Aji A business philosophy invented by Toby Hecht that works in today’s Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR#4). Its purpose is to help businesspeople generate wealth in IR#4 to secure financial stability for their families. “Aji” was named after the term used in the 4,000-year-old game of strategy, “Go,” which means “having the potential to win.” It includes a 12-part fundamental strategy for earning a living or becoming rich, and the strategic knowledge to do so.
Accomplishments Highly valued outcomes businesspeople produce to make money and build their identities. (Part #8 of Aji)
Ambitions Commitments to produce practical situations in the future, especially financial ones that enable people to survive, adapt and live a good life. Ambitions drive planning and execution to earn enough money every day. (Part #1 of Aji)
Anticipations The resources and capabilities to think and act in advance of new competitive situations. Anticipation is an essential competitive advantage in IR#4. (Part #12 of Aji)
Autonomies Freedom or self-direction. The absence of unwanted limitations and constraints on people’s thoughts and actions. (Part #7 of Aji).
Business Narratives Compelling stories about life, finances and business that are strategies, or action plans, people invent to fulfill their ambitions. They are used to communicate and coordinate thought and action to produce highly valued outcomes.
Commitments Declarations or promises to cause, or produce, a specific outcome by a specified time. They are social actions that build trust, value, authority, and leadership. Fundamental commitments include promises, requests, assessments, assertions, and declarations. More complex commitments involve offers, strategies, complaints, and apologies.
Competitive Advantages Competitive situations that cannot be beaten. Competitive advantages are used to increase an individual’s productivity and value. They include being first to market, designing compelling offers, and producing increased performance with complexity.
Competitive Business Organizations Arrangements of people who learn, communicate, coordinate thought and action, and work together to make and keep highly valued commitments that enable them to fulfill their financial, career, and business intentions. (Part #11 of Aji)
Competitive Situations Competitive threats to avoid, obligations to fulfill, and opportunities to exploit that appear quickly and evolve every day. They are the result of numerous innovations from many sources. Competitive situations are marketplace forces that change what is and is not possible.
Computers Computer-driven tools that are multi-purpose and designed to be used strategically and competitively to facilitate learning, communication, coordination, and production. This term, as used on this website, encompasses all new technological devices, peripherals, applications, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI).
Dignity One of 13 fundamental human concerns; an assessment of a person’s integrity and value made by another that determines their character and trustworthiness. Dignity is essential to produce high incomes in IR#4. It is one of the most important social distinctions in families, networks, communities, or any culture. It’s a form of social glue to people who are serious about living a good life.
Discretionary income Income that is left after paying all essential bills for fundamental human needs, such as food, housing, transportation, health care… and taxes.
Distinctions Words people use to recognize or distinguish what is in their environment. They help people describe what they are experiencing, such as “red,” “expensive,” “valuable,” “competitive,” “comfortable,” or “risky.” Distinctions are essential to producing the meaning, relevance, value, and purposes needed to think and act strategically. Aji’s strategic knowledge is a set of distinctions that enable the production of high incomes in IR#4.
Ethics of Power Strategic and competitive business and social practices. Their purpose is to produce greater power to think and act competitively in the marketplace to create valued outcomes. In IR#4, ethics of power focus on increasing and maintaining businesspeople’s competitive capabilities, productivity, and value to make them superior to their competitors. (Part #4 of Aji)
Intentions Commitments we make to ourselves to produce outcomes.
IR#3 The Third Industrial Revolution. It was organized around the use of transistors (radio transmission devices) and is characterized by labor-based business knowledge and common sense. It ended around 1980 when the introduction of personal computers triggered competitive pressures that drove pensions that included lifetime healthcare out of the marketplace.
IR#4 The Fourth Industrial Revolution. It started in the ’80s with personal computers. It is the most rapidly changing, competitive, complex, and technologically advanced global marketplace in history. It is organized around the global use of computers and the internet, including new devices, peripherals, applications, robotics, AI, etc.
Language Words and stories people use to explain and constitute their reality. We use language to explain the meaning and nature of business, its importance to care for our family, and practical abstractions like value, trust, leadership, and money. Language enables businesspeople to speak and write distinctions, interpretations, intentions, and commitments needed to fulfill their goals or financial, career, and business intentions. Aji is a new language.
Marginal Utilities New capabilities at the “margin” of an offer that make it superior to competitors’ offers. Businesspeople produce minor, substantial, major, and radical marginal utilities that are fresh, new, highly valued, and scarce relative to demand.
Moods Ungrounded narratives about future possibilities to live a good life, accompanied by body sensations. “Good moods” include ambition, wonder, enthusiasm to take care of family, and passion for life. “Bad moods,” which were widely tolerated in IR#3, include cynicism, casualness, pride, denial, and arrogance.
Networks of Capabilities The group of colleagues, employers, employees, vendors, and customers who share an individual’s ambitions and intentions. (Part #6 of Aji) Networks of Capabilities work to fulfill these purposes:
Increase an individual’s competitive advantages
Earn a higher income
Produce steady streams of new offers, practices, narratives, and strategies
Networks of Convenience Includes business meetings, teams, and networking organizations that form because it is low cost and convenient, as the name implies. They were widely used in IR#3 to execute processes and procedures. They do not increase value, are uncompetitive, and people take what they can from them because they are cheap, obvious, easy, and require no obligation.
Non-discretionary income The necessary minimum income that is needed to afford one’s everyday needs for survival. This includes living expenses (food, housing, and clothing), debt, taxes, and healthcare.
Offers Announcements of a person’s intentions to fulfill a commitment to help. A “conditional promise” to exchange goods and/or services, or transact to make money.
Operational Coherence A practical requirement to having one’s life, finances, career, and business “work” as intended. It means, for example, that all of the parts of a businessperson’s finances work together as a unified whole to fulfill their intentions to survive, adapt and live a good life.
OPNS Offers, Practices, Narratives, and Strategies that are highly valued, scarce relative to demand, and important strategically and competitively. When OPNS are highly valued and scarce relative to demand, they result in “real money.” (Part #5 of Aji)
Philosophy The first discourse of humanity. Philosophy is a set of interpretations about the nature and operations of human beings. It enables people to know what is and is not real, think and act to live a good life, or succeed in fulfilling intentions.
Philosophy of Care The philosophy businesspeople use as their foundation to constitute a career or business and make money. They specify the fundamental human, financial, career, and business situations that need to be anticipated and cared for to succeed. (Part #2 of Aji)
Philosophy of Competition The philosophy businesspeople use to make sure their judges — customers, colleagues, employers, employees, and vendors — assess their OPNS as superior or more valuable than those produced by competitors. It specifies what is required, forbidden, and allowed to win transactions, revenues, profits, and high IR#4 incomes. (Also Part #2 of Aji)
Practices Named actions used to fulfill intentions and/or produce outcomes, such as selling, accounting, or designing.
Strategy Action plans or commitments to perform a sequence of tactics to produce a sequence of situations that will fulfill one’s objectives.
Strategic Knowledge A philosophical orientation or way of thinking, noticing, observing, assessing, and acting to make money. (Part #3 of Aji) Strategic knowledge can be used to execute, improve or invent new action plans or strategies. It is broken down into two distinct categories of knowledge:
The knowledge needed to design a strategy that works as intended
The knowledge and skills needed to execute a strategy to produce superior value
Strategic Pivot A set of 12 intentions businesspeople fulfill in sequence to produce strategic and competitive outcomes to make money all day, every day.
Tactic A practice used to execute a strategy or action plan. It advances action to execute, improve or make a new strategy possible. Businesspeople use tactics to change situations to avoid threats, fulfill obligations, and exploit opportunities.
Tactical Pivot A set of practices businesspeople use to design and execute a strategy. For example, driving one’s car to the grocery store. Getting to the grocery store is the strategy, and the actions involved to drive there (steering, braking, using their lights) are the tactics.
The Aji Source Fundamental Strategy A competitive, fundamental action plan with 12 strategic intentions that enable businesspeople to earn a living, or become rich, in IR#4. It was invented by Toby Hecht to exploit the new strategic and competitive possibilities created by computers and the internet. The 12 strategic intentions include constituting, learning, designing, and executing (1) ambitions, (2) philosophies of care and competition, (3) strategic knowledge, (4) ethics of power, (5) OPNS, (6) Networks of Capabilities, (7) autonomies, (8) accomplishments, (9) identities, (10) leadership roles, (11) business organizations, and (12) anticipations of future threats, obligations, and opportunities.
TVAL Trustworthiness, Value, Authority, and Leadership. TVAL are assessments of other businesspeople’s help, their virtues and vices, and their adult dignity, or their identities in the marketplace. (Part #9 of Aji) They determine one’s willingness to work with a person or not, or to accept their leadership. (Part #10 of Aji)
