Competitive Success by Arjan Singh

Author:Arjan Singh [Singh, Arjan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Forbes Books

CHALLENGE THE ASSUMPTIONS

When you look at past battles, analyzing and reflecting, avoid making snap decisions about what went wrong or right. If, for example, something didn’t work and everyone assumes it’s because of x, when really it was x, y, and z, then you’re not all seeing the whole picture. You don’t want to say, “We’re not going to do that again; it didn’t work” without picking apart the why. You failed because you didn’t have the resources, the team wasn’t in alignment, you were too late to the market, you used the wrong platform to disseminate this message, your message didn’t resonate with the customer, or a combination of all or none of these things.

Timing is also crucial. You might have tried something six years ago and it didn’t work out, but that doesn’t mean that the same would necessarily hold true today. The competitive environment and ecosystem are always changing and could look very different years later. There’s a time and place for innovation, and making sure those different components are in place. Companies struggle with being way ahead of their time, and then they don’t go back and try it again because of the risk. You overcome this by laying out the assumptions and asking: What really happened? Why did it happen? What were the conditions that enabled that situation and are things different right now?

REFLECTING BUILDS ORGANIZATIONAL MEMORY

Sometimes companies just don’t learn. They’ll do a war game and never change and soon forget about everything. Five years later, they’re asking the same questions again. They’re surprised when they hear that the issue had been addressed. I call this organizational amnesia, when you find your company asking the same questions over and over again.

Organizational memory is crucial in combating organizational amnesia, and why the exercise in this chapter is fundamental to your business. If we don’t remember past battles, then we all know that history repeats itself.

Look at the news cycle in this country. People go through all kinds of emotions when they hear some news, but a week later, they’ve forgotten and moved on to the next thing. We repeat our mistakes. The same thing happens with businesses. When you analyze past battles, you activate your organizational memory. When you dig deep and dive back into the history of what’s happened in past battles, you build know-how and value.

One of the core advantages of organizational history that established companies enjoy, beyond just the ability to make a product, is their experience and relationships, which take multiple years to build. By reflecting, you’re cementing the value of what you experienced.

If you’ve made products that are successful in the marketplace, you’ve presumably established suppliers, designers, and other components to help you bring your product to market. As you start running the business, the business to you becomes obvious. But someone new coming in won’t have any of that knowledge. It’s challenging for them, because they must build that knowledge from scratch. For companies, things that are obvious to them are not obvious to new employees.

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