Finding the Golden Path

This post is an extract of my forthcoming book on business model innovation. The innovation book looks at why business model innovation is needed and how it works. You can read more about it here. These posts are early drafts of planned content and I’m putting them out to get feedback. Please do comment below, or subscribe to these pages to get each new section as it is published. In today’s post, we will be looking at the golden path that can lead us out of a world of competition

Finding The Golden Path

I was talking with my friend Johan today. He’s from Malaysia and grew up with the Asian kia su educational tradition. Work harder than every body else so that you don’t fall behind. And work he did.

At 16 he’d done amazingly well and he had straight A’s in all his subjects. You would have thought that would have given him choices. It didn’t. In Malaysian schools at the time, there were three streams. Science, Economics, Arts. The top students went to science. The next went into economics. The ‘failures’ went into the arts.

Johann didn’t like science. He didn’t want to do it. He had the grades. He wanted to learn about history and literature. It didn’t happen until 15 years later as he broke out of the demand of parental and cultural conformity.

The Oakley’s had a similar tradition. For generations one or more of the family had gone into the business and run it. Sometimes it was father and son. Sometimes it was cousins. Sometimes Fathers and son-in-laws. It seemed anyone could go to the ‘works’ but within bounds it was meritocratic. Those who couldn’t deliver were booted out – even if this caused familial unhappiness that lasted down generations (we got a wedding gift as a peace offering from an Uncle who had last spoken to my Grandfather 40 years before!)

In my generation, there was my cousin and me. I remember conversations with my dad as a young boy 10-13 about going into the Works. Even then I wasn’t enthused. I suspect that my Dad and Grandfather were having conversations about my cousin and me. Our fitness. Our aptitude. Our interest. My cousin wasn’t interested either. By the time I was 15 it was clear that the ‘Works’ would be a family business no more.

Why was I so uninterested?

My dad went to work at 8 and was back by 5. He was able to drive home and half lunch with us each day. He had time for the garden (his joy) and golf. He brought home a good salary. Why wouldn’t I want to go for this? It sounds idyllic compared to many commutes today.

Falling to the Dark Side

Even at an early age I recognised that going into manufacturing was boring. It had no va-va-voom. Manufacturing was a dying industry. Finance and Banking after Thatcher’s deregulation of The City was the place to be. I could run the business. That I had no doubt, but I wanted to take it somewhere – but where?

Manufacturing was moving to China with machines made in Japan and Germany. Could I see a true heroes journey in a small metal bashing company? I could not. So my Dad soldiered on for another 25 years making small changes, becoming ever more competitive, ever more efficient in an ever-tougher market.

What could he have done differently? Thinking back to snatches of conversation over the last 40 years I can see now that he was diligent, smart and attuned to what was happening. He was early to ISO9001 seeing the advantages of quality. He implemented Just in Time at customer premises, easing cash flow and making it more stable (when they had orders) at the cost of higher inventories. He bought companies to open up new markets and gain access to valuable customers.

All that kept him in the game. A game that every year became harder and harder to play.

Could he have done anything different?

In all possibility no. The market forces arrayed against him were to large. His competitors had similar amounts of capital, competence and experience. His moves were quickly matched by them as he matched theirs.

So like them his business was doomed. Dad was one of the lucky ones. He was able to sell the business and reap the rewards of 150 years of hard work by generations of Oakley’s. Many others were not so fortunate, lucky or competent.

This story, which played out from 1970 to 2010 is no different to the stories that are being played out today in dozens of industries for millions of companies.

However hard you try, the forces arrayed against you are too big, and so you are going to fail.

It doesn’t matter what size of company you are, how competent your management is, the grind of competition means that you cannot escape.

———————

The Story of Hope and the Golden Path

I’ve only told one side of the story of course.

There is another side, which talks about innovation, of hope, of energy, of growth beyond your wildest dreams.

For most of us that story is one that makes stars of preppy college kids, of nerds working in garages, of genius Indian mathematicians. It’s not a story that has a place for most of us. Most of us aren’t geniuses, We don’t have any special talents far beyond those of our colleagues and competitors. We turn up and we do our best. Compared to the Bezos, the Zuckerburgs, the Mas it’s not good enough.

We need something that takes us from the very practical, very shitty sticky spot that we are in now. The company that we have laboured for years to nurture and keep alive. We need something that gives a golden path that we can follow so that we can leave the grey cities of our path behind, and drive up in to the glorious green uplands oof our future.

This book is about helping you find that golden path, a way forward, that you can find and follow.

I make no claims that it will be easy, comfortable or safe. Is it more than a straw for a drowning man? I believe so and the evidence seems to bear me out. Will following the instructions that I lay out guarantee success? No.

What I can say is that if you take the steps along the path that I offer you will find that the journey you take will be incredibly rewarding. Instead of fighting a long losing battle against despair, you will be travelling with hope and joy as companions.

In part 1 we will delve deep into the secret lives of companies and start to understand why they are doomed to die, how death happens and why magical potions to extend life rarely work.

In Part 2 we let go of our worries about the future and look for ways to make our competitors disappear, almost as easily as a sham magician clicks his fingers and they vanish in a puff of smoke.

Finally in Part 3 – we start bringing what we have learnt together and establishing the steps that you need to take to save your business and getting onto a steep upwards trajectory.

NOTE for Entrepreneurs

Though this book is written for owners of existing businesses as they struggle to cope with the change and massive disruption that is facing the world today, it also lays out a path and a map for you to attack those same industries.

If You Want to Read More

I keep everything structured on my niftily titled business model innovation book page. Head there to browse, binge, read straight through or cherry pick. Please do take a moment to comment below or upvote comments that you agree with

As I write each new section you can have them sent to your email. The plan is to write something 2 – 3 times a week. It is easy to unsubscribe, but I hope you won’t as the goal is to delight and entertain as well as educate and train you through this business model innovation journey.