The Attacker’s Advantage summary

What do you call someone who responds to a change before it even happens? Not a psychic. Individuals who can spot developments early in an industry and do something about them are called catalysts.

Catalysts have the ability to pick out patterns in a mess of possibilities to see how and why industry-wide change might occur. We call this perceptual acuity.

As a catalyst, you’d be a great asset for any growing, innovative business. But what if your perceptual acuity isn’t quite up to scratch? Here are three strategies to improve your seed-spotting ability.

Start by testing your perceptive acuity by chatting with people from other industries or executives who deal with different challenges than you do on a daily basis.

You’ve probably heard that the best defense is a good offence. This statement is especially true when it comes to structural uncertainties. You might think you don’t need to use aggressive tactics, as your industry seems so stable. The reality is, no industry is truly stable or safe.

Every industry can suffer structural uncertainty. Change is inevitable, so you need to learn how to grapple with change when it happens. How? By making change your own.

Have you worked out where to find the seeds in your industry and how to map a path forward? Great! Now you need to make sure your company’s internal decision-making is aligned along this path, too.

Every person who makes key decisions in your company needs to know which pivotal choices your business will be making. On top of this, nodes, or points where decisions are made, must be identified.

It’s great to have innovative ideas, but there’s no point if you can’t turn them into reality. Of course, working out how to implement a radically new idea is by no means easy! But there are ways to do it.

Your plan should begin with your final destination. If you know what you want to achieve, work backward to identify the necessary steps along the way. These steps are your short-term goals.