Hey, happy Monday,
Today it has been 2 months and 2 days since our life changed. How are you?
Personally, I can summarize the situation like this: a big call that has not yet ended…
Too much has been said about what has happened in our homes.
From making bread and pizzas to rearranging rooms to create a space we could call an office. From increasing per capita consumption of wine purchased online to yoga classes going (coincidentally) hand in hand…
What has not been talked about enough instead is how our businesses and those of our clients and partners have changed beyond simply working from home.
How many have used these 60 days to create a new competitive advantage?
How many have rebuilt the only business model that supported them?
Under the shell
Let me tell you a true story that I read in this book called The Soul of New Machine written by Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy Kiddler in 2011 but always good for nerds like us, I recommend it.
Examines the impact of the revolution that building computers has brought on the way business is done. An industry that has changed, and continues to change at such a rapid rate that it has allowed some companies to become giants and others to fail rapidly in pursuit of unbridled technological innovation.
The story is that of the Data General, a Massachusetts company that wanted to create a revolutionary new mini computer (although in the 1970s mini computers were not mini at all) and win the market.
It is nighttime and the chief of engineers returns to the company to open the lid of the company’s flagship direct competitor model that they had somehow managed to obtain. He wanted to get a good understanding. He wanted to do reverse-engineering. But his words were not exactly what I expected, rather Tom West, that was his name, exclaimed:
“I can see the entire corporate organizational chart in the design of this product.”
– Tom Wes, Data General’s Project Leader
It made me think a lot.
Think about it: if you take one of your own products, or any that you use, or you can consider even a service; if you look at it under the shell, if you map out its anatomy of experience, you can understand, or at least intuit, how the company itself is organized, how the people are organized, what their ability to evolve in the future may be.
For example, by simply considering the speed and quality of the responses you get from customers and partners you might be able to get a sense of how large the teams are, the level of organization and bureaucratization, the type of corporate culture… What’s under the shell…
This aspect is particularly important because organizational impediments are the first brake on innovation and evolution of the organization itself.
When it is possible to precisely map the hierarchy of each team with its respective position in a product architecture, it means that there is an organizational structure capable of working well only in a stable context.
But when conditions change, these organizations so structured as to imprint their own form on products and services are structurally challenged to evolve the rules by which people will have opportunities to innovate, communicate and work together in new ways.
Corporate culture and the quality of collaboration and learning processes directly influence how organizations can intercept the future and bring new products to market.
Emerging Patterns
From my pulse on the market, from comparisons with colleagues, customers and partners, I have identified 2, and they both depend on the ability to structure costs and adapt to new technologies.
Those who support their own growth as they did before.
These are the companies with bureaucratized teams and processes that are paralyzed in this period and have decided to continue investing to meet only the needs of their top clients.
Those who redefine their growth by innovating.
Those who have identified new opportunities for growth by devoting even a portion of the organization in developing processes and products compatible with the new world.
The former favor risk reduction and efficiency, the latter invest in design, R&D and technology to anticipate demand by favoring speed of execution, problem solving and growth at the expense of efficiency.
What pattern do you recognize yourself in?
I honestly think the latter have a better chance, because if there is one thing this pandemic has taught, it is that speed of decision is everything. And now that all businesses are reconfiguring themselves to be reachable online, the competition will only rise rapidly.
How can you go in this direction quickly?
You have low-cost, high-impact tools at your disposal that you could adopt, as early as today.
- Strategy Workshop and redefine the next round of OKRs to find focus, align teams, and make them autonomous and cohesive even in this period.
- Design Sprint, even remotely, to quickly identify a new direction and validate it in less than a week.
- Establish your first Growth Team, to quickly launch new growth experiments and unlock new opportunities with method and data.
Which tool is important for you to explore in depth in the next newsletter?
Let me know by replying to this email and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
I am here to help.
Good work!
Make yourself heard.
