Monday, February 18, 2008

What's your signature move?

Business can sometimes be a sort of dog-eat-dog world so perhaps the video game of the the 90's Mortal Kombat is approrpriate for executives. Players did battle head to head with only one survivor. In the game every character had a signature move, for instance, Sub-Zero, some kind of ninja, had the power to throw ice at his opponent. In the event of a direct hit by the ice, the opponent was locked and couldn't defend himself against any assault Sub-Zero made.

When you played Mortal Kombat it was critical to choose a player who had a great signature move. Once the game began you had to know your signature move as well as your opponents. Some moves were just lousy, hard to execute and didn't really allow you to beat up on the competition. Plus you had to know the dude was going to throw ice at you.

The real world version of a "signature moves" is the hedgehog concept from Jim Collins book Good to Great. In the world of briefcases and strategic plans we don't use ice, nevertheless if were going to win the game, as the players in the game we have to know the following:

What am I best in the world at?
What drives my economic engine?
What am I passionate about?

In a sense what you're asking is "What's my signature move?"

What's your signature move?
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