3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on Thinking Strategically
Doorman Fallacy, Seizing the Middle & Pointless Ideas
I. Doorman Fallacy
The Doorman Fallacy is a concept coined by advertising executive Rory Sutherland:
The 'doorman fallacy', as I call it, is what happens when your strategy becomes synonymous with cost-saving and efficiency; first you define a hotel doorman's role as 'opening the door', then you replace his role with an automatic door-opening mechanism.
The problem arises because opening the door is only the notional role of a doorman; his other, less definable sources of value lie in a multiplicity of other functions, in addition to door-opening: taxi-hailing, security, vagrant discouragement, customer recognition, as well as in signalling the status of the hotel.
The doorman may actually increase what you can charge for a night's stay in your hotel.
—Rory Sutherland, Alchemy
II. Seizing the Middle
Seizing the Middle is a strategy from a popular board game known as chess. It’s become a mental model applied in a business context.
When seizing the middle, chess players seek to control the squares in the middle of the board. For example, by moving their pawns accordingly and strategically covering the central space with other pieces. Why? It establishes control over the game and restricts the opponent’s movement.
The strategy has been successfully used in business. An often-cited example is John D. Rockefeller’s move to “dominate the oil industry by controlling railroads across the United States, making it difficult for their competition to move oil”.
III. Pointless Ideas
Fancy concepts alone won’t turn you into a strategic thinker. Robert Greene knows why:
Events in life mean nothing if you do not reflect on them in a deep way, and ideas from books are pointless if they have no application to life as you live it.
—Robert Greene, The 33 Strategies of War
For the ideas to be meaningful we have to internalise the Doorman Fallacy or the Seizing the Middle Strategy and make them “come alive in our own experience”. 🐘
Have a great week,
Chris
themindcollection.com