“strategy was born in 1963 with the founding of Boston Consultant Group by Bruce Henderson”
Boston Consulting Group
By Bruce Henderson
1 recommend/use · 3 sourced episodes
Every sourced reference
Short attributed excerpts only. Timestamps are approximate.
“another case study in the book is the Boston Consulting Group which I used to work at”
“I started in Consulting at BCG and then in private Equity”
Related frameworks
Adjacency-and-Network Expansion Test
Prioritize marketplace expansion by adjacency and network reinforcement, not by the size of the adjacent TAM
Betterment Over Perfection (The Painful-Gap Method)
Don't craft a perfect strategy — close your single most painful gap, then the next, forever.
Design Capabilities So Rivals Say 'Life's Too Short'
Build capabilities and systems so nuanced that imitators choose a different battlefield instead of copying you.
Dual-Sided ROI Equation
Price each acquisition to include the cost of acquiring the other side it needs, then push to your payback threshold
Homogenize the Early Experience for Retention
Move retention by fixing unlucky bad first experiences, not by nudging people about to churn
Schedule Syncing (Managing Your Manager)
Never say no to your boss — show your timeboxed calendar and ask them to help you prioritize.
The 10-Minute Rule (Surfing the Urge)
Beat any urge to get distracted by waiting ten minutes and riding the emotion until it subsides.
The Effort Metric (Measure Attention, Not Completion)
Track 'did I do what I said for as long as I said without distraction' instead of whether you finished.
The Four Marketplace Health Metrics
Track GMV, unit economics, liquidity, and share of wallet to know if a marketplace is truly healthy
The Gardener Mindset for Marketplaces
Run a marketplace like a gardener with a light touch, not a construction worker building linear features
The Growth Model Building Blocks
Build a spreadsheet formula of how your business grows, layer by layer, to find your real levers
The Indistractable Model
The four-step system for controlling your attention: master triggers, make time, hack back, and pre-commit.
The Indistractable Workplace (Three Traits)
Distraction is a symptom of dysfunction — fix it with psychological safety, a forum, and leaders who model it.
The Marketplace Fragmentation Test
A marketplace only works if the market is fragmented and the per-transaction dollars are small enough to keep it in the middle
The Strategy Choice Cascade
Five interlocking questions that force a strategy into an integrated, reinforcing whole.
The Three Pacts (Pre-Commitment Firewall)
Lock in your intentions ahead of time with an effort pact, a price pact, or an identity pact.
Timeboxing Your Values (Make Time for Traction)
Replace the to-do list with a weekly timeboxed calendar built from your values across three life domains.
Two Routes to Win: Differentiation or Low Cost
You must be the differentiated choice or the lowest-cost provider — anything in between gets bullied.
Vertical Unbundling Criteria
Only carve a vertical out of a horizontal marketplace if it has high value or frequency and a self-contained network
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