Pivot Points II

A pivot point magnifies the effect of effort.

At the same time 7-Eleven was expanding its operations in China.  There, Murata explained, their outstanding advantage was cleanliness and service.  The Chinese consumers were used to being supplicants at a retail outlet and 7-Eleven Japan's tradition of spotless interiors and white-gloved service personnel who greeted customers with bows and smiles, as well as its good-tasting lunches, were producing twice as many sales per square foot than any competitor obtained. 

Murata's strategy focused organizational energy on decisive aspects of the situation.  It was not a profit plan or a set of financial goals.  It was an entrepreneurial insight into the situation that had the potential to actually create and extend advantage.

A pivot point magnifies the effect of effort.  It is a natural or created imbalance in a situation, a place where a relatively small adjustment can unleash much larger pent-up forces.  The business strategist senses such imbalances in pent-up demand that has yet to be fulfilled or in a robust competence developed in one context that can be applied to good effect in another.

ACTION POINT: Identify your natural or created imbalances and use them to magnify effect and effort.