If you’re a Steelers fan (and who in this town isn’t), you know the orator of those words.

Bill Cowher (you remember....the guy BEFORE Mr. Tomlin) often talked, of course, about the fine line between losing and winning. Press him further and he will tell you that some seemingly inconsequential event - a missed block (physical detail), or a blown assignment (mental detail) will inevitably magnify into either a fatal or near-fatal mistake.

Business is no different than sports, or war for that matter. They are really all the same when it comes down to what I consider to be the two most important things that a business must consider:

1. Forecasting
2. Executing (or ‘Taking care of the details’)

Taking care of the details starts with making sure that everyone in the organization knows the mission of the company. If employees know that servicing the customer is most critical, their thought processes will always revolve around this overriding concern.

Over the years, I’ve often questioned as to whether or not this kind of ‘think like an owner’ mindset can be taught. Thirty plus years later, I’m still not sure. Mostly, however, I consider it to be a factory-installed mindset; either you do or you don’t care about others. Period. (Hey - if this wasn’t the case, then why would people blow their noses in crowded restaurants?)

Taking care of details is also about discipline. I KNOW that it’s a pain in the butt to stay late and write personal, hand-written notes to customers. But while the other guy is sitting in a bar, tipping his glass, the detail-oriented person is expressing genuine gratitude for his customer’s patronage.

Anyone can do his or her ‘core’ work in an eight-hour day.  But it takes discipline, patience, and a caring attitude to take care of the small stuff. Check out winning organizations. They are full of people willing and wanting to do the small stuff.

Forecasting? Since I am supposed to be writing about the big picture, let me eschew such prosaic reporting as sales and production forecasts. Instead, let’s focus on that ONE forecast that really matters in both a start-up and an established company whose product line is getting old and stale.

I’m talking about niche forecasting. Remember that one word that I would have tattooed onto my forehead? NICHE. Well, unless you are one of the ten largest companies in the world, you should never stop thinking niche. (And even then …)

Astute and long-time readers will recall my advice to everyone in business to find the “biggest, smallest niche” they can. (Take some time, it eventually makes sense.) But how is this done?

Well, you can either fly regularly to the west coast and steal like hell. Or, you can do what my old Siberian husky did - wait by the table and eventually trends will reveal themselves (and food will fall your way.)

Which translates to, “look for some paradigm-changing technology, and then be creative enough to find support products and services that fill in the holes created by that techno-road grader!”

Cell phones hot? Solve the roaming problem by creating a 3rd-party billing services company. (And then sell it just when you think you should NOT!) Or start selling Voice Over IP ---- but just until you make a couple million. Then, double that by selling it to some dumb, fat phone company.

These tiny, niche-oriented examples are ‘niche by first-mover’ only and have no other protections. But throw in some proprietary high tech and you really leverage your exit price tag!

But be cautious. More times than not, I have been too early in stepping in to a newly plowed field. One example I can give is retail sales over the Internet. 1999 was going to be THE YEAR for sellers employing this medium.  But it took four years for the hype to become reality, and even then only with a combination of bricks and mortar stores PLUS Internet sales.

The opposite is true as well. Oftentimes, people wait too long, and their shining niche becomes overrun by dozens of well-heeled competitors. Remember, each and every tidbit of information gathered by you is also gathered by THEM. At some point, you have to leverage profits against risk-taking.

But then again, isn’t that what it’s all about?

So maybe the real idea here is to go back and dust off all of those marvelous Internet-based business plans from 1998-99?

But like I said at the beginning --- it’s a VERY fine line.