Knowing what type of leader you are is crucial if you want to build a team based on strong strategic leadership.

So what is strategic leadership?  Strategic leadership is all about strategizing the needs of the future while managing the demands of today.  And this is effectively achieved by building and maintaining a balanced leadership team.

Every successful team – from business organizations, through to high schools, political parties and sports teams – is built upon a foundation of strong strategic leadership.

A strategic leader recognizes the importance of strategic balance, and of having complementary styles and personality types in a leadership team.  Yes, although it's important to have a leadership team with similar values, what you don't want are clones in terms of personality type.  

Ultimately, as a leader – and when building a team – you need people with different thought processes to balance your own peculiar way of doing things.   And the first part of this whole philosophy is understanding your own style.

Now as a leader you can be broadly categorized into one of the following four styles, shown here:

This particular model is an advancement of some earlier work on CEO/leadership styles I completed several years ago and is an ongoing work in progress I'm currently doing on strategic leadership. So what does it all mean?

In effect, what I'm suggesting is that in terms of leadership style you are predominantly a:

• Director
• Doer
• Administrator
• Strategist

I used the word predominantly because you actually have one dominant style and one back up style.  For instance, your style combination would be something like:

• Strategist-Director
• Doer-Administrator
• Director-Strategist

As shown, the quadrant is built upon a continuum that separates four attributes, namely:

• Extroversion vs Introversion
• Strategic activities strength vs Operational activities strength

In terms of some specific definitions:

Extroversion and Introversion are core personality traits recognized in the field of psychology and highlighted in respected models such as the Big Five Factor model and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Very briefly, extroverts are seen to be more focused on the outside world, events and people, while introverts are more reflective and quieter. (For more detail on extroversion and introversion please refer to www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits or www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator)

Strategic activities strength vs Operational activities strength. These attributes refer to the types of activities an individual prefers to engage in and is good at.  Strategic activities are "big picture" and conceptual related, while operational activities are more action-oriented and sequential.

Here's how the attributes apply to the four types.

Due mainly to their extroversion, Directors and Doers are seen as natural leaders.  Directors are more strategic and visionary in their thinking, and in directing and inspiring others.  Doers on the other hand are more concerned with getting things done.

Both strategists and administrators are introverts whose strengths lie in completing different types of tasks. The strategist prefers performing strategic-related activities such as competitor analysis, planning and brainstorming, while the administrator prefers performing operational/administrative tasks.

In the next post I'll elaborate on the quadrant a bit more and give you some ways to test your own style.

Hopefully you've had some time to recharge your batteries from 2011, have not eaten too much, and are looking forward to 2012. I'm sure you've set personal and business goals for this year and are now in the process of achieving them.

When many business owners set their business goals for the year it's not unusual for them to set financial targets.  That is, they establish revenue and profit goals they'd like to achieve.  No doubt you've done the same.

So assuming your financial targets are realistic, how can you ensure you hit them? You need to understand and overcome the one biggest obstacle to business success.  I wrote about this obstacle just a few months ago, but seeing it is so important, and as it's the start of a new year, I want to repeat the message.  As they say, repetition is the mother of learning.

Yes, there is one main obstacle that will stop you from enjoying greater success in your business in 2012.  Overcoming this obstacle will help make your business more competitive and will ensure you hit your financial targets more easily.

So what's the obstacle?  I'm going to let Kam Wai Yu and Derek Lee Armstrong reveal it to you.  Kam and Derek are the authors of The Persona Principle (published by Simon and Schuster) and the founders of PersonaCorp, one of Canada's leading marketing services firms and creative shops.  Here's what they have to say about this obstacle:

"The biggest obstacle to your success is invisibility.  The best, the most experienced, or the most talented cannot enjoy prosperity until they are visible to their potential market." - Kam Wai Yu and Derek Lee Armstrong.

Quite profound isn't it?  Yet it's so true.  If you're invisible to your potential market – i.e. you have no brand awareness or recognition – you will struggle.

Now before I go on, let me make a small addition to the above quote:

The biggest obstacle to your success is poor brand visibility.

When we talk about poor brand visibility what we are really talking about is brand awareness.  And in the business world brand awareness is the primary driver of business success.

Let me put it this way.  Your ultimate goal in business is to have people buy your stuff and to make a profit as a result.  But how can they buy if your brand visibility is poor or non existent? It just ain't going to happen my friend.

Here is the reality. On an operational level, your business cannot and will not make a profit if you firstly have poor brand visibility. It is not scientifically possible.  This is illustrated below.

If you haven't seen the visual above before, it's something I've created called the Revenue and Profit Drivers Statement.  And what it does is show the sequence of activities a business goes through to generate profit.

Now as shown on the statement, the whole profit sequence begins with brand awareness.  And when you have no brand awareness, you will not get customers, you will not earn revenue and you won't make a profit.  What you will have though are big fat zeros all over the place.

So ultimately, when it comes to the day-to-day running of your business, your first and foremost priority is making yourself visible. You just gotta get some brand awareness.

In the Revenue and Profit Drivers Statement I've used the term High Value Brand Awareness to specifically define what you need to get your business out of first gear.  So how do you develop and generate more high value brand awareness?  In a nutshell High Value Brand Awareness has these components:

1. You firstly need, to coin a phrase from Warren Buffett, a beautiful castle and moat.  This is your overall business concept, which is also the foundational component of your business/competitive strategy.

2.  You need a powerfully positioned strategic brand.  This is the way you differentiate your business from your competitors and it incorporates your brand values, identity and personality.

3. You need a clearly defined and captive audience/market/ideal customer.  To elaborate, you need to have a clear demographic and psychographic understanding of what your ideal customer looks like.  Understanding your ideal customer profile is also part of your strategy.

4.  You need to know where your target market/ideal customers are most likely to be found.

5. You need multiple, cost-effective media channels to get your messages to your target audience.

6. You need powerful, compelling sales messages.  These need to be crafted by talented writers, designers and producers.

7.  You need to get these messages out to your target audience.

If any of these are missing from your brand-building efforts your marketing will not be as successful and you won't create the effective visibility you need.

To reiterate, your biggest obstacle to business success is poor brand visibility.  And, when you have poor brand visibility you will not hit your financial targets.  That is a given.

Yes, it doesn't matter how great your product or offering is, without brand awareness you have nothing.

So, you really want to hit your financial targets in 2012?  Focus on getting more High Value Brand Awareness. Improve and adapt the seven key components that will help you you get that brand awareness and results will surely follow.

Today's tip is about a planning concept I first learned about over 25 years ago from the late Paul J. Meyer. Meyer was a pioneer in the personal development field, and the world's highest-selling personal development author with sales of more than US$3 billion dollars.

For me personally, Paul J. Meyer has had a huge influence on my life. I first came across his work on high performance and personal development way back in the early 80s just after I left high school. And this particular concept has been very helpful to me because it highlights a key principle of effective strategic planning.  What is it?  It's called the fifth point of the compass.

Introducing the fifth point of the compass

To explain the fifth point of the compass Meyer used the scenario of someone trying to reach a destination using a map and a compass.  In Meyer's scenario, this person has a destination (goal), a route (or directions via the map) and a compass (guide).  Yet, as Meyer suggested, this individual would not reach his desired destination without the most important piece of information, which he referred to as the fifth point of the compass.

And what is the fifth point of the compass?  Knowing exactly where you are now.  And why you are there.

Think about it. You can have all the best laid plans and goals in the world but they are of little value until you have an accurate understanding of where you are now, and the reasons why you are in that position.

In reality, plans and goals based upon faulty or inaccurate information – such as an unclear picture of where you are now – aren't best-laid at all.  They are little more than false hopes and dreams because the fact is, you cannot set realistic strategies and goals, and develop proper plans until you have a clear picture of your current position.

With regards to the fifth point of the compass, three of the biggest mistakes I see business owners making when strategic planning are these:

1.  They don't have enough information in which to accurately assess their current position.

2.  They have the information, but they interpret it incorrectly

3.  They don't have a clear understanding of why they are in their current position.

These situations create a negative flow on effect because subsequent plans are all built upon faulty or poorly interpreted data.

So the key to accurately knowing your current position? Quite simply, it is having accurate information – and then knowing how to interpret this information correctly. Sun Tzu, the great Chinese military leader, put it this way:

"'Know the enemy, know yourself; your victory will never be endangered.  Know the ground, know the weather; your victory will then be total.'"

So, before you go off and start setting your plans and goals for 2012, you must accurately know your current situation.  Accordingly, you must have accurate information via your SWOT analysis on at least the following:

• Skills and talents
• Strategic position
• Organizational culture
• Products and services
• Revenue stream model
• Organizational structure
• Financial KPIs
• Brand reputation
• Brand awareness
• Marketplace conditions
• Opt-in system
• Conversion system
• Customer service and retention system

Get accurate information on these areas and you will be in a much better position to develop an effective strategic plan for your business.

But how do you identify a good strategic sponsorship opportunity? How do you figure out how to get a return on investment for your sponsorship dollars?  And what is the criteria I use for evaluating sponsorship opportunities for my clients?  These questions are answered in today's post.

What I want to share with you are some guidelines as they relate to strategic sponsorship.  If you run a company and sponsorship opportunities are put in front of you, you can use these guidelines to determine if it's going to be dollars well spent.  You can also use them as a way of presenting to a potential sponsoree the basis upon which you will provide sponsorship to them. (I refer to sponsorship recipients as sponsorees.)

If you're seeking sponsorship – for example if you're a sports club, charity etc – you can use these guidelines to identify how best you can give value to a sponsor.  Further, it will help you to better articulate how that value will be generated.

The guidelines presented here apply to sponsorships ranging from $10,000 to $1,000,000 and more, so they are highly applicable to pretty much any type of sponsorship opportunity.

What follows are six Strategic Factors to consider for sponsorship, and then I outline the Value Creation Factors, which relate specifically to how an organization can generate a return on investment for its sponsorship monies.

Strategic factors for sponsorship

1. Target market alignment

The target market/member base of a potential sponsoree must match the profile of your existing customer base. The greater the misalignment in terms of target profile, the less attractive the opportunity.

2. Values alignment

There must be shared values between the intended sponsor and sponsoree.  This forms the foundation for a good working relationship.

When it comes to assessing values, don't fall for the cutesy values or mission statements.  The only way to get a good handle on an organization's values and culture is to get to know the people and observe their behavior.  When you have people saying one thing, then doing another, you know you have potential problems.

3. Strategic positioning

The potential value you can get from a sponsorship opportunity depends a lot on how well the potential sponsoree is positioned in the marketplace.  The better they are strategically positioned, the better you can potentially dovetail into that in terms of branding opportunities.

Strategic positioning flows down to an organization's overall strategy, strategic direction and plan.  So ask the potential sponsoree about their strategic positioning and their overall strategy.

4. Organizational Structure

How well is the potential sponsoree organized in terms of its infrastructure?  How well documented are its processes and systems?  An organization that flies by the seat of its pants can be a nightmare to work with.

5. Overall scope

Taking into account all of the above factors provides you with an idea of the scope of the sponsorship opportunity.  When all the ducks are in a row in terms of the factors outlined above, you know you have the potential of a very good sponsorship opportunity.

6.  Cost-Benefit

To assess the potential overall value, you need to conduct a cost-benefit analysis.  In that cost-benefit analysis you look closely at the factors outlined above, add in the financial request, then work through specifically what the sponsoree will provide in return for the dollars given to it.

To measure potential return on investment you need to analyze the potential return against specific value creation factors.

Value Creation Factors

Once you have some semblance of understanding around the strategic factors outlined above, you can then start looking at specific value creation factors that generate the sponsorship return on investment.  The three key factors are:

1. Branding rights
2. Promotional rights and activity
3. Database rights and activity

Branding rights

Branding rights.  This is where the sponsor pays for the right to get its name in front of the sponsored organization's members and wider target market.

Branding rights is an extension of the more traditionally known naming rights, in which naming rights are applied to such things as stadia and uniforms.

With branding rights you are looking to attach your brand to a much wider number of branding and promotional vehicles,media and the like, such as websites.

Traditionally, branding and naming rights can be a hard-to-quantify element of sponsorship. However there are some metrics we can use to identify how well they are performing.

Generally speaking though, if all a potential sponsoree is offering is simple branding rights, then that is likely to be a poor investment.  The solution for adding better value? Promotional rights and database rights.

Promotional Rights and Activity

A key element of any potential value a potential sponsor can get from a sponsoree is determined not by the branding rights, but by promotional rights and activity the sponsoree implements.  Such promotional activity can include:

• Press releases
• Viral campaigns
• General promotional campaigns
• "Face time" events, where sponsors get in front of sponsoree's members, centres of influence, and the wider market

The sponsoree must have – as part of its strategic plan and promotional responsibilities – a calendar of promotional activity to implement.  These activities target the sponsorees members and wider target audience. Sponsors are then able to piggy-back on this activity.

If you are considering sponsoring an organization, ask to see its promotional or marketing plan.

Database Rights and Activity

This is potentially the most powerful sponsorship asset a sponsor can utilize.  So what are database rights and activity?  This refers to endorsed-promotional activity conducted to the sponsorees membership database.  In other words, it is is where the organization being sponsored implements endorsed promotion campaigns to its member base, promoting the sponsor, its products, events hosted by the sponsor and so on.

When I evaluate a sponsorship opportunity for a client, one of the key things I look at is the membership database.  When looking at that database, key factors include:

1. Size of database
2. How "sticky" or "engaged" that database is towards its member organization
3. How well that database is managed (system, updates etc)
4. How often that database is used

A point of clarification.  Database base rights does not refer to the sponsor having all and sundry access to the sponsoree's database, which potentially can run foul of privacy laws and/or sully the relationship the sponsoree has with its members. 

The database and its use remains in control of the sponsoree.  However, the sponsor and sponsoree must have a terms of agreement as to how that database can be used to build the sponsor's brand.

Conclusion – Putting the return into Return on Investment

As a business owner, sponsorship can potentially provide you with a good return on investment.  There are financial metrics and models I use to help measure this return, so that you know you are getting good value for money.  Like anything in your business though, you must take a strategic approach.

Use the guidelines outlined here as a means to identifying and developing good sponsorship opportunities.

To learn more about strategic sponsorship, or to find out how you can best make use of a sponsorship opportunity – either as a sponsor or sponsoree – feel free to call me on 0064 9 534 9314.

So what's the obstacle?  I'm going to let Kam Wai Yu and Derek Lee Armstrong reveal it to you.  Kam and Derek are the authors of The Persona Principle (published by Simon and Schuster) and the founders of PersonaCorp, one of Canada's leading marketing services firms and creative shops.  Here's what they have to say about this obstacle:

"The biggest obstacle to your success is invisibility.  The best, the most experienced, or the most talented cannot enjoy prosperity until they are visible to their potential market." - Kam Wai Yu and Derek Lee Armstrong.

Quite profound isn't it?  Yet it's so true.  If you're invisible to your potential market – i.e. you have no brand awareness or recognition – you will struggle.

Now before I go on, let me make a small addition to the above quote:

"The biggest obstacle to your success is invisibility or poor visibility."

Truth be told, poor quality brand awareness or visibility is often as useless as no visibility when it comes to building your business and brands.

To reiterate, when we talk about invisibility or poor visibility what we are really talking about is brand awareness. And in the business world getting quality brand awareness is the precursor to business success.  It's what gets you going.

Let me put it this way.  Your ultimate goal in business is to have people buy your stuff and to make a profit as a result. But how can they buy if your brand visibility is poor or non existent? It just ain't going to happen my friend.

Here is the reality. On an operational level, your business cannot and will not make a profit if you firstly have no visibility…or if your visibility is very poor. It is not scientifically possible.  This is illustrated below.

Here is the reality. On an operational level, your business cannot and will not make a profit if you firstly have poor brand visibility. It is not scientifically possible.  This is illustrated below.

If you haven't seen the visual above before, it's something I've created called the Revenue and Profit Drivers Statement.  And what it does is show the sequence of activities a business goes through to generate profit.

Now as shown on the statement, the whole profit sequence begins with brand awareness.  And when you have no brand awareness, you will not get customers, you will not earn revenue and you won't make a profit.  What you will have though are big fat zeros all over the place.

So ultimately, when it comes to the day-to-day running of your business, your first and foremost priority is making yourself visible. You just gotta get some brand awareness.

In the Revenue and Profit Drivers Statement I've used the term High Value Brand Awareness to specifically define what you need to get your business out of first gear.  So how do you develop and generate more high value brand awareness?  In a nutshell High Value Brand Awareness has these components:

1. You firstly need, to coin a phrase from Warren Buffett, a beautiful castle and moat.  This is your overall business concept, which is also the foundational component of your business/competitive strategy.

2.  You need a powerfully positioned strategic brand.  This is the way you differentiate your business from your competitors and it incorporates your brand values, identity and personality.

3. You need a clearly defined and captive audience/market/ideal customer.  To elaborate, you need to have a clear demographic and psychographic understanding of what your ideal customer looks like.  Understanding your ideal customer profile is also part of your strategy.

4.  You need to know where your target market/ideal customers are most likely to be found.

5. You need multiple, cost-effective media channels to get your messages to your target audience.

6. You need powerful, compelling sales messages.  These need to be crafted by talented writers, designers and producers.

7.  You need to get these messages out to your target audience.

If any of these are missing from your brand-building efforts your marketing will not be as successful and you won't create the effective visibility you need.

To reiterate, your biggest obstacle to business success is poor brand visibility.  And, when you have poor brand visibility you will not hit your financial targets.  That is a given.

To reiterate, your biggest obstacle to business success is no visibility or poor visibility.  You overcome this by following the seven key points I've outlined above.

As I explained in that post, strategy is one of the most misused and misunderstood business terms, and that most people don't really know what a business strategy is.  Then, using a sports metaphor, I explained the concept of strategy in greater detail.

What I didn't outline in that post was the relationship between strategy and tactics, and how the two are intertwined.  So that's the topic of today's post.

In reality, no discussion on strategy is ever complete without linking it to tactics. Why? Well, one famous quote, which has been attributed to Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, highlights the importance of the link between the two:

"Strategy without tactics is the long road to victory.  Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."

Fact is, strategy and tactics go hand in hand and you cannot have one without the other.  And this is perfectly illustrated with the following matrix:

What are tactics?

So what are tactics?  Tactics are ploys, patterns or maneuvers you develop and implement to drive and support your strategy, and to get you closer to your objective.  In the military, tactics are defined as "the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle." (source: Wikipedia – Military tactics).

The operative word in this definition is "techniques".  So in a military context, tactics are the specific techniques that combat units/soldiers will learn and use, such as hand-to-hand combat tactics, use of weapons and so on.

In sport we refer to tactics as our "plays" or "moves".  These moves and plays are the techniques used to engage and beat a competitor. Indeed, if you analyze any top sporting contest or game closely you will note that it is no more than an accumulated sequence of plays and counter-plays.  In other words, tactics.

In sports such as rugby we have attacking moves which are designed to advance our team towards the opposition goal line.  And we also have defensive moves which are designed to halt opposition attacks.

Top sports teams have play books, which are compilations of team plays.  (Some NFL teams have 300+ page play books).  And a favorite coaching tool of many coaches is the mini-whiteboard, which helps them to illustrate tactics to their team.

The moves we use are dependent on conditions such as the opposition, the weather, our team skill set and how well our team has practiced.

The key point is this.  In order to be competitive, a sports team must have carefully selected and well-rehearsed tactics.  Otherwise it will play like a ship without a rudder, or a headless chicken.

What are tactics in a business?

So in sport a tactic is a move or play that gets you closer to the opposition goal line.  And business tactics?

In business, tactics are maneuvers and techniques that help you to reach your target market and get a customer. Or to stop customers from going to a competitor.

In business, getting a customer can be likened to scoring points against the opposition in a sporting contest.  The more points you score, the better it is for you.  The way in which you score points is through your tactics.

Specifically, business tactics include product, marketing, promotional, branding, channel/distribution and pricing initiatives and campaigns you create and then execute in the marketplace.

These initiatives are the specific plays or moves you develop and execute to help you build brand awareness, and convert that brand awareness into customers.

To be most effective your tactics must align with your strategy, as per the grid illustrated above.  When your strategy is good and your tactics sound, you have a much better chance of getting into the high performance green zone.

The tactical arm of your business – and your most important business function

As suggested above, in your business there is one function that drives your tactics.  And that function is marketing.  Put another way, your marketing function – and everyone involved in it – is the business equivalent of a championship-winning sports team or a Navy Seals unit.

Your marketing function drives success in your business.  And the purpose of every other function in your business – administration, operations, accounting etc – is to support the marketing function.

Peter Drucker put it more definitively when he stated that:

"Because it is its purpose to create a customer, any business enterprise has two – and only these two – basic functions: marketing and innovation. They are the entrepreneurial functions."  Peter Drucker (from The Practice of Management)

So, to summarize:

• You need strategy and tactics
• Tactics are maneuvers and techniques that help you to reach your target market and get a customer. Or to stop customers from going to a competitor.
• Marketing is the business function that drives your tactics
• Marketing is the most important function in your business

Watching the game at the Auckland CBD fanzone with my family and more than 50,000 other spectators was an incredible experience.  And what made the experience greater was the fact that the game was not as one-sided as so many pundits predicted. 

Yes, it was an extremely tight game.   And human nature being what it is, when we come out victorious in a closely fought contest, the feeling of euphoria and relief is much greater when compared to winning by a wide margin.

I've played in and coached a lot of sports games over the years.  And for me, the most memorable games have been the close ones.  One that comes to mind was when I was 15, playing a high school rugby game for Fairfield College against Otumoetai College. 

On that day it poured with rain throughout the game, we were in the final throes of the battle and our team was trailing 4-6. Then, in the final play the ball was passed to me and I drop-kicked a very wobbly, but successful goal to give us victory by one point, 7-6.  Now this game was played over 30 years ago (when tries/touchdowns were worth 4 points), but I can still remember the final stages like it was yesterday.

In the All Blacks-France game the outcome wasn't certain till the final whistle blew.  And that's why, when it was finally over, the whole of New Zealand literally erupted.  It was a tightly-fought one point victory, 8-7, but it was a victory nonetheless.

Till the day that I die I'm quite sure that I'll vividly recall the final stages of the 2011 World Cup rugby final between New Zealand and France.  I'll remember the absolute feeling of relief and subsequent fist pumps in the air I made when the final whistle went.  I'll remember the bear hugs I gave and received from my family members, friends and a multitude of strangers.  And I'll remember feeling an overwhelming sense of New Zealand pride.  It was a great night.

Some thoughts about the game and the nature of competition generally.

Cometh the hour, cometh the lionhearts.

In highly competitive situations – be it in sport or business – some people respond to pressure better than others.  My term for these high-pressure performers? Lionhearts.

One rugby player who obviously thrives on pressure is French captain, Thierry Dusautoir.  Deservedly named World Play of the Year, this bloke has the heart of a lion.  And, like all great leaders, he leads from the front.

Key learning point. In any team situation, you've got to have a core group who thrive on pressure.

You've got to be battle-hardened.

France's tough build-up in the tournament meant that they were more battle-hardened for their final game against New Zealand.  By comparison, New Zealand's path to the final was relatively easier.

Key learning point. In life you've got to get into some tough battles to help you deal with the ups and downs that life sends your way.

When your backs are against the wall there's only one way to go.

Thanks in part to the media-driven campaign to belittle the French, their backs were against the wall.   They were given no chance and they were accused of being dirty thugs.  Indeed, the sentiment against the French team was so loud and thick, they were backed into a corner.  So what did they do?  They came out fighting.  They took all that negative energy and used it to their advantage.

Key learning point. When life throws you a curve ball, you've got to come out fighting.

Proper planning prevents poor performance.

Both the New Zealand coach, Graham Henry, and captain Richie McCaw stated how proper planning over a four year period laid the foundation for the win. 

I don't know if having to play the 5th choice first-five was part of that planning, but things worked out in the end.

Key learning point.  Proper planning lays the foundation for all success.  As well as identifying and formulating your strategy, your strategic plan must account for a variety of curve balls that may be thrown your way.

Now, for international readers the sport of rugby may not hold much appeal.  But to us New Zealanders it's our national sport.  And we're damn good at it too, with our national team, called the All Blacks, consistently ranked the top team in the world.

Rugby is a genuinely gladiatorial sport.  Not recommended the fainted hearted, the sport is a brutal clash of bodies, minds, strategies and tactics.

With a global viewing audience of 4 billion people, the Rugby World Cup is the world's fourth largest international sporting event, surpassed only by the Olympics, the World Football Cup and the Tour de France.  And our team is in the final, playing France.

So which team will win?  Thinking with my head, and not my heart, I believe the All Blacks will win.  Here's why.

Individually better players

Man for man, the All Blacks have an edge in terms of talent.  The forward battle will be tight, but the overall skill set in the backs for the All Blacks is better.

Collectively a better team

Throughout this tournament the All Blacks have played far better than France as a team.  Yes, it's important to have good individual skills, but these skills must be programmed into the team game.

Ability to adapt strategy and tactics

The skill set of the All Blacks team is such that they can adapt strategy and tactics according to competitive conditions.  They can play a confrontational, forward-oriented game, a wide expansive game, and variations thereof. Defensively the team is very strong – including its aerial defence, which will make the French think twice about kicking.

Stronger team dynamic

Unlike France, the All Black team dynamic – both on and off the field – is stronger.  France has had a number issues, particularly in terms of the relationship between many members of the team and its head coach, Marc Livremont.

Stronger coaching team

Collectively, Graham Henry, Steven Hansen and Wayne Smith are a formidable coaching team who collectively have a wealth of intellectual property residing in their brains.

Home ground advantage

60,000 supporters, most of whom will be dressed in black will provide an incredible home ground advantage for the All Blacks.  Some of the team have already commented that the atmosphere at last week's semi-final was the best they have played in.  Expect the noise to go up a couple of notches tonight.

A stadium of 4 million

The home ground advantage extends far beyond the fact that the All Blacks are playing on Eden Park.  They literally have the whole country behind them, hence the catchphrase, "A stadium of 4 million".  So every time they've been out in the public eye – traveling on the bus, out shopping, or doing some r and r – they have felt and experienced the support of a nation.

No losses in pool play

In every World Rugby Cup final so far, the winning team was unbeaten in pool play.  New Zealand was unbeaten in pool play while France lost twice.

Player farewell incentives

This tournament is the last time that key players Brad Thorn and Mills Muliaina will represent New Zealand, with both heading off in a few weeks time to play in Japan.  The international retirement of these players provides an incentive for the rest of the team to play for them.

Coach farewell incentives

Coach Wayne Smith has already announced his international retirement, and there's a good chance that Graham Henry will retire once this game is done and dusted – especially if the All Blacks win.

Great coaches deserve great send offs – and the thought of the impending retirement of their coaches will give ample motivation to the team.

Time for pay back

In 2007 France humiliated the All Blacks in the quarter final of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.  This is time for pay back.

Caveats

So logic dictates that the All Blacks should win.  But there are some caveats, which could tilt things in favor of the French.  Here are three.

1. All and sundry have written off the French – and they go into this game as huge underdogs.  Expectations of a French win are so low, they have nothing to lose.

2. Shoddy journalism – particularly by the New Zealand Herald – about French brutality has got the French team fired up even more.

3. Uncontrollables, such as a New Zealand player being sent off, could tilt things France's way.

4.  France are masters in the art of the out-fox.  So one thing you can expect from the French is the unexpected.

Expectations

France will come out all guns blazing – especially in the first 20 minutes.Provided the All Blacks keep their heads and absorb French pressure, they should come out on top.

Bottom line is that you must know the overall competitive environment in which you operate, together with an understanding of how you should best position yourself and then compete in that environment.

One tool I use with clients to help them figure out their strategy is my Competitive Landscape Visual, shown here:

With my clients I help them to first get a handle on where their product/service offering is located on the market growth curve.  Location is determined by such factors as:

• How well your product/service is differentiated (or unique) when compared to your competitors
• How empty or crowded your market is
• Intensity of competition and who your competitors are.

Once a client has a clear understanding of where they are located on the curve they can then start to formulate their strategy. And, in terms of strategy the three broad choices are:

1. Monopoly/Early Mover

2. Leader/Follower

3. Head-to-Head

The best position to be in is where a market/market category has proven itself and where you own the market (monopoly) or are a market leader.

The absolute worst position to be in is to compete head-to-head.  This is where competitive intensity is very high and price-driven competition reigns supreme.  You only compete here if you have scale and deep pockets.

Not surprisingly, most businesses compete head-to-head.  In other words, they compete in crowded markets, there is little to differentiate them from their competitors, and they are subject to price sensitivities.

So if you don't have the scale or the deep pockets, how do you avoid head-to-head competition?  Let me show you one way.

Note on the visual the Opportunity Window, which is the stage in the market growth curve where a business has an opportunity to create new/improved products or product categories to cater to differing customer tastes within a market.  Essentially, when introducing new categories you are creating a new market, and therefore starting a new market curve.

Here's an example.  Just the other day I purchased a new pair of running shoes.  But, instead of getting another pair of New Balance shoes, which is the brand I've run in for more than six years, I bought a pair of Innov8 Zero Drop shoes, pictured below. 

Oh and yes, despite the pink color, these are men's running shoes.  Heck, if professional rugby players can run around in purple or pink rugby boots, I can own a pair of pink running shoes.

If you're into health and fitness you may notice that these shoes are substantially different to traditional running shoes.  How? There is no built up padding on the heel end of the shoe.  Hence the term Zero Drop.  Anyway, the theory behind the zero-drop category is that these shoes encourage the runner to run on his or her forefeet as opposed to the heels, leading to a more natural and economical running style. 

I also learned in my research that zero-drop shoes can help reduce injuries, which is something I was looking for in an effort to reduce some of the injuries I have been struggling with recently.

Interestingly, New Balance have recently entered the zero-drop category, but their shoes are not yet available in New Zealand. Innov8 on the other hand are a market leader in the zero-drop category.

So let's get back to my earlier proposition about creating or entering new category.  In my running shoes example,  zero-drop is a new category…so essentially this has started a new market growth curve.  Market pioneers such as Innov8 have taken a risk by being early movers in this category, but at the moment the category looks like it will become mainstream.

Some key lessons?

1. Identify where you are located on the market growth curve
2. Don't compete head to head – unless you have scale and deep pockets to squeeze out smaller competitors
3. Compete in markets you can own or dominate
4. One way to dominate a category is to invent or become an early mover in a new category, such as with the zero-drop shoes.

If you've attended a business school course on strategy or your work requires you to perform a lot of strategic planning, then you'll be very familiar with visual grids like the one above.  If not then that's ok. Here's what the grid means.

As illustrated, performance results fall into four zones (red, orange or green), and these results are based on the effectiveness of three areas:

1. Your overall business strategy

2. Your marketing system (tactics and processes)

3. Your strategic human performance (development and execution of skill sets)

Let's take a closer look at the four zones.

Red Zone:  Poor strategy, poor tactics, poor performance.  Bad result.  Miserable failure.

Orange Zone (Bottom Right) Good strategy, with poor tactics and average performance.  Result is under-performance and a waste of a strong strategic position.

Orange Zone (Top Left)  Weak strategy with good tactics and average performance.  Just like a well trained team playing the wrong game.  Or an experienced mountain climber climbing up the wrong mountain.

Green Zone (Top Right).  The Green Zone.  Strong strategy, tactics and human performance equals the ideal place to be.

So which zone are you currently in?  And which zone would you like to be in? 

How to get into the Green Zone

To get into the green zone you need to get three key factors right. To elaborate, you need to:

1. Develop a winning strategy.

In terms of a definition, a strategy is your overall course of action and method of competing, and is based on a framework of key ideas and decisions.  Key components in your strategy include:

• Strategic positioning
• Strategic choice
• Revenue stream model

2. Build a powerful marketing system (Marketing tactics and processes)

Marketing tactics are ideas, plays, sequences and maneuvers that support and drive the strategy.  In a business context tactics are designed to build a brand and include targeted product, marketing, promotional, branding, channel/distribution and pricing initiatives and campaigns you create. 

You can liken your marketing tactics to sports plays/moves a sports team will develop and use against a competitor, or military maneuvers a military unit will learn and practice in order to battle an enemy.

3. Take a strategic approach to human performance

As my grid suggests, human performance is the key to success in any business endeavor. Put simply, you only develop strong strategies, powerful marketing systems and execute your plans when you have the best people working with you, and for you.

Some of the requirements when it comes to strategically developing and improving human performance include:

• Aligning strategy and values
• Forming the right organizational structure
• Finding and developing people with the right skill sets and values
• Creating an environment that enables your people to perform to their potential. 

Summary

So to summarize, there are three areas you should primarily focus on in order to build and maintain business performance.  These are:

1. Strategy
2. Marketing system (tactics and processes)
3. Strategic human performance