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Category Archives: Gray Area
Negotiating Strategy; Selling on the Silk Road
PUSHING BAZAAR The largest market in Central Asia is the Pushing Bazaar in Ashkabad. Why ”pushing”? Because it’s packed with potential customers and onlookers, and you have to push your way through the crowd to get anywhere. And once you’re there bargaining for something, if the action is interesting, people will push their way into the situation, offering their own assessment of the item’s value, and arguing with each other about it (in the Turkmen language – you haven’t a clue what they’re saying). It’s a pastime for them. The place is huge, full of color, texture and sound, and is roughly … Continue reading
Posted in Gray Area, Negotiating strategy, situational strategies Tagged Ashkabad, game, Gray Area, how to, how to win, negotiating, negotiation, silk, Silk Road, Turkmenistan, winning strategy 14 Comments
Resources in Strategy; Lye Brook Wilderness
BOURN POND Its nice sitting in this tree. The sun has broken through intermittent clouds, switching on the brilliant leaves of my red maple. This is no ordinary tree. It’s a cage. The main trunk is normal for the first two or three feet. Then it splits into 5 sub-trunks that start horizontally for a couple of feet, then go straight up, creating a cage. Once inside it, your visual field is saturated red leaves. Gorgeous. The tree is on the shore of Bourn Pond in the Lye Brook Wilderness in southern Vermont; it’s the only place I’ve seen trees … Continue reading
Posted in Gray Area, strategy anatomy, strategy design, strategy elements Tagged Bourn Pond, creative thinking, devising, Gray Area, how to, Lye Brook Wilderness, resource, resourceful, silk, spider, survival, thinking skills, web 3 Comments
Strategy in the News: Lasso and Lascaux
LASSO Well-regarded author Patricia O’Brien had produced 5 novels. But her last one hadn’t sold well, and her Simon & Shuster editor declined to publish her new one, “The Dressmaker”. A dozen more publishers also rejected the efforts of her well-known literary agent, Esther Newberg, to secure a contract for the book. What was going on? Turns out O’Brien’s book was being rejected because her numbers had been lowered in Nielsen BookScan, a book sales tracking service, as a result of the performance of her most recent book. And the publishing house editors were making their publishing decisions based on … Continue reading
The Gray Area
Mt. Sopris The scene below is of Mount Sopris, a prominent feature of the Maroon Bells – Snowmass Wilderness in western Colorado. We’re here, you and I, because we’re doing a little reconnaissance for a flight in an altitude-limited light plane that will take us past that peak tomorrow morning. It’s a gorgeous day and getting here was an easy hike. We find ourselves in a benign, rather soft and idyllic scene: green, rolling hills, open woodlands; it’s sunny and the warm air has amped up the smell of the pines. We’re sitting here, taking in the mountain, brilliant in … Continue reading
Posted in Gray Area Tagged deception, elements, Gray Area, Mt. Sopris, noise, thinking skills 4 Comments
