***Mr. Fash-ion, that style never last long
The harder you flash, the harder you get flashed on
There’s hunger in the street that is hard to defeat
Many steal for sport, but more steal to eat
Cat’s heavy at the weigh-in, and he’s playing for keeps
Don’t sleep, they’ll roll up in your passengers seat***
Mos Def ♦Got; Black on Both Sides (1999)
The maxim: Eat your lunch or someone will eat it for you. Management does not want to enter the industry because it fears that it will lead to cannibalization of its current market share. The sad fact is that if the expansion step is not taken, there is a greater chance that the company will have an even greater market share taken by the current competition seeking any incremental revenue advantage possible. In the best market, there are always the hungry few. The scary part is that it only takes one desperate player to take a huge bite out of your piece of the pie.
The other reality is that overplaying your hand (“hard flashing”) can only make the desperate and hungry seek to “flash on” you that much harder. If you perpetually view investor relations as telling people how large your market share is, then you can view it as the same as putting a big red “X” on your back as a target for the competition. And it is not just the competition. The target is on the back for government regulators and agencies looking to make an example of you as one of the fat cats. You can get jacked from the passenger’s side of your ride by anybody.
BPM TAKEAWAY#26:
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FEAR HUNGER NOT CANNIBALIZATION
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GET A LOW PROFILE, DON’T GET PROFILED
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About codemizell
The Beats Per Management collective (“The BPM”) is curator for C.O.D.E Mizell and supports the repurposing of hip hop content for professional success. BPM consists of former Hip Hop junkies now living in the corporate world. BPM members carried milk crates of 12” records when “bpm” used to mean beats-per-minute for mixing music, now BPM members focus on Excel spreadsheets, legal briefs, power points, whiteboard-scribbling and business plans.
BPM cannot shake the instant recall of Hip Hop lyrics. The good news is that BPM realized that these lyrics had application to its daily management concerns.
BPM does not claim to have captured the true artist intent in its lyrical analysis, BPM seeks only to celebrate the role that hype-lyrics can play in the daily grind to get business done in the corporate world. This is not a glorification of urban pop-culture or a debate on the poetic merits of rap, we leave that to the literary critics and socio-political commentators.
If you disagree with BPM send us your spin on the lyrics. We have an open mind, and hope you do.
The “BPM Takeaways” dispense reminders for your business day. Hopefully, the next time a referenced-cut is heard on the radio, it will trigger your “Takeaway” and not just flashbacks to the music video.
A quote-a-day will make you a better executive. BPM hopes to keep all advice short and to the point – Executive Summary Style.
Technically the lyrics are “raps” and the culture of the genre is “hip hop” but lets not get overly technical -- substance not form that controls here. The point is you are putting that untapped knowledge to use.
And to think they said that Hip-Hop would get you nowhere…puhhleasse.
-Roscoe Waxx for BPM
C.O.D.E. Mizell [.com] 