I have 3 models which I use more than anything else in my business life. The beauty of them is that they are simple, yet they are capable of going very deep the more you understand them. Even better, they can be extended into other situations.

• DISC - Helps with human interaction to understand how _other_ people try achieving success
• Twin Pillars - Marketing in its most simplistic form. However, applicable to daily life
• “Strategic Focus” - Strategy in it’s simplest form. Can break down a company quickly with this

DISC: (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientious)

Once you understand how someone goes about achieving success, you can understand how to speak to them so they “hear” you. I love this model because it’s easy to see each of these traits and it is not nearly as complex as Myers-Briggs. For example a dominant personality, will want to achieve success for prestige. So, to influence them, you tell them that by doing something, they will look good to the rest of the organization.

Twin Pillars - Segmentation and Differentiation

Marketing doesn’t get any more basic than this.  To be successful, identify customer needs (segmentation), and then deliver more value to the customer (differentiation) than the competition.  While it seems simple, there can be a large drill-down into each of these pillars.  From my experience, this concept is lost to most technical people.

Strategic Focus

This model says that a company’s strategy must be either operational efficiency (a Dell/Walmart), product innovation (Google), or customer intimacy/relationships (most local businesses).  A good company will focus on one, and do it very well.  If a company is lucky it can do 2.  However, no company can do all three well.  The model says that depending on what a companies strategic focus will determine what it should invest in.