Win-Win, is Mission Possible

Modern business and society become more complex and interdependent than ever, there’s no any party can dominate at the negotiation table from every perspective. The "Win-Win" could be translated to mean "mutually beneficial" and should be seen as a negotiation guiding principle which emphasizes fairness in business play. Encouraging this mind set of equity and fairness should in theory build better long term business relationships.

The definition of Win-Win offered by author and speaker Roger Dawson:
"Win-win negotiating is not a matter of just getting what you want, but of helping the other person get what he or she wants also. And one of the most powerful thoughts you can have.”

                                            

1.  Is Win-Win Mission Possible?

 The world is full of win-lose, lose-win and lose-lose deals. In fact if you just look at the odds of a win-win without any other factors, the odds of a coin-toss win-win would be only 25%; and even less because win-win's, by their very nature, are so hard to do and require work, constant attention and focus.

(1)   Is Win-Win only theoretic fantasy or realistic possible

Because win-win is hard and is not the norm, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist and isn't the place a person would like to be. It is about finding out what represents a "Win" in the other party's mind and see if it’s possible to give it to them without harm to fulfilling on your "Win" criteria.

(2)   Classic Example of Win-Win:

The classical example of a win-win situation is the situation where two persons compete for an orange.

·        Win/lose Result: They fight and the stronger party gets the orange, the other party gets nothing.

·        Win-Win Results:  can emerge when the two persons stop fighting and begin to share their objectives and interests and discover that one wants the orange for the peel to perfume a cake, while the other one wants it for the juice to make a drink. win/win agreement is to give the peel to one while the other gets the juice. Both objectives are achieved

(3)   Win Enough or Win-More, Win-Less Scenario:

It takes two parties to tango,  many may think inevitably in an arrangement of such,  one party will gain more than the other,  so it is hard to get "even steven"(50/50) which some may argue as a true Win-Win.

Not all business negotiations are about "die hard" winning.  In fact, very few are actually win-lose situations. They are "win enough" situations which are finding out what represents a "Win" in the other party's mind and see if it’s possible to achieve. There are really no options other than win-win, at least win-enough. The problem is not of practicing win-win,  but building a logical, effective way to achieve it without too much compromise. Like all noble things, it’s challenging, but it does pay huge dividends.

 2. Win-Win via Multitude of Lenses

 That said, context of win-win is not about literally winning. It is about negotiating a reasoned and comfortable end point for both parties, to achieve ultimate satisfaction point:

1)      Philosophically Win-Win is about Holism & Balance:

Philosophical speaking, winning without purpose is just like seeing without perceiving,  listening without understanding or learning without gaining wisdom. It's matching and touching the antic Asian philosophical concept of the Yin-Yang, Holism, Balance: a Win-Win Business Deal are made through empathetic understanding, quantitative and qualitative Analysis, "balanced" deal, or a masterful negotiation.

Sufi poet/philosopher Rumi once said something like this. "You never lose anything. Just get it back in some other shape". Or paradoxically,  win-win at one level is often win-lose at another level.

2)      Conceptually, theoretically and practically, is a pursuit of win-win possible?

It seems counter to basic economic or marketing principles. Profit is all about minimizing compromise, extracting the most from your opponent and giving up as little as possible, however morally unfair that may seem. "Winning" to maximizing shareholder's value" as a mantra might be one of the root causes for recent economical recession. Social responsibility and win-win are not antithetical. Its important to be socially responsible while still being responsible to one's shareholders

3)      What happens if “winner-takes-all” organizationally, societally or culturally?

 Then first we must recognize that pervasive systemically entrenched “winner-takes-all“ cultures and practices must be completely discredited as parasitic, myopic, undesirable and unsustainable. Win-Win helps build up last relationship and target long term winning position in strategy making.

4)      Strategically, do most win-win deals have an exit strategy?

The winner may pretend to lose in order to gain the long term advantage; every business changes strategies. A once win-win could become a very competitive environment as both companies evolve.

5)      Psychologically: How does Win-Win stimulate your Happiness Level?

Most win-win situations may leave one feeling frustrated and confused. You’re trying to figure out how you come out a winner. You see how the others win. But your winning seems more like “less losing” or even winning like losing psychologically. But a state of "reasonable happiness" could possibly be achieved for both parties so called "Win-Win" situations, one may not feel extremely happy about it, but satisfy enough.

  

3. Ultimate Level of Win-Win: Deal Made in Heaven

  As we all know diamonds are hard to find. Same is with win-win both in business and in life itself. The facets of the definition win-win that it starts to look as a beautiful high-quality diamond. And it really exists, but as we all know diamonds are hard to find, same as Win-Win.

Win-Win is a specific point in any business deal between two or more parties, where all parties have the utmost satisfaction at the same moment, of going ahead with the deal.

It’s debatable whether that “Highest Point of Satisfaction” for all parties can actually be known and reached, because satisfaction is again each parties' perception, which is not easily defined. But there are deals which are WIN-WIN, where both the parties are equally happy based on their calculation and defined KPI. We may call it: The Deal Made in Heaven, it takes creativity, dedication and empathy to manage one.

Win-Win Matters for Humanity: Living standards, salaries, life expectancies across the world have been consistently rising over the last few hundred years. To a zero-sum, this isn't possible - because someone must be losing for the others to be winning. But in reality, the pie is not of fixed size, via innovation and societal progress, the pie is created bigger enough to advance humanity.

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Strategy in One Sentence: Ten Creative Insight

“He who fails to plan is planning to fail" - Winston Churchill

 1.  Strategy is like GPS, with zoomed in vision as destination, lead organization at the right direction, leverage resource, and execute effectively.

2. Strategy is like a 'Kite on a String', its about projecting and balancing variables on the business continuum to achieve that goal further away in the distance .

3. Good strategy is a funnel thru which, all ideas that have been previously filtered, now flow and create a positive result for your company growth,

4. Strategy is the pillar of organizational existence, its design, structure, functions, vision and mission. Without it, its a black hole.!

5. Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. A Goal without Plan is a foolish wish

6. Strategy is the art of executive decision making

7. Strategic planning follow 80/20 principle to provide focus. It helps the leaders to focus on the 20% of activities that will yield 80% future success.

8. A strategic plan is important as it is the road map for the achievement of an organization's goals, mission and purposes

  

9. A real strategy is neither a document nor a forecast but rather an overall approach based on a diagnosis of a challenge

10. You can judge the outcome of the good strategy, the people are happy working with clear purpose and the organization has the competency sailing through the thick and thin of the changing environment because it has more willing people.

twitter: @pearl_zhu

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Mirror, Mirror, What is Best Strategy

A strategy is a set of choices following with a series of action designed to achieve a vision and compete for the future. There’re so many good strategy theories from ancient to contemporary, from eastern to western, today’s strategist may just wonder: what is best strategy?

 1. The Origin of Strategy

To trace its lexical root, a strategy derives from the Greek strategia, "office of general, command, generalship.”,  the Greek equivalent for the modern word “strategy” would have been “strategike episteme” or (general’s knowledge) “strategon sophia” (general’s wisdom). One of the most famous Latin works in the area of military strategy is written by Frontius and has the Greek title of Strategemata

Sun Tzu’s The  Art of War, written in 400 B.C. has received critical acclaim as the earliest and best work on military strategy, including those that have followed it centuries later.

 2. Magic “Five” in Famous Strategy Theories

1) Sun Tzu’s Five Elements of Strategy

• Mission: Inspire people to share the same visions, ideas and expectations
• Ground: to be able to master mountains, valleys, rivers, plains, etc. it’s about situation,  distant or immediate, difficult or easy, opportunities and risks
• Climate: it’s nature, changes in climatic conditions
• Command: Leadership, such as wisdom, humanity, credibility, courage, intelligence and firmness. 
• Method: the discipline, the moral cause, reward, punishment, logistics and metrics.

Key Take away: Winning without Conflict: Sun Tzu's book teaches winning without conflict. “A great general finds a way to win without fighting a single battle, human wisdom is the best  weapon".

2) Five Principles of Carl Von Clausewitz's Strategy

Von Clausewitz's book On War is a classic, he had career in the Prussian army, and served in a number of major campaigns, he was a thinker and philosopher who studied war to with in-depth knowledge that no one else had ever done before. He also believed that war was more like business. As he points out, both war and business involve the clash of interests. Here are his five principles.

• Principle of Plan Well with Simplicity
• Principle of Unity of Command
• Principle of Historical Examples
• Principle of using the superiority of numbers to good effect.
• Principle of System Thinking: We are part of a wider system that controls us more than we could ever know.

  3) Musashi Myamoto: Five Rings of Strategy:

As Sun Tzu, Miyamoto Mushshi was well known as a great warrior and strategist lived four hundred years ago, his books of Five Rings also make significant impact on shaping modern business strategy and the art of wisdom:

• Ground: Knowing the smallest and biggest thing, the shallowest thing and deepest thing.
• Water: With water as basis, the spirit becomes like water, water adopt the shape of its receptacle
• Fire: The spirit of fire is fierce, weather the fire is small or big, you must appreciate the spirit can come big and small
• Wind:  means old traditions, present-day traditions of strategy. It is difficult to know yourself if you do not know others.
• Void. means that which has no beginning and no end. Attaining this principle means not attaining the principle. The Way of strategy is the Way of nature.

 The Gaze in Strategy: Perception and Sight: In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.

4) Michael Porter’s Five Forces strategy

Modern business strategist: Michael Porter’s Five Forces strategy, a SWOT analysis model on creating a strong position for product or service that allows it to garner outsized profits, makes significant influence on contemporary business society.

• Marketing Entry: How easy is it for others to enter the market? 
• Threat of product/service substitution
• Bargaining power of buyers.
• Bargaining power of suppliers
• Rivalry among current competitors.

 Porter’s latest social dimension in strategy: All profit is not equal. Profit involving shared value enables society to advance more rapidly and allows companies to grow faster.  

5) Blue Ocean Strategy

“In Blue Oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for both growth and profit.”  W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne

• Reconstruct market boundaries
• Focus on the big picture, not the numbers
• Reach beyond existing demand
• Overcome key organizational hurdles
• Build execution into strategy

6)  Fifth Discipline: Talent Management Strategy:

The Fifth Discipline” series of book written by Peter Senge was published in 1990th, is all about learning. As applied in the “learning organization":

• System Thinking: Break problems down and see things laterally and sequentially
• Personal Mastery:  “Organizations learn only through individuals who learn,” says Peter Senge. As “approaching one’s life as a creative work"
• Metal Model: We must seek divergent views before developing a convergent conclusion.
• Shared Vision: “The strategy plan will not energize us, vision does"
• Team Learning: People continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire in “Learning Organization”

3.  The Purpose of Strategy

All the strategy models discussed above are conceptualized leadership essentials, yes, it's a light to guide you up, not a hand to walk you through,. As someone famously said that strategy is about shaping the future, and the future is more about  progress and evolution.

• Perspective: Chaos is a perception...if an opponent uses chaos in his strategy...it can be very effective and difficult to predict and counter, : In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things, as Miyamoto perceived. 

• Position: All these great leaders: All strategy models articulate the need for accurate intelligence of  “terrain” or creating a strong position for product or service that allows it to garner outsized profits, makes significant influence in contemporary business society

• Plan: Well planning is more than half way of success. As Clausewitz put,  plans should cover every aspect of conflict, weaving them into a single operation with an ultimate objective. 

4.  Why Strategy Fails & How to Make a Good One?

          

• . Change is Accelerated: At today’s rapidly change business environment, one can't help wondering whether selecting and sustaining a strategy is not as relevant as gathering, assembling and understanding the information about the progress a business is making with a particular strategy.  Change is accelerated, modern business is heading off with a particular strategy in the face of growing information that suggests they should be revisiting the strategy.

• Good Strategy, Bad Strategy: The book: Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters, by Richard P. Rumelt well articulated the most basic idea of strategy which is the application of strength against weakness. The good strategy need include actions.

 Three-Step Strategy Making:
1) Figuring out the nature of the business challenge
2) Designing a guiding policy that produces an advantage
3) Creating a set of coordinated actions to carry out that policy.

The world and global history that clearly show how to recognize the good, reject the bad, and make good strategy a living force in the organization

 5. Mirror, Mirror, What is Best Strategy

All these great leaders: Rumelt , Paton, Sun Tzu, Clausewitz and Porter have one thing in common. They all understood that over-reliance on any particular approach to strategy is dangerous. The modern theories of strategy systematically deal with issues connected with organizational structure and psychology, anthropology and sociology, and also with all internal and external elements of organizational environment. One size doesn’t fit all.

What is best strategy, the mirror answers:

The location makes the dwelling good.
Depth of understanding makes the mind good.
A kind heart makes the giving good.
Integrity makes the government good.
Accomplishments makes your labors good.
Proper timing makes a decision good

LAO TZU  "TAO TE CHING

. 

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Earth Day Pondering: Three Pillars of Sustainability

This Sunday is Earth Day, with its mission: “to raise support for a more sustainable future as climate change continues to wreak havoc across the globe. As a sustainable society will only come about through the accumulated actions of billions of individuals. “

Essentially Earth Day reminds us of sustainability and perceive nature as something that sustains us and nurture us spiritually, psychologically and emotionally.

What is sustainability anyway? From wiki: Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of responsibility, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of stewardship, the responsible management of resource use. In ecology, sustainability describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time, a necessary precondition for the well-being of humans and other organisms. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems.

1.  Environmental Responsibility

1)      From Compliance to Leadership

Compliance with government regulations is a key external driver and the legally required must-do task for business today. Engaging with sustainability to meet obligations in environmental responsibility will decide business decisions and options to meet regulations, then for efficiency and ultimately for market leadership.

• Reducing energy use & waste & Emissions in operations
• Managing corporate reputation for sustainability
• Proactively responding to regulatory constraints or opportunities
• Leveraging sustainability of existing products to reach new customers or markets
• Improving employee retention and/or motivation related to sustainability activities
• Mitigating operational risk related to climate change
• Achieving higher prices or greater market share from sustainable products
• Committing R&D resources to sustainable products, managing portfolio to capture trends in sustainability

2) From Practitioner to Advocate & Educator

When we look at the hyper rising costs of energy in recent years,  it is probably top three most expensive unmanaged cost for any Fortune 500 company, and especially become the biggest concern for many energy-dependent businesses, they need become advocates and educators for corporate-wide environmental sustainability initiatives, also transcribes a path that converts outside concerns into inside engagement, it becomes significatn component of every busienss decision large or small,  focus on growth, reputation management, and return on capital. It  also need an integrated view that blends financial,nvironmental, and social performance.

From businesses governance discipline, organizations are disclosing significantly more nonfinancial information that underpins how value is and will be created. Disclosures include detailed plans for low-carbon products and services, and employee incentives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

2.  Economic Demands:

1)      Sustainability: From Nice to Have to Must Have

Efficiency has been a key internal driver for sustainable practices and is the low hanging fruit when moving beyond compliance and obligation. Waste of resources is costly. Reuse and reduction of waste reduces cost and creates new revenue streams to impact both bottom line and top line business growth. .

The business barriors need be overcomed in sustainability management:

• Lack of incentives tied to performance on sustainability initiatives
• Pressure of short-term earnings performance is at odds with longer-term nature of sustainability
• Lack of, or use of wrong, key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Insufficient data or information to implement initiatives
• Sustainability isn’t integrated into existing key process & performance management system
• Company leadership sets sustainability as too low a priority, business units are not engaged with implementing sustainability initiatives
• Sustainability department is disconnected from the rest of the organization, or is too low to be influential, company lacks the right capabilities and/or skills

2)      Embed Sustainability into Business Process & Operational Excellence

Sustainability leaders embed real, measurable, ongoing commitments to sustainability practices as a strategic differentiator, going beyond the immediate benefits of compliance, obligations, and efficiency. Sustainability is embedded into key business processes, and business makes decision with an integrated view that blends financial, environmental, and social performance, to gain business insight, with which to manage the risks and opportunities in the future.

The methodology and roadmap for sustainability management are designed to evaluate a company’s sustainability opportunities and risks throughout its extended value chain. It also can be used to drive innovation efforts in the development of a holistic sustainability strategy.

• Operational input/output analysis: Examines critical inputs (e.g., materials, energy) and outputs (e.g., finished products, greenhouse gas emissions, water pollutants), giving leaders a picture of the impact sustainability efforts have across the company

• Profit and loss sensitivity analysis: Helps identify the bottom-line impact that sustainability issues (e.g., energy price fluctuations) have on a business

• Regulatory risk analysis: Helps leaders anticipate both the current and likely future laws and regulations that might affect a company’s operations

• Customer and competitor analyses: Helps uncover sustainability priorities of the company’s key customers and competitors

• Brand positioning analysis: Helps assess customer sustainability priorities against product attributes and brand positioning

• Value chain analysis: By considering how change to link s in the value chain affect the operation, also achieve a new perspective on sustainability.


• Innovation analysis: :Looking to sustainability as a driver of innovation — looking beyond the company’s walls to the ecosystem of opportunities and risks posed by a dynamic set of industry partners

3) Using IT to Drive Sustainability

Essentially, a key piece of information—information around environmental and social concerns—has been missing from most business operations. Therefore, IT can play a lead role in improving corporate sustainability performance to ensure the long-term economic success of the enterprise. The commitment to doing this needs to start at the highest level of the organization, with sustainability becoming integrated into the corporate strategy, which is supported by the overall IT strategy. 

Information technology can collect, analyze, monitor, mitigate, and monetize resources within an enterprise and across its value chain, not only in the aggregate, but also across their operating units, allowing them to identify opportunities for improvement. They are able to compare themselves against industry norms to determine and report how they rank competitively in their overall sustainability performance.

3. Social Equity

The classic definition of sustainability is “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” well ariculate the social pillar in sustaiability

Social Equity is defined  as "equal opportunity, in a safe and healthy environment." Social Equity is the least defined and least understood element of the triad in creating sustainability - balancing economic, environmental and social equity. Social Equity is the perceived value of individual, organization, or brand reputation. it includes the impact on the social systems within which the organization operates. Following categories are included:

• Labor practices: Impacts on the workforce, including labor/management relations, health and safety, training and education and diversity,  investment and procurement practices, child and forced labor, security practices.

• Society: Impacts on communities, including corruption, public policy and anti-competitive behavior.

• Product responsibility: Includes product health and safety, information and labeling, marketing and privacy., etc.

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Five Principles of Carl Von Clausewitz's Strategy

Von Clausewitz's book On War is a classic, he had career in the Prussian army, and served in a number of major campaigns, he was a thinker and philosopher who studied war to with in-depth knowledge that no one else had ever done before. He also believed that war was more like business. As he points out, both war and business involve the clash of interests, although one obviously results in lots of bloodshed, the other lots of logistics,  that’s why his insight and strategy also significantly influence modern business. 

Here are five principles the business can learn from Clauswitz’s strategy:

1. Principle of Plan Well with Simplicity

Prepare clear, uncomplicated plans and concise orders to ensure thorough understanding.

Von Clausewitz was a great fan of planning and believed that war plans should cover every aspect of conflict, weaving them into a single operation with an ultimate objective. In his view, no one should start a war without fully understanding what they intended to achieve by it (the political purpose) and how they intended to conduct it (the operational objective).

Same as running business or project, good planning is half of success. Always start with strategic planning with clear goal and value proposition,  following a series of cohesive actions to execute it.

2. Principle of Unity of Command

For every objective, seek unity of command and unity of effort

Von Clausewitz discusses the importance of the unification of forces in time. His main argument is actually quite simple and focuses on whether it's best to throw all your men into an engagement at once or hold some back ready to join when really needed. In his view it is far better to apply all your forces simultaneously: their effectiveness will be far greater because everything can be concentrated in a single action in a single moment in time.

Same principles fit for business, keep focus, stay hungry.  It’s critical to well integrate the best talent, the effective process and the latest technology seamlessly & synchronously to achieve high-performance result.

3. Principle of Historical Examples

The historical examples provide the best kind of proof in the study of war.

Von Clausewitz was emphatic in his view that historical examples provide the best kind of proof in the study of war. He cites four key uses of historical examples. First, they may be used as an illustration of an idea; second, they serve to show the best practice of an idea; third, they can prove the possibility of an effect, and finally, they may be used to develop theory. But he goes on to warn of the dangers too, such as only using those examples supporting a particular opinion.

Von Clausewitz also recognize the root cause of both success and failure is an essential skill if you are to remain successful and avoid the mistakes of the past. It worthes the effort to find out why something succeeds or fails by investigating the underlying factors and behaviors of those involved.

Same principles can be practical for the business, always learn from other’s million dollar mistation, brekdown the problem and solve it via analytics and logic step, also can develop the new knowledge and theory via the experiences.  

4. The Number Effect

It's crucial to use the superiority of numbers to good effect.

When von Clausewitz discusses the effect which superiority of numbers has on war, he does so only on the basis of having stripped out all the other factors associated with strategy and tactics first. His argument is that without a good strategy and excellent tactics, we are left with nothing more than a shapeless battle in which the only distinguishing factor is the number of troops on either side. He also points out that having more men may ultimately contribute very little to the outcome of an engagement and will only do so if the numbers are great enough to counterbalance the strategy and tactics of their opponents. In other words, although it is essential to field as large a force as possible, it's crucial to use the superiority of numbers to good effect.

Business need adopt the same principle Von Clausewitz discovered: It can be very big, and it can be beautiful, but when it comes to the numbers game, the question is: are you using your resources wisely?

5. System Thinking

The truth is: we are part of a wider system that controls us more than we could ever know.

In many ways, von Clausewitz was ahead of his time, but there was one area in particular where he was light years ahead: systems thinking. Although systems theory as we know it today had yet to be defined or articulated, von Clausewitz understood war was not an isolated act. In his view, opponents in war could not regard each other as abstract entities; they were part of a wider system that included individual behaviour as well as politics. As a result, it was a relatively straightforward process to understand and model the motives of a potential enemy; all you had to do was observe. And because war was part of a larger ‘system’, it rarely broke out spontaneously nor could it spread instantaneously.

The principle is extremely practical at today’s over-complex and hyper-competitive global business environment, business can no longer survive in its own four wall surroundings,   it need shape the new eco-system to compete and collaborate at the same time, it also need craft the new busienss model via systematic thinking and holistic view. Its value chains are cross-industrial, cross-cultural silos, its influences are global and amplified via digital fabric.

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