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Agree with everything said there. The question left unanswered is where to draw the fine line between focusing on a predefined strategy and react to what your competitors are doing. Example: today Facebook announced Deals, should Foursquare just keep doing what it is doing or do something different to counter Facebook's invasion?

(I personally believe Foursquare should just keep doing what they are doing but let's discuss this anyway)

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If it could all be written down and specified in detail, running businesses could be outsourced to India or Vietnam or somewhere cheap.

My sneaking suspicion is that for many bits of cheap, generic business advice, there is some equal and opposite bit of advice.

Edit: anyone remember this one from last week?

http://steveblank.com/2010/11/01/no-business-plan-survives-f...

Very true - for both "in business there's no right or wrong answer", and "no plan survives contact with enemy". But on the other hand simplified principles and rules-of-thumb help us make rapid decisions with some good accuracy.

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