- The effort involved in creating a highly functional organization is daunting, so best approach if unable to allocate/dedicate resources is to pick off small pieces to address over time
- While culture is considered a P2 in management, from a leader’s perspective, it imbues all parts of the primary and secondary practices
- Some mistake the mythology of a company like Apple as a sign of greatness or a company that is built to last – the reality is that great companies don’t have a secret to their success – their success is from an obvious, almost intuitive approach that requires work that few are willing to undertake
- If you take a singular approach to excellence in your organization, success will become low-hanging fruit
- Lastly, modern companies must be reinvented to capture the culture of greatness and realize potential and new companies of the modern era must not let the arrogance of their era lead to poorly functional entities. Ways to take tangible steps towards this include:
- Set and then drive for big, hairy audacious goals – but keep your eyes on the intermediary steps ahead of you, don’t spend all your time focusing on the where you are going and forget how to get there
- Base your business on your core competencies and look to the future – the company that can see what the trend is ten years out will win, but the company that doesn’t even look is guaranteed to lose
- Inspire your people to perspire
- Encourage your people to be open and innovative
- Don’t let dollars get in the way of success
- Remove arbitrary rules that cause great talent to leave or from even being hired by the company
- Learn to love risk and experimentation
- Focus on themes and pods, not battalions as small equals flexible
- Reward appropriately
- Become a value innovator and identify radical ideas that make quantum leaps in the value you provide to customers
think before managing
industry trends, thought leadership, and a mix of stories to push growth
think before managing 