We grow or decline by how we view the world

Every day, events, problems, changes, and new trends emerge in the world. We interact with them, observe them, or experience their indirect effects on business, society, and life overall.

Business is a significant part of our lives. Every day, we wake up and go to work because, as humans, we need purpose to feel fulfilled. We often find that fulfillment by solving problems across various sectors and aspects of life.

We channel our expression into business, whether big or small. What matters is the value it provides to a specific group of people. A significant part of life is about creating, working on, and delivering that value.

This is how civilizations evolve. Since the beginning of humanity, we’ve advanced in many sectors. Like agriculture, economy, health, technology, and transportation. We come together as companies to deliver the value that drives these developments.

Business is a fundamental part of our lives, shaping both our spiritual and material goals. What happens in business influences markets, skills, human behavior, and society as a whole.

I say this to highlight that business is a significant part of our lives. It deserves attention because what happens in business shapes our world. When business thrives, people benefit.

Many business owners focus on profit, costs, and managing people. While employees focus on results, promotions, or seeking better opportunities for higher pay.

They often overlook how their inner environment connects to the outside world. From people, competitors, to events, and new players. All the outside worlds influence their actions, capabilities, and skills in direct and indirect way.

They have forgotten what it means to come together as a company to create value. Overlooking how their dynamics are integral to society, civilization, and life itself.

Getting ahead is like sharpening a knife—once that stops, the knife loses its edge and declines. The same happens to companies, people, societies, countries, and civilizations.

The problem lies in how we view things. Most of us see them in a linear way, as if we are driving on a road from one city to another.

In life, there are three perspectives: the external view, the internal view, and the connection between the two. Similarly, our world operates this way. Space represents the external world, Earth is the internal world, and the connection between the two is the third view.

A person has an external view when dealing with others, an internal view kept to themselves. And sometimes shares parts of the internal view with the external in certain situations.

Business works the same way. It has external and internal views, and connection between the two.

A managing partner at a consulting firm called “Thinking in Dimensions” might post on LinkedIn with something like this:

"How do you spot change in your business or industry? I'd love to hear your thoughts."

I answered him that before we identify how to spot a change, let's categorize where changes reflect in our world, so we can have organized thinking.

For a business to spot new trends, it must understand its three dimensions from an eagle-eye perspective:

1. Front-stage: Relates to customers and the market.

2. Back-stage: Involves internal capabilities (skills, tech, people).

3. Linked: Connects both the front and back-stage audiences.

By assessing new trends and linking them to these dimensions, it becomes easier to identify which areas of the business need improvement. Instead of focusing on customers and sales, which can distract from innovation.

Businesses must search for signals and trends in their market and industry. No one will hand you the intelligence on a silver platter—unless you hire a service.

The managing partner said, "What about changes outside industry reference points that will have the biggest long-term impact? For example, TV stations focused on ratings but missed YouTube's rise."

He clearly doesn't understand dimensions, despite his firm's name, "Thinking in Dimensions."

I replied: "YouTube is a front-stage disruption. If TV stations had thought in dimensions, they’d have seen it coming. The issue is leaders focusing too much on cost and profit, missing the need for innovation."

Work and business fulfill us, but we must focus on market signals, trends, people and customers, not competitors. Focusing on competitors influences our decisions, causing us to fall behind.

Thank you for reading. We’ll talk in the next letter.

Ahmed

By the way, here is:

1. A fun way to connect with people that leads to opportunities Toilet Mind

2. A course of problem solving strategies in business Creative System Thinking

3. A new way to innovate and solve business challenges Neo Strateje