Developing a strategy for a business is very simple when you use SWOT and combine it with the concepts of Quality, Cost and Speed.

The first step is to figure out your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for each of the three dimensions of Quality, Cost and Speed. For example:

• In terms of quality you may have a greater reliability than your competitor but less product choice. There may also be a new entrant to the market with newer technology going after a new market segment. Each of these is an element of SWOT.
• In terms of cost, you may have a more expensive product that is threatened by newer methods of production which could serve to make your competitor cheaper.
• Finally, for speed, you may have slower delivery times due to a slower manufacturing cycle time.

Figuring out strategy from SWOT would then have you do the following:

Very simply to develop strategy, you would maximize strengths, exploit opportunities, minimize weaknesses, and get rid of threats. In our simple example you might want to:

• Put in a new assembly line to lower costs of production and increase speed of delivery.
• Use the newer technology on that assembly line both to exploit new markets and broaden your product offering.

The hard part isn’t developing a strategy to beat the competition, it is figuring out what the problem really is in the first place.

As some point in your career, you’ve probably done something really stupid with email like:

• Replying to All with a snarky comment.
• Including an embarrassing long chain of confidential info when replying to someone.
• Sending something highly personal to the wrong recipient.
• Writing a nasty email that you intend to change but sending it by mistake anyway.

There’s a great story about a programmer named Ron Avitzur that was pointed out to me by my Director of Content Acquisition, Lachlan Plant (aka, my son). Ron was working for Apple on a project as a contractor when the project was canned and he was terminated, fired, canned, etc.

No big deal except that Ron was really keen about completing what he was working on. What he did about it was to keep working on the project, at Apple, by keeping his old pass for a while, by sneaking in at other times, by claiming office space and resources, some of it with the cooperation of Apple staff who knew what he was doing. He even got a friend who had been terminated to work on the project as well. They both claimed they worked for each other to make sure they weren’t discovered.

They both continued on working until the project was complete, tested, and bundled with a software release as Graphing Calculator 1.0, which Apple bundled with the original PowerPC computers.

Don’t you wish you had employees with that type of initiative. A perfect counterpoint to Milton Waddams from Office Space.

There is a great debate in the Globe and Mail today about whether Yahoo’s fired CEO, Carol Bartz should not have used the word “Fcuk” at work. (You’ll have to read the article on page B14 as I can’t find a link.) ”Using profanity on the job can make you look unprofessional – but it can also be a good motivational tool.” Apparently it’s no good in a job interview (who knew?) but good for women to use to put men at ease. (What? It doesn’t put men at ease, it just titillates us.) It’s good in some areas of the world, not so good in others, it works in some industries but not in others. It can diffuse tense situations but make others more tense. Huh?

OMG, what is the world coming to when one must worry about a well placed “Fcuk” every now and then?  The next thing you know they’ll be putting in a “No Touching” rule, banning Filterless Fridays, and putting the kibosh on Topless Tuesdays. (Please note that I finally agreed that Topless Tuesdays was not mandatory but optional at work.)

Given the predilection to create employment standards I can envision a day when HR departments the world over have to develop policies around the use of the term “Fcuk.” In an effort to help the development of such policies, I have prepared the following rules:

Policies regarding the use of the word “Fcuk” in the workplace.

1. In general, the word “Fcuk” shall not be used outside closed offices or meeting rooms unless one is still working after 9:00 PM.
2. The word may be used at will by consenting adults who are engaged in a workplace affair.
3. After several drinks at a workplace function, the word may be sprinkled into conversation at random if desired.
4. The word “Fcuk” is encouraged in meetings where the actions of upper management are discussed by subordinates. In this case, the adjective “Fcuking” may be used as appropriate.
5. It may only be used as a noun and never as a verb.
6. If used in writing it should be referred to as the “F Word” because that really fools everyone.