by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc.®

“The history of business is thick with examples of companies falling on the altar of gradualism. Kodak, for instance, refused to abandon its film business while only halfheartedly adopting digital cameras. AOL never fully embraced broadband, even when the dial-up iceberg started melting.” Sam Walker, Wall Street Journal article, June 2019, ‘The Dangers of Half-Measures.’

What would it be like to participate in an enterprise that took an opportunity-holistic point of view? It would likely be 180 degrees counter to working within an organization that brings a problem-parochial point of view.  How many of you as readers are working within the latter environment? If we are to believe the many stories of company or organization failures out there – see the opening quote – it would tend to suggest that many of you are. You’re stuck in an entity that views issues in a small-minded, only-in-my-backyard way.

 Take Kodak for example, which this writer visited more than once during the 1980s. It was a highly self-absorbed company. There was no doubt that it had hundreds of highly intelligent professionals at its home-office and research center in Rochester, New York. However, if you attempted to introduce its executives to fresh people-engagement or leadership development ideas, it would close ranks and shut you out very quickly. It had all the answers for every situation. Note how the digital camera marketplace has passed it by and the company is now virtually non-existent.

Consider AOL, mentioned in the above quote, too. This writer also visited with its CEO and owner in Virginia back in the early 90s, before it was sold to the Warner Communications organization. He had many operational issues and was not especially open to ideas that would strengthen his company’s growth, which included strengthening his leadership team. His company’s failure to adapt to fast changing times – including the broadband marketplace – gave him no other option other than to sell out, while he still had a valuable user base.

We can also think of other major business houses where their markets just passed them by: like Pan Am Airlines, TWA Airlines, Lehman Bros., CIT Group, Texaco, etc., that have disappeared because they ran out of opportunities. They didn’t look at their markets holistically enough to see the new possibilities coming their way. In more recent times, we have learned about the market struggles of Xerox Corporation, IBM, or General Electric as they try to remain relevant.

On the other side of the coin, we have observed companies like Amazon, Apple, Costco, FedEx, Google, Whole Foods, Zappo Shoes and others thrive as they pursue their current market opportunities; although above-all they have aimed to take a holistic view of their marketplaces. Amazon in particular has grown dramatically over the past 10-15 years, especially as it took a holistic view of its marketplace: that is, not just marketing a whole range of products but also on how to deliver those products right to your doorstep.

Microsoft also took an opportunity-holistic point of view when it set out to have a computer on everyone’s desk in the world. Google also wanted to make vital information available to everyone across the globe. Facebook has sought to connect as many people as is possible on our planet. Such aspirations along with the right concept really do work.

Right now, as this article is being written, the Federal government is in a near-term bind as it attempts to respond to the Coronavirus-19 outbreak. It’s to be hoped that the President and his key team will appropriately assess their opportunities and take a holistic view. With an experienced entrepreneurial businessman at the helm, hopefully the Administration will find a creative breakthrough; despite the traditional and problem-parochial thinkers. If we’re not careful, the latter grouping will lead us into a cul-de-sac. If an opportunity-holistic team comes through, we will all come out smiling before too long. It’s just a matter of when.

So, the challenge for you and your key team is to open your minds to all the opportunities available for your product or service. Think in the broadest-holistic way about its overall possibilities – all the way from its inception, creation and delivery to its end-users. It should include looking at distribution channels and associated messaging. Also, you should be seeking potential bottlenecks and how to make breakthroughs. Jeff Bezos did that at Amazon with its distribution channels, which is why it will be hiring another 100,000 people during the Coronavirus outbreak!

Ultimately, a growth organization is only as good as its ability to make breakthroughs with associated teams. When it can do that, the sky can be the limit. Putting together such teams is your key challenge, with their Pathfinder, Optimizer, Innovator, Provider, Operator, Promoter and Human-factor roles. We’ll come back to these again in future articles.

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