Recently I was asked to give a talk on something like, “2020: A Report from the Future”. While preparing I was reminded of the words of Alan Kay, the celebrated computer scientist. 35 years ago, he said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it”. Not exactly the way some businesses approach strategic planning is it?

However, inventing the future certainly is the thing organisational leaders have to do when tackling the perennial challenges which (according to Taylor and LaBarre in their wonderful 2007 book Mavericks at Work) every sector has to face:

(i) setting strategy

(ii) unleashing new ideas

(iii) connecting with customers

(iv) helping your best people achieve great results.

Perhaps it was in the spirit of inventing the future that the young founders of Google wrote, “Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one”.

Talyor and LaBarre’s basic argument is that, when it comes to thriving in a hypercompetitive marketplace, “playing it safe” is no longer playing it smart. In other words, ‘the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for a truly distinctive set of ideas about where your industry should be going’. Refreshing if challenging words one might say.

Business strategies and market positioning do change – some times without warning and many times disruptively. One senior manager said to me she was worried that the Directors in her business were surprised by too many things. One of the important constants is that of purpose and core ideas. Consider Southwest Airline which reimagined what it means to be an airline. Having concluded they were not in the airline business they decided they were in the freedom business: giving people the freedom to fly – democratize the skies!  Southwest continues to successfuly meet the four challenges outlined above.

Let me close with some words from Taylor and LaBarre: ‘In the workplace, employees took up a battle cry designed to connect the company’s disruptive business strategy to daily life inside the organisation: “At Southwest, Freedom Begins with Me.” Libby Sartain (13 years in the People Department at Southwest and previously HR Chief at Yahoo) and her team went so far as to identify the “Eight Freedoms” that defined the working experience at the airline – from “the freedom to learn and grow” to the freedom create financial freedom”.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 26th, 2007 at 3:50 pm and is filed under Book reviews, Purpose and Vision. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.