Choosing Strategy

Letter from the Publisher

This magazine is two decades in the making. 

My voracious reading of business texts began in my twenties. Two of the most pivotal that shaped my career were Blue Ocean Strategy and Purple Cow. I was fascinated that 99% of businesses simply snapped into existing industries and tried to outrun everyone in the same direction. Very few visionary and brave companies would actually carve out their own categories within a category, or even head out to serve an entirely new – and often underserved – market by running in the opposite direction.

Those companies ended up with most of the profits, regardless of their market share.

One thing that has been true throughout my two-decades-long entrepreneurial career is my commitment to strategy. My default is to build businesses around only a few, strategic bets that are so unique in the industry they will shield it from having to be operationally perfect or compete on competitors’ terms. Those competitors are instead forced to compete on my terms.

Another constant has been an attraction to service-based businesses that depend on people to make their client’s lives and businesses better. That was even true during a stint in software – the ultimate people-reduction industry – in my early twenties. I built a service business developing software for others, and unsuccessfully launched a quality assurance service for other development shops. It simply wasn’t satisfying for me to take the service and human element out of my products.

Which brings me to property management: a service that takes away pain and frustration at a basic level, but also can create beautiful outcomes with some strategic thought.

You are the clearest path to retirement, financial freedom, great housing in your communities, and even multigenerational wealth for your clients and family.