Business Insights to Win in 2023

If there was ever a time to stay humble and hungry, 2023 is that time. COVID provided an opportunity for “instant geniuses” over the last few years when the government poured ~ $5T of free money into the economy. Inflation, rising interest rates, and recession abruptly shut the easy opportunity window. Success is available, but the margin of error has narrowed significantly in 2023.

Here’s what you should be thinking about to win in the new year:

1. Make bigger bets on fewer priorities. Create ruthless discipline, focus, and accountability inside the business across all departments. Your clarity code (vision, values, and objectives) rules the day. Communicate the shit out of the priorities. Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself again and again and again. 
2. Opportunities surround you despite the narrowing. Pay attention. To identify those opportunities, foster curiosity inside your company. Curious companies solve problems differently and innovate faster. Curious ideas? (1) Create regular, cross-functional meetings (with different people) to ideate on new problems or brand extensions. (2) Start a book club (3) Meet with industry-adjacent companies for fresh ideas and new approaches. (4) Go to trade shows. And, by God, please use this instruction manual if you’re considering chasing squirrels. 
3. Narrow the guardrails on your metrics and thought experiments. You must know quickly if your strategy, projects, and tactics are working or require adjustments. Measure, adjust, iterate. Repeat what’s working or stop what isn’t. Act fast.
4. Consider growth through partnerships. We are better together. If you have a strong balance sheet, there will be distressed opportunities in the market. Stay well-networked, patient, and selective. There will be strategic opportunities to advance through acquisition.
5. We’ve passed the tipping point of utility and curious adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI). I explained this last year. The surge of awareness, implications, and applications of AI is real. ChatGPT, built on GPT3, enthralled “all the experts” in Q4. GPT4 is coming in early 2023 and is 100-500x more powerful than GPT3. If you haven’t played around with these tools, you should. We regularly write using AI tools in our business (not this one). It’s only going to get better. Business displacements will happen. Adapt or die. 
6. The opportunities AI (potentially) won’t displace are leadership (duh), strategy, and White Space Thinking about the future. A winning strategy and effective leadership demand creativity. Perspective provides the requisite entry fee for creativity. To stay ahead of AI, you must be able to synthesize broad arrays of information. Start consuming content like a whale consumes plankton.
7. Aggressively guard your mindset. The difference between high achievers and the highest achievers rests with positive mindsets. Your ability to get back to the center and maintain a positive focus unlocks performance. Massive trends in burnout, disengagement, and disconnection need to be a focus across the company. (Hint: compassion, grace, and kindness must lead the way!) You are included in that priority. Put your oxygen mask on before you help others. Want to be a leader who succeeds? Cultivate a consistent morning routine and mind your Personal Pentagon. These strategies provide the basis for a bulletproof mindset. 
8. Double down on the critical and painful problem you solve. Consider niching down even further. Try to solve your customer’s most important objective. I call them “Monday Morning Problems” (MMPs). The higher you are on the totem pole solving an MMP, the stronger your company. And, if you’re in an unfortunate situation where your company provides a commodity, you must find a space where a niche problem exists and solve it. Think about two things: (1) Where can you save your customers time, money, or stress? (2) How can you unlock joy and fulfillment in progress to their goals?
9. Create trusted communities around your business. It’s a sustainable moat. Trust is eroding because humans, supported by intelligent machines, are starting to run things. Word of mouth and relationships have always been critical. However, it will become the only authentic, tangible way forward. Trust is treasured and a prerequisite for business. Start building now. I believe that a live internet talk show (aka a Podcast) is the smartest, fastest, and most economical way to achieve this strategic imperative – for you and your brand.

I’m grateful that you are part of my community. Please share this with your team, fellow leaders, or even on social media. It’ll help us on the journey to positively impact 5MM people in the next 4 years (year 1 now in the books). 🙏

PS – If you’re curious, this was my 2022 State of the Business deck. I’ll put a deck like this out in early 2023.