Why Name My Company The Crispian Advantage?

by | Feb 18, 2021 | Alignment, Change Management, Focusing Change To Win, Leadership, Nick's Blog

Hi, Nick Anderson, founder of The Crispian Advantage, here.

Someone asked me the other day:
“Why do you call your company The Crispian Advantage?”
I explained it and  he said “People need to know that!” So, here goes…

It’s based on a painful personal experience and reveals some important lessons that I’ve learned in 30 years of coaching sales effectiveness and organizational change. Watch the video.

On the personal side…

I love Shakespeare especially Henry V’s speech before the battle of Agincourt. (October 25th, 1415 for those of you who like to know such things.) Underlying a rousing speech, his strategy was to galvanize his competitive advantage when facing a superior enemy.
Though English, Henry laid claim to lands in France and was there fighting to maintain them.  His troops were outnumbered 3:1, some say 5:1, by an army of French Knights with heavy armor.  Henry’s troops were largely English and Welsh Archers.

Their advantage lay in that all archers were required by law to practice every Sunday in their villages to the point  where they could fire 10 to 12 arrows a minute. What is even more remarkable/ is that each arrow took a draw weight of 160 pounds!

Using Competitive Advantage to Best Effect

 

Leading this beleaguered army Henry’s speech was about finding strength and believing in yourself.That message led me to recite the whole speech in my basement before giving the eulogy at my wife’s funeral. The strength it gave me on that day stuck.

On the business side…

Fast forward 10 years when I was establishing my own company and the speech came back to me. Here is an excerpt

Then he will strip his sleeve and show his scars
And say “These wounds I had on Crispian’s Day”
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot.
But he’ll remember, with advantages…
…We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

We few, we happy few

Faced with a dire situation, Henry used the rain-soaked, boggy ground he was given to move his archers to the narrowest point of the valley with dense forest on both sides. This negated the French plan to outflank his position. He then provoked the French Knights to charge over this boggy ground with their heavy horses and armor. The confines of the valley and time spent in the “killing ground” was the crux of his victory.

Over 30 years of consulting, I have seen how this translates to business success and failure. Many times, people use all their abilities to compete where their competition is strongest, rather than exploit their strengths where the competition is weakest.

 

 

The Crispian Advantage is about helping clients see the field clearly  both your competitors and yourself  then to galvanize your “troops” with a clear, compelling goal.

The Crispian Advantage is about helping clients see

  • We help people and organizations make strategic and transformational change to succeed in their chosen field starting with coaching leaders to dig deep within and inspire their teams.

To learn more about our Team of seasoned consultants and how we can help you develop and deploy successful change: