Home > Articles

This chapter is from the book

Strategic Shifting

The first critical element in strategic shifting is finding a commanding vantage point, such as a strategic hill, from which to look at a situation and see reality clearly. Commanding vantage points can be dynamic and provide an edge. How do leaders shift to commanding vantage points? Knowing the appropriate shift to make is critical to success—for example, a shift from thinking that a situation is a “people” issue, when, in fact, it is a business strategy issue. Strategic shifting is dynamically adapting to the right position.

To survive and thrive, attention and control should go to the person with the best knowledge and capability in a particular situation. Command is not about ordering people around because you are a superior. It’s about having command over the issues. As the landscape changes and uncertainty increases, the odds shift in your favor by the quality of your responses to what is most relevant and urgent.

Strategic shifting is anchored in the behavioral sciences and confirmed in the real world of leadership, organizational performance, and business achievement. The insights of strategic shifting are based upon analyzing the interaction of behaviors and positions in everyday encounters. By detecting productive and counterproductive maneuvers, organizational Advantage-Makers can recommend strategic interactions that have a higher probability of working. Strategic shifting is a model for acting and moving. It provides maneuverability—agility of mind, ability to change course, ingenuity of strategy, and skill in creating forward movement.

We examine interactions between people, between groups, between organizations, and between companies. An important factor is assessing the forces that drive behavior. Behavior is dynamic. Seeing is not enough. Dynamic environments require dynamic shifts that match the scope of the problems you encounter.

Strategic shifting reveals blind spots, reactive tendencies, and weaknesses, as well as places of strength, and leverage for leaders and their organizations. When you see the reality you are up against—the good, the bad, and the ugly—you can employ advantage-making strategies to leverage your resources and find opportunities. This propels your strategic influence, shifting the odds in your favor.

Strategic Shifting at Work

Bill Fields, President of Packaging Results, was facing a difficult business environment and needed to produce more revenue. The sales reps complained that they were not able to get in to see prospects. Customer acquisition strategies weren’t working.

As Bill stepped back to examine both his thought process and the actions his team was implementing, he noticed an entire dynamic in the business channel that was being overlooked—manufacturer relationships. He looked at the channel further to determine which companies could support his organization’s capabilities. These manufacturers were major players in the packaging industry—their targets were big customers. Packaging Results, a distributor, handled the smaller customers. He asked himself, “How do I leverage their sales force, advertising, marketing, website, and industry strength?” From this new vantage point, he could see how these large manufacturers could help his company acquire the accounts. He had cultivated relationships with them for several years and now approached them with a marketing plan to show how they could affiliate together. The manufacturers weren’t structured to support these smaller customers, but through the affiliation, they could increase their sales volume and achieve higher margins. Packaging Results would take the leads the manufacturers didn’t want because those small companies were outside the manufacturers’ focus.

A Profitable Course of Action

This approach achieved two things for Bill. First, he increased his number of customers. Second, he received pricing concessions that he wouldn’t have acquired in any other way. In fact, competitors never received these prices. A more conventional way would have been to hire more salespeople and pay for more advertising—the normal things in the selling process that are part of the sales expense. Instead, this partnership produced more gross profit and sales. His selling expense went down, the cost of acquiring prospects decreased, and the sales force was more productive.

This shift produced $500,000 of increased business in the first year alone, plus there was a residual impact going forward. When Bill built value for customers, the average customer life cycle was 5–8 years; multiply that by $500,000 over the time frame, and you have $2.5–$4 million residual business. On top of that, the approach produced back-end sales for additional materials customers purchased. One final advantage was the referrals he would create from satisfying these new customers.

A major growth opportunity was found where none was even possible before. Bill and his team won the new accounts in a win-win-win gain for customers, the manufacturer, and his company.

Though the idea of using partners is not new, this everyday example illustrates how a smart businessperson can get mired in linear thinking—“the shortest point between me and the customer is knocking on the customer’s door.”

Opportunity Eyes

Your situation will likely be different from Bill’s. However, what is equally relevant and urgent is the quality of your advantage-making skills. The principle of strategic shifting can lead you to a profitable course of action. Not having a commanding vantage point reduces success rates, and not being able to strategically shift at the right time reduces success rates dramatically.

Bill is not new to creating unexpected advantages. The key for him is to look at his own business and then search for ideas and connections in neighboring industries. He examines the network of interactions in the distribution channel; this takes him beyond his narrowly focused immediate objective. Looking at these industries allows him to step out of his daily grind and see how others operate. Once out of his mental rut, he can shift to look at his own business with “opportunity eyes.” Shifting enables him to see as an outsider, a vital ability because breakthrough thinking often comes from the outside.

The Advantage-Maker’s Independent Stance Is Paramount for Sound Judgment

The outsider’s vantage point welcomes possibility. For example, Pasteur was not a medical doctor, and the airplane-inventing Wright brothers were bicycle mechanics.

Going against prevailing wisdom takes courage. At times, the underdog Advantage-Makers need to battle for credibility, similar to Galileo standing up to the medieval church’s geocentric view that the sun revolved around the earth.

Preconceived notions can misguide you. Strategic shifting presents rules of thumb that serve as shortcuts. It answers questions such as these:

  • In searching for an advantage, which vantage points provide the most leverage?
  • In resolving difficult performance issues, how does persistence become counterproductive instead of helping you fix the problem—and what to do to succeed?
  • To increase your leadership efficacy, when is adaptability more powerful than force?
  • To reduce the likelihood that your change effort will fail (65% of such efforts fail3), how can you identify the real conflicts and the biggest sources of leverage that many executives miss?
  • What is the first principle that every great strategic influencer employs to avoid bungling an opportunity?

Not all leaders are Advantage-Makers. If you apply any of the commanding vantage points in this book on an as-needed basis, you can become a better leader. However, this is not just another leadership book. It introduces four Advantage Points that, if mastered, will make you an Advantage-Maker.

Advantage-Makers shift between strategic moves and tactical angles, between confronting objective reality and influencing perceptions to create reality, between the expected and the unexpected, between using the rules and creating new rules, between employing big forces at play and using the small but relevant distinctions that make a difference.

Advantage-Makers see leadership as a high leverage point for influence and impact. Advantage-making is a craft that masterful leaders employ. Whatever shift is required, they make it, and they find an edge to create leverage.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020