surgery. Google is great at being a search company. They are horrible at being a social networking company. And Google+ brings absolutely nothing new to the table. Circles? Facebook has already had those for a long time. They’re called “lists.” Granted, they haven’t advertised them heavily, and I suspect most people neither use them nor know they exist. But if “circles” really started to pick up any serious amount of momentum, I’m sure that would change.
Features aside, let’s look at the bigger picture here. Everybody with even the faintest interest in social networking is either on Facebook, Twitter, or both. Why should anyone switch? Why should anyone add another social network to their already-overloaded to-do lists? Google has yet to answer this question at all.
I am predicting that Google+ will go the way of Buzz, Wave, and the New Coke. Agree? Disagree?
Online marketing is drastically different from offline marketing in terms of the mechanics, but the basic human elements never change. Let’s face it; building a business is tough. One of the biggest things we all deal with is fear and discouragement. I still have “what the *%& am I doing?” days. On these days, I get the urge to lay in bed with a tub of ice cream. It would be naive to think that this is going to go away. I think we all need an effective strategy for managing this when it comes up.
Sun Tzu said: “The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.”
This passage is taken from chapter 4, “Tactical Disposition,” where Sun discusses the differences between taking the offensive and retreating to the defensive in war. He advocates a defensive strategy when reserves are thin. If you’re in the position of needing to generate sales to keep the lights turned on, it might seem that an aggressive advance is the thing to do. But Sun Tzu doesn’t seem to think so. Advancing out into the marketplace only makes sense if the timing is right and you’ve truly spotted a great opportunity. If you aren’t clear about what opportunity you can seize in the moment, you’re more likely to exhaust your reserves and make the situation worse.
I’ve considered that fear and discouragement may, at times, be internal signals that I’m headed down the wrong path and that I need to regroup. In the business world, I’ve always done this by getting back in touch with the people that I really trust. I pull back and examine how I can work more closely with the people I know, rather than going it alone. If there’s one thing that’s helped me overcome fear, it’s been looking for new ways to build my alliances.
