Name: Hide a dagger behind a smile
ISBN: 9781598693805

What Hacker News says

makeropsSep 2013

"No one is teaching founders which information they should give out to strangers and which information they have a right to keep to themselves, and frankly, the judges are more at fault than the founders."

Being ignorant is the founders' fault, not the "judges". As a founder, if you want to become less ignorant, figure out what you should/should not be telling. Hide a Dagger behind a Smile is a good book on tactics; along with 48 laws of power, with the former being more applicable.

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mindcrimeApr 2013

Is it possible? Yes. Is it easy? No. How do you do it? If I had a magic formula for that, I'd be rich. But...

There is a large body of work "out there" on competitive strategy, differentiation, positioning, market segmentation, etc. I hate to say "go off and read this list of 15 books" but I don't think I can do justice to this topic in a HN comment. So, I will, indeed, just give you a list of books to consider.

Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey Moore

The Four Steps To The Epiphany - Steve Blank

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind - Al Ries, Jack Trout and Philip Kotler

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - Al Ries, Jack Trout

The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding - Al Ries, Laura Ries

REPOSITIONING: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis - Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin

Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition - Jack Trout, Steve Rivkin

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant - W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne

Understanding Michael Porter - Joan Magretta

Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters - Richard Rumelt

Hide a Dagger Behind a Smile: Use the 36 Ancient Chinese Strategies to Seize the Competitive Edge - Kaihan Krippendorf

Outthink the Competition - Kaihan Krippendorf

Competitive Strategy - Michael Porter

Competitive Advantage - Michael Porter

On Competition - Michael Porter

Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value With Customers - C. K. Prahalad, Venkat Ramaswamy

Yeah, it's a lot of stuff. I won't say you need to read all of that, but everyone of those books is something that's influenced my thinking, and that I've learned a lot from. If I had to pick one to start with, I'd say the Steve Blank book - The Four Steps to the Epiphany. He does a pretty good job of giving an overview of market segmentation strategies, which you'll probably want to pursue if you're entering a crowded market.

After reading Blank, I'd go for Crossing the Chasm next, then the whole series by Trout, Ries and Rivskin, etc. The Michael Porter stuff is good, but somewhat dry and academic. The Understanding Michael Porter book is a good introduction to his stuff that is a little easier to digest.

Also note a subtle, but important point... there are two different kinds of "positioning* you'll hear people talk about in these kinds of discussions. On the one hand, you have "marketing positioning" as described in the books by Ries, Trout, et al. This is more about the message you send to the market about your firm and your offerings. Then you have Michael Porter "structural positioning" stuff that relates to how your firm "fits" in with your competitors vis-a-vis the "five forces" and the rest of Porterian strategic analysis. One will influence the other, but they are really two different things. Note that anytime somebody starts telling you anything about your "positioning".

And then you have what Bob Parsons (of GoDaddy fame) said "Don't be afraid to enter a crowded market, just be better than everybody else".

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mindcrimeJun 2012

And on a related note, be sure to check out:

Hide a Dagger Behind a Smile: Use the 36 Ancient Chinese Strategies to Seize the Competitive Edge

http://www.amazon.com/Hide-Dagger-Behind-Smile-Competitive/d...

The Prince

http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Niccolo-Machiavelli/dp/03121497...

and

The Art of Worldly Wisdom

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Worldly-Wisdom-Balthasar-Gracian/d...

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