The Diabolus Code

The instincts that drive life are the same ones that drive enterprise; it is very important to ensure that your enterprise is not run by the diabolus code.

The Diabolus Code is a spiritual gene (some would like to call it a social gene) that drives three basic (base if you like) instincts:

1. wanting your own way


2. wanting everything for yourself


3. wanting to appear important

If you have the diabolus code, you tend to think that your enterprise is the centre of the universe - everything revolves around you and your objectives. You want to be number one or nothing else; you want 100% of market share.

In reality, you don't need to strive to be number one, you are the only one (see Red Ocean Strategy); you dont need market share, you've got your own market all to yourself.

The Diabolus Code casts other enterprises as competitors to be conquered - in reality, they are co-travellers to be helped.

Define your rules of engagement.

One of the toughest parts of consulting in an unstructured market is pricing and payment; clients hardly ever believe that the service you are going to render them is worth as much as you are proposing to charge them. In a market where supply far outstrips demand, the consultant tends to get the short end of the stick.

One way to improve your chances of striking a fair deal with clients is to set up clear 'rules of engagement'. As difficult as it might seem to require that clients sign a service agreement with you even before you render them service, I have come to believe that it is the best direction in which to head. On your part though, you must exhaustively detail what exactly you are going to deliver and where available, provide clients samples of your past work.

Of course your first few attempts to get clients to sign agreements will be met with stiff resistance but after a while of saying the cryptic "it's company policy", you will find your own pool of clients... of course you can choose the alternative of sticking with the headache of argueing over terms after you have rendered the service.

It is critical to your well being to always agree before proceeding.

Lose Weight

Enterprises are like star athletes; they need to stay in shape to stand any chance of staying in the lead, which brings us to the question, is your enterprise overweight?

Your enterprise is overweight if:

1. You cannot write your 'about us' in one sentence (if you wanted/needed to).
2. You've struck out 'no' from your dictionary; every client is welcome.

3. Urgent work always interrupts important work.

4. You only remember your mission, vision at the quaterly/annual retreat.

Hebrews teaches that the wise thing to do when running a race is to strip yourself of every weight; makes absolute sense if you ask me. I mean just look at sprinters, they wear next to nothing. You simply don't carry excess weight if your intention is to move swiftly.

Start cutting out the excess baggage today!

Sell Convinience

No matter what you sell, sell convinience; this is the one enduring strategy that gives you the edge over your competition. I know business schools probably have this strategy done up in some fancy language but I learnt it in the simplest form.

I used to buy call cards from a particular vendor just outside my office for a long time but didn't quite notice when I made the transition to buying from a cleaner in my office who delivers to my desk; I made the 'convinience' decision.

Selling convinience gives your enterprise that edge. This concept is evident in the practice of real estate developers to offer mortgages to prospective buyers of their products. People are simply more likely to make the 'buy' decision not because it's a cheaper or better product/service, but because the seller makes it easier for them to do the transaction. Even Jesus sold his 'yoke' as 'ease'.

The question which answer must be every enterprise developer's quest is, how can I make this easier for them?

Enterprise Productivity Model

Your Enterprise Productivity Model (EPM) is a critical factor which profoundly impacts on how much results you see from your efforts. Your EPM is simply the production model that drives your output.

There are essentially two major EPMs namely; Production EPM and Reproduction EPM. There are off course several sub-models but overall you can only run either the Production or Reproduction model.

In simple terms, the production model requires the same level of input everytime you require a certain output, while the reproduction model allows you to generate the same output using a far reduced or removed level of input.

The critical difference between the Production and Reproduction Models is that one bear fruit and the other bears fruit/seed respectively . To put it in more quantitative terms, the first is Arithmetic Progress and the second Geometric Progression.

God's EPM is the Reproduction Model; when he made the trees as recorded in Genesis, they bore fruit that bore seed that grew trees that bore fruit that bore seed that.... essentially creating an everwidening cycle.

What EPM does your enterprise run on?

Red Ocean Strategy

Every once in a while someone writes a book that attempts to change the way we think of business or some aspect of it. I imagine W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne fit this position. Their book "Blue Ocean Strategy" aims to change the way we think about competition.

Without taking anything away from their submissions (it's true for the generality of the population) I think the more accurate position about the competition that threatens your market share the most is the one taken by theory of the "Red Ocean Strategy".

Red Ocean Strategy: To gain greater market share, kill self! You are your own most powerful competition. If anyone can stop you from getting ahead and arriving at your destination, that person has to be you. Paul of Tarsus said "...part of me covertly rebels..." .

Our own internal contradictions are the most powerful competition we have got. It's extremely hard to get ahead without internal concensus; whether you are a person or an enterprise, a house divided against itself will fall.

Thinking inside the Book

When you really think about it, there's nothing like thinking outside the box. When you get out of the box, you are simply getting into another box; getting out of the box of tediuos conservatism puts you in the box of tedious irreverence (read Branson). Whatever it is you decide to do, the population sample is so huge that the possibility for absolute originality is nil. Soon enough even being unpredictable means people simply don't know what to expect from you. isn't that being predictable?

We can continue to chase an unreachable ideal or we can simply decide which box suits us fine and just think inside that one. I have found one box that gives me all the originality that I can use in 200 lifetimes; it's the Book (read bible).