Facts tell but stories sell. Here’s an up to date story that’s of immediate relevance to your business. That’s right; I’m talking to you, the CEO decision-maker with ultimate authority and ultimate responsibility for the success and failure of the company.
The highly successful F-16 fighter jet was developed in secret; not just kept away from the outside world but from the “Stars & Bars” inside the Pentagon; the generals that could make or brake the project. Sounds crazy right? What was the conflict of interest you might ask? Well, the project-instigator was a phenomenal fighter pilot who was after an aircraft that would command air-superiority and the Pentagon staff wanted the latest and greatest; nothing but the best of the best. Their jet should be bigger because they believed that was better and their jets should fly higher, faster and farther distances for being a worthy successor to the current jets. This zeal for having these capabilities dominated rational thought about the function of fighter aircraft and thus what they should look like; form follows function.
If the wishes of the fighter pilot and the Pentagon Generals sound rather similar to you, then think again. The fighter pilot saw the aircraft as a Means to an End; air-superiority. The Pentagon Generals saw technology as their Means to an End; packing all the latest and greatest that US technology had to offer into a single aircraft. This is a perfect example of what Albert Einstein meant when he said: “Perfection of means and the confusion of Ends characterize our age”.
So, the question is “What makes a great aircraft?” Well, that depends on your definition of success or on the End you have in mind! Is it about the prestige that comes with deploying state-of-the-art technology for its own sake or serving the Tax-payers; defending them from all foreign and domestic threats? How much are we willing to spend? What gives us the biggest bang for our bucks? Shouldn’t there be an objective organizing principle?
Our fighter pilot, US Air force Col. John Boyd developed such an objective organizing principle in the form of a computer program that produced the design principles for the F-16. He knew that success was a trade-off between many factors. For example, every additional engine burns additional fuel that needs to be carried which increases weight and changes the aero-dynamics and requires the size of the aircraft to grow. Bigger radars have bigger radar domes that increase the diameter of the aircraft’s fuselage, which increases drag, reduces fuel efficiency and aircraft agility. Consequently, the question becomes “What are the bare-bone features necessary for being successful?
Go to slides 37 and 38 of a presentation about the F-22 and F-35 1) fighter aircraft that you can find here: http://www.cdi.org/pdfs/Stevenson%20F-22%20Brief.pdf
What makes more sense to you when stealth operation is a critical success factor; designing a small aircraft for specific tasks or making a one-size-fits-all aircraft for the Air force, Marines and Navy of all NATO-partners that is big and easily visible with the naked eye and thus requires radar, radios, etc. to make the aircraft less visible on radars but that increases shape and weight that needs to be compensated by other on-board technology, making bigger engines necessary that consume more fuel and thus put out more heat that can be spotted by infra-red detectors and on-and-on?
Do you see the analogy between the Pentagon-logic and that preached by military contractors and in your case service providers and professionals? They make tons of money off you. Military contractors help the Pentagon gold-plate fighter aircraft and as a result, jets have become ineffective and too expensive to buy and operate; they are compromises for all the specific tasks they were meant to perform.
Your decisions to buy-into the advise of many self-serving service providers and professionals gold-plates your organization too. Just like the Pentagon, you are committing predatory cultivation on your own organization with the best of intentions, no-doubt. However, your investments have sky-rocketed, products and services that were meant to differentiate yourself from competitors have been standardized and their value propositions have converged with those of competitors. As a result, you are burning more money than before for an organization that is less effective in satisfying client needs and if that’s not bad enough, you are forced to fight a war of attrition on price; your only differentiating quality.
Please, don’t blame your poor results on the economy? Business is not bad because of the economy but the economy is bad because of the way you do business! Keeping cost down is important but not without being relevant to buyers who are willing to pay the profit margin that you deserve.
Realize that the driving force behind any business is its people. People provide your strategic ability to serve clients, to make good on your brand-promise and instill trust and confidence for creating loyal customers. People do business with people; they make decisions, observe other people’s needs, create tools and provide customer service. Your buyers are willing to cut you some slack and help you be effective and relevant when you serve humanity and sustainability. Now is the time to re-direct our intentions away from Bigger, Higher, Faster, Farther and to pursue our purpose in life by defining success in terms of goals that enhance humanity and sustainability so that organizations can thrive on their own terms; Have fun!
1) The Pentagon insiders couldn’t wait for John Boyd to leave so they could throw out his organizing principle and go back to business-as-usual with the predictable results that are plaguing the development of the F-22 and F-35.