Be the Best at What Matters Most – The Only Strategy You Will Ever Need

<p>1 The Only Strategy You Will Ever Need 1</p>
<p>Building Business at Bill s Burgers 3</p>
<p> Amaze and Delight 3</p>
<p>Moruga Scorpion Peppers 4</p>
<p>What If He Made a Better Hamburger? 4</p>
<p>What Do You Think? 5</p>
<p>An Undeniable Premise 5</p>
<p>We Make It Too Complex 6</p>
<p>That s the Problem 6</p>
<p>It Ends up Being about the Customer 7</p>
<p>You re Spread Too Thin 8</p>
<p>The Three or Four Things 9</p>
<p>You Don t Need Gimmicks 9</p>
<p>If You Win on the Basics, You Win It All 10</p>
<p>There Are No Silver Bullets; There s Just the Bomb 11</p>
<p>2 It s Really Not That Complicated 13</p>
<p>Build Better Cars. Imagine That 15</p>
<p>3 So Good at the Basics That You re Cutting Edge 17</p>
<p>Substance, Not Flash 19</p>
<p>A Powerful Lesson 19</p>
<p>4 Deciding What Matters Most 23</p>
<p>Defining the Problem 25</p>
<p>Somebody s Got to Buy 26</p>
<p>The Main Thing 33</p>
<p>5 Different Answers All of Them Right 35</p>
<p>Wide Open Choices 37</p>
<p>Joe Calloway 37</p>
<p>Benjamin Franklin Plumbing 39</p>
<p>Wine to Water 41</p>
<p>Pinnacle Financial Partners 41</p>
<p>Southwest Airlines 42</p>
<p>An Advertising Agency That I Read about Many Years Ago 43</p>
<p>Somebody at Citi Cards 45</p>
<p>What Fits Us Best? 45</p>
<p>It s Worth Doing Wrong 46</p>
<p>6 Relevance, Innovation, and Constant Improvement 49</p>
<p>A Moving Target 51</p>
<p>Better Tomorrow Than You Were Today 51</p>
<p>Lip Service 51</p>
<p>Improve Constantly and Forever 52</p>
<p>7 Culture, Focus, and More Focus: Memphis Invest 55</p>
<p>A Little Company with Powerful Lessons 57</p>
<p>Get the Fundamentals Right 57</p>
<p>The Culture Book 58</p>
<p>A Handful of Numbers 60</p>
<p>Absolute Intention and Focus 61</p>
<p>Clarity about Expectations 61</p>
<p>Meetings as Opportunities 62</p>
<p>Relationships That Wow 63</p>
<p>8 Working in the Business 67</p>
<p>Thinking When You Should Be Working 69</p>
<p> When It Is Time to Work in Your Business, by Dr. Jeff Cornwall 69</p>
<p>9 Three Is the Magic Number: Smile Brands 73</p>
<p>These Three Things 75</p>
<p>Pick a Lane 76</p>
<p>The G3 Approach 76</p>
<p>The Power of Simplicity 76</p>
<p>The Ultimate Sophistication 77</p>
<p>So Much Less Effort 77</p>
<p>10 Winning and Losing Inside the Box 79</p>
<p>There Aren t Any Shortcuts 81</p>
<p>Deliver on Your Promise Every Time 81</p>
<p>They ve Taken Their Eyes Off the Ball 81</p>
<p>If You Win on the Basics, You Win It All 81</p>
<p>Barneys versus Nordstrom 82</p>
<p>It s a Sucker s Game 83</p>
<p>I ll Happily Take the Doughnut 83</p>
<p>Your Table Stakes Aren t Working 84</p>
<p>Bells and Whistles Wear Off 84</p>
<p>Glitz or Profit? 85</p>
<p>11 Random versus Consistent 87</p>
<p>What a Wonderful Story! 89</p>
<p>That s the Trap 89</p>
<p>Regular, Everyday Customers 90</p>
<p>If You Lose Inside the Box 90</p>
<p>12 Simplicity and the Blue–Tip Flame 93</p>
<p>You Can Move Mountains 95</p>
<p>What You Need Is a Force Multiplier 95</p>
<p>Get Your Thinking Clean Enough 96</p>
<p>Blue–Tip Flame 96</p>
<p>13 The Trap: Let s Do More 99</p>
<p>Better Is Better 101</p>
<p>Lost in Trying to Be the Best 101</p>
<p>For Alabama Football, It s Process 103</p>
<p>Treating Patients Like Customers 104</p>
<p>When Patients Talk Back 105</p>
<p>The Patients Lists 106</p>
<p>14 Clarity, Process, and Profit: bytes of knowledge 109</p>
<p>How They Did It 111</p>
<p>The First Order of Business 112</p>
<p>They Are a Business Partner 113</p>
<p>They Could Be Doing Better 113</p>
<p>Defining Their Culture 114</p>
<p>The Monday Morning Boost 115</p>
<p>Plug the Holes in the Bucket 116</p>
<p>Workflow and Time Tracking 118</p>
<p>Get a Checklist 118</p>
<p>Everything Tracked through the System 119</p>
<p>Educating the Employees and Getting Buy–In 120</p>
<p>How to Run a Business 121</p>
<p>The Coffee Shop Generation 121</p>
<p>15 What Matters Most to Your Team 125</p>
<p>Understanding Employees Matters, Too 127</p>
<p>Understanding 127</p>
<p>16 Culture Drives Results 131</p>
<p>That s a Shame 133</p>
<p>By Accident or Intentional? 133</p>
<p>Everything in Alignment 134</p>
<p>Making Culture Mean Something 134</p>
<p>You Have to Fire Them 136</p>
<p>Who Would Stay? Who Would Go? 137</p>
<p>True North 138</p>
<p>17 How Brands Win 141</p>
<p>Consistently Better at the Basics 143</p>
<p>Amazon 143</p>
<p>Coca–Cola 144</p>
<p>FedEx 144</p>
<p>Apple 145</p>
<p>Target 145</p>
<p>Ford 146</p>
<p>Starbucks 146</p>
<p>Southwest Airlines 146</p>
<p>Nordstrom 147</p>
<p>It Works 147</p>
<p>18 How the Internet Is Killing Hype 149</p>
<p>Why You Bought the Chutney 151</p>
<p>Consumers Aren t Shy 152</p>
<p>They re Talking about You 152</p>
<p>Palm Trees, Azure Blue Skies, and . . . Cockroaches 153</p>
<p> I Would Like to Apologize 155</p>
<p>Do What You Say You ll Do 155</p>
<p>19 Leadership: Grunder Landscaping Company 157</p>
<p>The Kid Was the Best 159</p>
<p>The Responsibility of Leadership 160</p>
<p>Getting Buy–In 161</p>
<p>Spider–Man, Doughnuts, and Thank–You Notes 163</p>
<p>You Can t Just Put These Things on a Piece of Paper 164</p>
<p>Talk about It and Live It All the Time 164</p>
<p>He Is True North 165</p>
<p>20 When Everything Is Pursued, the Important Is Neglected 167</p>
<p>Too Much Pressure 169</p>
<p>Sister Bear s Nightmare 169</p>
<p>Executing in the Game They Are In 170</p>
<p>Purpose versus Panic 170</p>
<p>21 The Rules You Can Break 173</p>
<p> Fortunately, We Don t Know Any of Them 175</p>
<p>Visions and Missions Are Great and Optional 175</p>
<p>One Size Does Not Fit All 176</p>
<p>Changing the World . . . Maybe 177</p>
<p> We Make Great Carburetors 179</p>
<p>A Purpose That Took Morale Lower 179</p>
<p>You re Kidding, Right? 180</p>
<p>It s Just Supposed to Be Effective 181</p>
<p>22 Focus 3 Ninety 183</p>
<p>What Matters the Most Right Now? 185</p>
<p>A New Approach to Focus? 186</p>
<p>Where Do We Improve Right Now? 186</p>
<p>Make It Last 187</p>
<p>Get Absolute Clarity 187</p>
<p>What You ll Learn 188</p>
<p>23 It s 11:30 191</p>
<p>Taking Action 193</p>
<p>The Obstacle of Not Knowing 193</p>
<p>Take Out the Trash 194</p>
<p>Someone Busier Than You Is Running 195</p>
<p>It s 11:30 195</p>
<p>24 Ideas That Matter Most 197</p>
<p>25 More Resources 201</p>
<p>Index 205</p>