Tuesday Morning Quarterbacking

Without dwelling into the game stats, lets focus on one of the main causes behind the Colts loss. Manning's habit of doing certain things repeatedly,was one of the reasons why the Colts were defeated.

In most professional sports, the tendencies of every star player are usually known after a year or so..

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"What is called 'foreknowledge' cannot be elicited from spirits, nor from gods, nor by analogy with past events, nor from calculations. It must be obtained from men who know the enemy situation."

- Art of War 13

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Monday, February 8, 2010 (SF Chronicle)

COLTS/Defining drive fails to break Manning's way

David White, Chronicle Staff Writer

(02-08) 04:00 PST Miami Gardens, Fla. --

Colts quarterback Peyton Manning looked all-time greatness in the eyes. He should have known better than to stare down a target in the open field like that.

Manning reached for a second Lombardi Trophy, which was so right there to hug between the numbers - but the Saints stepped between the arranged marriage and objected with all their might.

All Manning could do was stand there, jilted and helpless, as Saints cornerback Tracy Porter returned the worst decision of Manning's career 74yards for a dynasty-stopping touchdown. The Colts lost 31-17, and Super Bowl XLIV will be remembered as the game Manning threw away.

"He made a good break on the ball and just made a heck of a play," Manning said on the losers' side of Sun Life Stadium.

Sure, Porter made a great play, but come on: We're talking about Tracy Porter. Who Dat? Precisely.

Since when did a no-name from New Orleans have any business out-shining Manning on football's most Super stage?

Manning is the one who is supposed to play the hero. He's the unquestioned leader of the winningest team this century. He's the golden arm with all the MVP awards on the wall.

Manning is the star with 43 game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime in his esteemed NFL lifetime. Sunday was supposed to be No. XLIV(that's 44, for those who don't speak Roman).

"It's certainly disappointing," Manning said of his interception. "Very disappointed."

He should be. Everyone else on offense did all he could to put Manning in his customary position to save the day.

The offensive line did not give up a sack, no matter how often Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams dialed blitz. Tight end Dallas Clark ran down every- thing Manning threw his way, catching seven passes for 86 yards to become the most prolific tight end in postseason history.

Running back Joseph Addai rushed 13 times for 77 yards. His spinning 4-yard touchdown run gave the Colts a 17-13 lead in the third quarter. Not bad, for the 32nd-ranked rushing offense in a 32-team pool.

Addai threw in 58 screen-pass reception yards. Rookie receivers Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon each tossed 66 receiving yards into the hat and passed it to Manning.

Everyone led Manning's horseshoe to the water, but he's the one who had to take a swig from the grail.

Instead, Manning passed the cup right into Porter's hands. It was 3rd-and-5 at the Saints' 31. Manning was one touchdown throw away from making this a 24-24 game, and he had more than three minutes of game clock left.

Here's the real indictment of it all: Manning is reputed as the Study Hall King. No one studies more video than Manning, the legend goes. He takes the knowledge of other team's tendencies and uses it to his advantage. Repeatedly.

Well, guess what: The Saints just beat Manning at his own mind game. Porter and the Saints, too, crammed for the Super Bowl. They knew the Colts liked to stack the receivers on 3rd-and-short. Porter knew Colts receiver Reggie Wayne would release outside on a slant, and that Manning would throw to him.

Imagine that.

"It's kind of a play we've run a lot," Manning said.

/// The Compass View: If you are scouting for your competitor's tendencies, then there is a good possibility that they are also scouting for yours.

Now look at Manning. His 333 passing yards? Minimized. The 10-0 lead he forged in the first quarter? Kissed away. While Saints quarterback Drew Brees was winning the Super Bowl MVP, Manning was going 13 game minutes between complete passes in the second and third quarters.

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The Compass View: No matter how great an competitor is, he or she is predictable. By using our Assess, Position and Influence (API) process, anyone can be defeated.

Assess him/her in terms of the AoW principles. The initial step is to gather intelligence on the target.

Position him and yourself with a good plan and solid preparation.

Influence the competition toward a limited number of situations that prevents him to implement his or her strengths. Concentrate on reducing their opportunity of gaining advantages to zero. Do not let him/her gain any momentum.

Focus point #1: Nullify the advantage by zeroing out the probable momentum.

Focus point #2: When one concentrates too much on their strengths, the tendencies become obvious to the "strategic smart" opposition. It is important to change one's operational habits occasionally.

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So what if Manning joined Montana and Brett Favre as the only postseason passers with 5,000 yards? With only one Super Bowl ring, the Colts are getting pretty lousy mileage out of all those stats.

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Copyright 2010 SF Chronicle

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/02/08/SP051BU4L8.DTL

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The Art of Controlling One's Trade Secrets.

From an Amazon ad,

Developed by a former San Francisco 49er, this complete "training camp" playbook includes every feature of football's most successful offense ever! Over 400 pages of actual X & O diagrams, detail of techniques, terminology, and offensive philosophy. Assembled in a 3-ring binder for your convenience, this playbook is essentially the same as the ones used by NFL coaches for teams such as the San Francisco 49er's, Green Bay Packers, and Denver Broncos. Exactly like the real thing!

It does not matter if someone secured your playbook. Every technology and tactical manual has a cycle. Smart organizations always improve their technology and update their play books.

A good grand and operational strategist always thinks ahead in terms of the following: their strategic platform; their standard of performance and their contingencies.

He or she might explain to the outsiders their philosophy. Rarely do they ever reveal their operational and tactical management details. The outsiders seldom know the reasoning behind their actions.

Compass Rule: The man who knows why will always prevail over the men who knows how.

What is the Foundation of Your Strategic Process?

Every system has their origin. ... What is the foundation of your strategic process?

As Walsh did, Payton does
David White, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, February 3, 2010 (02-03) 04:00
PST MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. --

Saints coach Sean Payton never did work for Bill Walsh, but consider him an honorary member of the Walsh coaching tree. Payton ripped entire chapters out of Walsh's playoff book, starting with the old bellhop routine.

Payton and his Pro Bowlers welcomed the rest of the team to the Super Bowl this week dressed in authentic luggage-carrier garb, just as Walsh did with his 49ers before Super Bowl XVI. "I mean, we flat-out plagiarized it," Payton said Tuesday at Super Bowl XLIV Media Day at Sun Life Stadium. That's not all Payton has lifted from Walsh. West Coast offense plays, practice routines, schedule details. You name it, Payton is borrowing it without promising to put it back when he's done. "

A guy like Bill Walsh is someone who has his hands all over this league offensively, and practice-schedule-wise and installation-wise," Payton said. "He was very successful in the postseason. If we can take a simple play that we like that he had success with, then why wouldn't we apply (Walsh's methods) to another aspect of what we're doing?"

The Saints' playbook has dustings of Walsh's fingerprints all over it. For that, Payton can thank two former Raiders coaches: Jon Gruden and Bill Callahan (maybe their experience is why Payton turned down a chance to coach the Raiders in 2004).

They're the ones who brought Payton to Philadelphia as quarterbacks coach in 1997. They're the ones who introduced Payton to the Walsh Way, or at least their personalized brand of it. Payton hadn't coached in the NFL before. Gruden, who was the Eagles' offensive coordinator, enrolled him in both morning and nighttime sessions.

"When I got hired there, they were looking for me to really be a blank tape, for me to study and learn," Payton said. "I learned a lot in a short period of time working with Jon and that offense. It was a little bit like law school. They were a lot of late nights and a lot of early mornings. "You realize there's a lot of football that you don't know." That's OK. When in doubt, just steal a good idea from a genius.

E-mail David White at dwhite@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/03/SPUN1BRG3Q.DTL

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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The Foundation of Our Strategic Process

The foundation of our process is based on many school of ideas. Following is a abridgment delineation of our sources:

• Dr. Sawyer's translation of Seven Military Classics of Ancient China and many of his books;
• Ames translation of Sun zi and Sun Bin,
• Various translation of Dao De Jing
• Vic. Harris's translation of Musashi's Book of Five Rings;
• Bill Walsh's Niners Way and West Coast Offense system;
• The basics of Object-oriented architecture and programming;
• various software testing process;
• various project management process;
• game theory;
• Taiji theory;
• Wilhelm's interpretation of Yi-jing.
• Joe Crandall translation of Sun Lu Tang's Bagua Zhang;
• Quantum Physics;
• Various interpretation of the Bible; and
• many other strategic books.

What in in your compass?

The Dao of Preparation: Using the Checklist

One of our associates loaned us a copy of this Amazon.com's best seller.

The conundrum of planning is that it requires some forethought. The complication occurs when one has no foresight of opportunities or any experience in maximizing those circumstances. Sometimes the predictability of the settings and the experience of the operational strategist determine the quality of planning.

The Gist of a Checklist

A basic checklist has always enabled us to be prepared in a predictable setting. It also reduced the stress and allows for fewer surprises.

Our View

The book is slightly bloated and repetitive for the experienced strategic reader. However, we highly recommend this book for the strategy neophyte. It is a short readable and sensible book

More information on this book can be found at the author's web site.

Our View

While amateurs create lists, the professionals build scripts.

In our case, we built Tangible Visions, mind maps and scripts.

Our Tangible Vision process enables the implementers to understand their end in mind, by getting a strategic overview of the grand situation.

They would be able to focus on their objective while being mindfully aware of the Big Tangible Picture. The Big Tangible Picture allows them to recognize their opportunities and mitigate the risks. ...

With the Tangible Vision, your team will be able to focus toward completing the goal regardless of the strategic predictability of the grand situation.

Strategic Assessment #3: Sample Case Study

(In our future book) One of our case studies will be focused on the potential of the IPTV marketplace. Using our strategic assessment process, we will examine the marketing terrain from various viewpoints while filtering the contenders from the vast field of pretenders The analysis will be focused on predictability, leaders/followers and the decision of advance, wait or retreat.

More information on the iptv marketplace can be found at iptvdaily.com

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Yahoo: After years of struggling, IPTV is becoming a reality

By Tim Conneally| Published January 8, 2010, 5:03 PM

For five years, Yahoo has been eying the TV screen as a potential platform. Now, after securing partnerships with all of the top TV makers and IP-based content providers, Yahoo has made its Widget Developer Kit publicly available.

The app store gold rush can now be extended to the TV, and fully IP-based television doesn't look that far away.

Anyone can download Yahoo's Widget development kit and make tools for their connected TVs that fetch content from the Internet, and these devices can simply be made to enhance your own television experience, shared with friends, or marketed to the world at large through Yahoo's Widget Gallery.

With the Widget Gallery functionality built into 2010-model TVs from Samsung, LG, Vizio, and HiSense, users will find a whole library of Internet content already in front of them. With widgets from Netflix, Blockbuster, Showtime, Pandora, Amazon On Demand, Roxio CinemaNow, Vudu, CBS, CNBC, NBC.com, and Sky News, an appealing degree of customization will be right at the consumers' fingertips.

A TV fully stocked with Yahoo-powered widgets has so much on-demand content available, it's starting to rival anything the cable or satellite company could offer.

"Personally, I've been working in interactive television services for over twenty years now, and this is it, it's happening!" Yahoo Connected TV's senior director and chief architect Ronald Jacoby told Betanews this morning.

Thanks to the widespread familiarity of app stores, Yahoo finally stands before a public that understands the value of software customization on our most commonly used devices.

"CBS, NBC, and such are on the platform, they're not doing a lot of video today because they're still trying to figure out what all of this means in their head," Jacoby said. "But the video we're using is MPEG4, it's not like we're inventing something new in terms of video format that requires a new codec or anything like that. We're just using h.264 which is the direction all this streaming stuff is going."

It's still a few years away, but It looks the age of fully IP-based TV will be ushered in with the help of Widgets.

The Yahoo Connected TV Widget Developer kit is available now on connectedtv.yahoo.com.

|http://www.betanews.com/article/Yahoo-After-years-of-struggling-IPTV-is-becoming-a-reality/1262988198

The Dao of API: Connect the Dots (Pt. 3)

Whenever one is flooded with data, their analysis is usually paralysed. Where one is not getting enough proper data, their view has no relevant insight.