The Big Issue with narrow focus
By Steve Hopkins | July 20, 2008
I’ve started reading the Peter Senge’s classic tome, The 5th Discipline this week. It’s a book which I have had for about a year, and has been consistently circling my sphere of influence for a while now. The book talks about how we can solve many of the issues we face in business (and thus, by extension, the world) by taking a whole-of-system approach to problem solving. I’m about a quarter of the way through, and loving it so far. But, the book has also come about as I made an observation this week whilst working in the city. As many of you would know, Melbourne is a town that fully supports the concept that is “The Big Issue,” the magazine which is sold by those that are homeless to help them support themselves. The magazine is fantastic, and a great initiative that is now a national initiative. But, it appears it may now be reaching the limits of its own success.
A friend of mine, Nat, was recently in Vanuatu as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development working to help a non-profit organisation develop good business practices to further help lead their clients towards a better living. One of Nat’s pearls from her time in country was how things that we’re successful because they were different and innovative at a point in time, actually became so popular that their returns diminished quickly for the rest of the community, simply because the whole community was doing it. In Nat’s experience, it was goats.
Goats provide enormous relief and opportunity to small communities in developing countries. They provide milk and all of its by-products, as well as other goats and meat when the goat ‘comes of age.’ Unfortunately, as more and more people witness the success had by those people that had goats, more and more people would find a way to secure their own. The result? A community full of goats and an excess of supply of all its products. Because we find it difficult to think beyond our own situations, these examples tend to replicate in society.
To me, I wonder how sustainable this is for those people selling the magazine. Increasingly, these heroic people have become marginalised by their own relief and are now spending more and more time on the street to sell less and less magazines per person. I ask, have we suffered the same results as those in Vanuatu? Do we have too many goats and not enough of a market? In a more systemic view of the situation, what else could our society’s marginalised people be doing? Will they be able to come to a new conclusion themselves, or will they simply continue to sell less and less magazines until they find it completely unsustainable? What are your thoughts? And how could we find a more systemic solution that solved one of society’s greatest problems?
Topics: thinking, malfunctions of the human way, Books | 2 Comments »
Your skill set and the Ballet Imperial
By Steve Hopkins | July 10, 2008
I recently was lucky enough to head along to the Australian Ballet Companies latest season, Ballet Imperial, at the State Theatre. The night was fantastic - I am growing an appreciation for some of the finer arts going about, especially from a performers point of view. The ballerinas performing for us that night we the crème-de-le-crème. To be selected to dance for the ABC takes years and years of practice, and even then they only take about 2 from 500 amazingly talented young dancers a year. These guys are best-in-planet.
But what got me thinking during the performance more was not the feats of those people on stage, but the very things they were performing. Ballet Imperial is a work by Russian George Balanchine. It is seen as a classic (I believe, I’m still new at this) and typifies the Russian style of dancing, which is very technical and ‘correct.’ Anyways, the show put on by the ABC was actually a collection of similarity Russian works put together on a bare stage, without costumes. Essentially, it was a best-of album of all the Balanchine style had to offer. Act 1 from this ballet, Act 3 from this one etc etc. The show had a clear focus to show off the best parts of each work, and in doing so, exhibit the dancers as they were - without the distraction of props, costumes and ‘extras’ on stage.
My thinking turned to the whole Brand Me/Professional Service Firm model that I’ve been talking about for a while now. The company packages up a list of its ‘best ofs’ and sells tickets for $100+ a pop and fills the State Theatre for 2 weeks. What can you package up and sell for that relative kind of price? What is in your repertoire, that you are doing right not, which can provide a clear value proposition to someone else?
This is a bit of a riff on Tom Peters thinking in his book, Re-Imagine. If you were fired tomorrow, what would you do once had packed your belongings into a cardboard box? What are you doing, now, that is seriously best-in-planet and how can you sell out the State Theatre for $100+ a pop to demonstrate your wares? What are the ‘wow projects’ that are in your repertoire that can be pieced together to form a seriously cool offering to either a cool niche of people or a broad based market? How do you choose this repertoire?
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Blue Oceans for dummies
By Steve Hopkins | July 7, 2008
One of the most popular tools in my armament for innovation is the under-utilised Blue Ocean Strategy concept. Because the concept is also a book, most of the stuff you find on the internet only pushes more people to buy a copy rather than how to actually use the ideas encapsulated therein. So, because I reckon it’s one of the best tools there is, I’m gonna explain here how to actually use it in a very practical sense.First - you’ll need to look at this graph, taken from blog.delaranja.com. It highlights the Blue Ocean Strategy canvas of the Wii, PS3 and XBox.
This is the most useful tool from the BOS hymn-book. Use it in the following ways.
1) Map out the key factors of the industry you are trying to play in. You can do this via a number of methods, but PEST analysis is probably one of the best ways. Ask yourself, what are the table stakes in this industry? What are the norms for the industry as it currently stands? It always works best if you can ask an old hand in the industry to gain these.
2) Once you have figured out the key factors of the industry, place them on the ‘x axis’ of your blank strategy canvas.
3) Now, place the key competitors on your strategy canvas. If a competitor has a lot of one particular factor, place them quite high on the canvas (and visa-versa.) In the example above, both the PS3 and the XBox had high amounts of Storage, without having as much storage as a normal PC. Thus, the points have been placed mid-’y-axis.’
4) Once you have mapped your main competitors on the canvas, you can see where the current competition is playing, and which parts of your business you can change to create a really unique value proposition.
In this case, Nintendo went through and created a game con-sol which was 1) lower in cost than the super expensive PS3/XBox 2) had more, simple, games that enabled the whole family to play and 3) have a simple interface which led to simple, unique game-play. You’ll notice that Nintendos Wii has blown PS3 and XBox out of the market.Why? And why haven’t the aforementioned game con-sols been able to take back their market share? Simple - because the Wii sold to people who never would have purchased a PS3/XBox anyways. They created a new market - a Blue Ocean - by simply refusing to play the game of intense, highly complex game play. And that, ultimately, is the strength of the BOS tool.
Why play in a red ocean, full of competition, price wars and continuous improvement when you can create a new, completely profitable blue ocean?You can use the Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas to achieve these same results. It’s a key tool, and helps immensely to play the game of intrapreneurship. Good luck! Flick me and email for a Word Template if you like.
Topics: Funky Business, Creativity, Innovation | 2 Comments »
Genetically Modified Thinking
By Steve Hopkins | June 25, 2008
I came accross an article recently which helped to catalyse some thinking for me around the concept of Biomimcry, but also lateral vs verticle thinking. Those of you that know me will also know that I have a penchant for Lateral Thinking (De Bono Stylin’) and that I can’t stand seeing organisations/people/companies divert and focus their thinking Vertically when they are simply not ready for it. Bad ideas, bad logic and wasted resources occur when people choose not to invest a simple hour or two in some good, lateral thinking.
Anyways, in the article, it spoke of the current growth of the worlds largest (don’t quote me on that) Genetically Modified Organism (and crops) company, Monsanto’s. It discussed how the company had gone from a stock price of $US8 in 2002, to the current price of $US104.84 in December this year. Thats a 1000x return on your money. It has a PE ratio of 58.6, about two points higher than google, the naughties market darling.
The interesting thing about the company, is that it sells GMO crops (mainly commodity crops such as corn, soya beans, cotton and canola) that don’t end up on your table directly because of the large (predominatly bad) PR against GM crops. Instead, they sell commodity crops which are further down the value chain, and so don’t directly end up on the kitchen table for dinner.
What’s interesting about all this, is that GMO crops are simply the next verticle step in a long history of verticle thinking which has taken place in the farming and food procution industry. What started as a simply way for one person to reduce the amount of time they spent hunting for food, has now turned into a highly complex, intensly logistical, process that feeds the population of whole countries. And yet, our farming techniques have been delivering diminishing returns for some time now, as soil quality and reliance on chemical growth addititives kill off any ‘natural’ growth which may occur. Essentially, we are now pumping 4000 Kilojules of petro-chemical energy into our crops to produce only 1000 Kilojules worth of food energy (Biomimicry, Benyus) to the permanent detriment of the soil.
So my question is….at what stage do we stop and smell the crop paddocks? To become a more sustainable economy we must find a way to reduce our dependance on fossil fuel. With our current line of thinking in the agriculture industry, our verticle thinking, we seem only determined to continuously improve our chemical mix to kill the new strand of ’super-bug.’ I say, lets have some lateral thinking about what a new crop production method might look like…
Topics: thinking, biomimicry, malfunctions of the human way | 2 Comments »
Guus Hiddink, total football and innovative teams
By Steve Hopkins | June 24, 2008
Well, Guss Hiddink has done it again. Can you believe it? This man (read, marvel) has yet again taken an underdog team, hopelessly under-achieving on the world stage, turned it around through a solid foundation of expectations and playing methods and then successfully cajoled them into high-performance mode to be 2 wins away from lifting the Euro08 Cup. The man is amazing, and anyone who remembers of the Socceroo’s 2006 World Cup campaign, as well as the success of the South Koreans in 2002 will know just how incredible this mans achievements are. But what makes him such a good coach?
Surely, it can’t be his tactics. There are many great coaches about, all have their own bag of tricks but sooner or later those tricks get found out. Guus has been leading underdogs towards immense success for the best part of 15-20 years now…all in highly varied cultures (Netherlands, South Korea, Australia, now Russia). The answer, as I believe it, is a methodology of coaching known simply as ‘Total Football.’
Total Football was created by the Dutch, who used the system to devastating effect in European club and international matches through-out the 1970’s and 80’s, teams in which Guus was involved. Essentially, Total Football is a way of playing that allows for each player on the pitch to cover for another player where-ever he moves. Essentially, all the players in the squad ensure the tactical roles on the pitch are always filled. The success of the system depends greatly on the technical attributes of each player on the team, and especially on their fitness. Each player on the team must be able to fill each tactical role that may be called for in a game.
’Simple football is the most beautiful. But playing simple football is the hardest thing.”
- Johan Cruyff
I think there is a lot to learn from this particular area of the sporting world, especially where innovation comes into play. Recently, I have been in many a conversation about the validity of starting or running innovation unit’s in larger companies. There are many issues that ALWAYS seem to come up when innovation units are discussed, many of which are things like ‘Resource Allocation’ and ‘Implementation.’ To me, there is never a shortage of ideas around any company (and especially not around World Vision). But, there is always a shortage of ‘resource’ to make things happen and essentially lead the implementation of an Innovation Units best ideas. Props here to Deloitte’s Innovation , championed by Peter Williams. They’re amazing at this - best in Australia I’ve heard/seen/read of.
This is where the Guss Hiddink/Dutch philosophy of ‘Total Football’ meets the business paradigm of Innovation. To me, just as in a game of football, there will be times when a super-talented, super-freaky employee will need to launch into a new venture or project to achieve outcomes beneficial to the entire team (opps, organisation/company). There will also be times when those players will need to be covered whilst they progress up the field to score. And, at different times, these employees will need to swap roles, to bring to bear the best talent available for any particular project at any particular time.
And so come the innovation units. These units, which seem to be popping up everywhere, should contain the Guus Hiddinks of the world. The people who can train in people the techniques, abilities and ‘fitness’ to be able to take advantage of any given opportunity when it arises. You don’t see a football player take a back step when a gap opens up in an opponents defence because it’s not his place to run into it, do you? So why do we continue to believe that business is best done by people in extremely specific, role centred jobs? This just makes them harder to release forward when the time calls for it. To me, the ability to create a flexible, proactive team that can support and change quickly to match any given opportunity but still defend their own goals is one that is extremely powerful and successful.
My prediction - Gus Hiddink moves into Corporate Coaching at $$$$ an hour to teach corps Total Business. Will you be fit enough?
Topics: Leadership, Talent, Innovation | 1 Comment »
Do you know how to play the game?
By Steve Hopkins | June 20, 2008
I’ve been ruminating about this post for quite a while and it is being finally ‘penned’ because of the quote I ran into yesterday.
“You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” - Wayne Gretzky
I couldn’t help but think about the world of entrepreneurship and innovation, where often a shot not taken is an opportunity missed. Unfortunately, in life (and by extension, in business), when to take the shot is not always apparent. Gretzky relied on a gut feel and hours and hours of practice to know, instinctively, when was the right time to take his shot. I ask, are you practicing and ready to step up and take your turn to shoot? Will you know when this time is?
One of the more successful musicians of the last few years has been Justin Timberlake. Now, I love JT - he can wear a man-vest like no-other-man-can but that is not the reason for his success. To me, his success is attributable to his ability to practice his game rigorously and then take his shot when it was time. Not only this, but take his game to another level through amazing collaborations. In an MTV interview I saw recently with JT and Timbaland, there was one other quote which really stood out to me.
“You see this…this, is money” - Timbaland, MTV Interview.
These guys are an amazing example of a collabroative approach. But, also, they know their game so well that it’s merely a matter of doing ‘their thing’ to create amazing results (ahem - ‘money’). Have a read of this Rolling Stone article for more on how the two came together to create songs for the Futuresex/Lovesounds album. It’s not easy, but Gretzky never said shooting was either. For them, their partnership and the way they go about taking their shot again and again produces immense success. For me, I’m learning how to play the game of innovation and entrepreneurship. I don’t know my game perfectly yet, but I’m working everyday on getting better. And I’m practicing by taking as many shots as I can.
Topics: Career Progression, Talent, Brand Me, Innovation | 2 Comments »
Jenga block financials
By Steve Hopkins | June 16, 2008
I’ll happily throw my hand up and admit that my financial modeling is not what it aught to be. But I have been learning quite recently from a guy at work who used to be in the Venture Capital industry about just what makes a great, initial, financial model. Yes, I hear you say, World Vision has a Venture Capitalist on it’s books?! We’re innovating, baby! (Well, we’re on the way. We’re not there yet - more in future posts).
Anyways, David describes the ability to create a good financial model is not how well you structure your excel spreadsheet. It’s not even how well your P&L matches your Cash Flow which matches your Balance Sheet. In fact, he says, you don’t need any of that in the first instance.It’s how well you can play Jenga.
The type of analysis he talks about needs to be done on the back of a napkin, in ten minutes, and then show what the key factors are for success. There are going to be some things in the business which are not so important, and some that are crucial. The ability to show investors (and internal stakeholders that control budgets) a quick sensitivity analysis, which highlights the key factors of an opportunity, is amazingly powerful and useful.
Some things in your business are not going to be as important as others. Just like a game of Jenga, a good entrepreneur will highlight to investors which blocks not to pull out, and which ones can be moved. What’s the value of this? Immense. How many can do it? Apparently, not many at all. The question now is, how to practice such a skill?
Topics: thinking, Innovation | 2 Comments »
Street Mimes and Civil Innovation
By Steve Hopkins | April 17, 2008
“It seems that I cannot escape writing this post. Early on in my foray into the blogosphere I crafted a post all about the street mimes in Bogota, Columbia, and their instigator, Mayor Antanas Mockus. The post, however, never saw the light of day as my computer lynched itself and shutdown, losing my masterpiece. I digress. But last month, whilst I was attending the Sustainable Cities Roundtable the Mayor and the innovative social experiments taking place in his city were again ignited. The whole situation is fascinating, and provides a real example of social, concept innovation.”
It seems the town of Bogota has been running, for several years, an event called Ciclovia. Essentially, the city closes down 70 miles of it’s busiest roads every Sunday (yes, EVERY Sunday) and opens it up to non-car traffic. Bikes, Rollerblades, walkers, runner and even impromptu games of soccer. This attracts more than 1.5 million people each week (yes, each week). It’s the first example of a city taking a leap and reaping the benefits of real change innovation. The benefits have been large, including better health for it’s citizens, less traffic on Sundays, more trade for local vendors and increased tourism. Whilst the initiative was not of Mockus’ time, it is still indicative of a progressive society not afraid to change up the daily routine.
The real innovation has seemed to stem from Mockus’s rein. The key article, a Harvard Gazette piece, detailing the events under Mockus rule in Bogota can be found here. To paraphrase the main points:
“The fact that he was seen as an unusual leader gave the new mayor the opportunity to try extraordinary things, such as hiring 420 mimes to control traffic in Bogotá’s chaotic and dangerous streets. He launched a “Night for Women” and asked the city’s men to stay home in the evening and care for the children; 700,000 women went out on the first of three nights that Mockus dedicated to them.”
Pre-Mockus, the city was in a state of complete havoc. Cars and road-users ran red lights without fear of punishment, parked cars on sidewalks and generally ran amok. This lead to large numbers of civil injuries and deaths on the roads. Mockus, to combat this, put in place 400 street mimes to bring attention to law breakers in a jovial manner. The mimes would then help the law-breaking citizens to do the right thing. The move was a success, and lead to the training of the city’s own force of street mimes. Injuries and deaths fell and the efficiency of the roads increased dramatically.
This is an example of real, concept innovation. Einstein has been quoted many times, espousing the belief that you cannot solve a problem buy using the same thinking that created it. In many societies and businesses, we can get so absorbed by the problems we face that we are only able to provide piecemeal solutions which follow the same old lines of thinking we are all used to. The real groundbreaking results happens where the concept used to solve the problem has been ‘re-thunk,’ applying a totally new line of thinking to an old problem which creates new and better outcomes for all involved. The ability to think like Mockus, in a profoundly concept-inventing focused way, is something I plan to discuss more and more through this blog. Let me know if you have any thoughts on it yourself!
Topics: thinking, Funky Business, Leadership, Innovation | 2 Comments »
Pythons and the business world
By Steve Hopkins | April 14, 2008
I am currently watching a David Attenborough documentary on reptiles which is showing on Channel 9 tonight. There are many little interesting things, including the little Armadillo Lizard, which protects itself by biting it’s own tail, thus exposing a sharp exoskeleton. Also, there was video footage and information about a python, which ate a deer. Something similar to that below…
When watching it, I was struck by how many similarities there were between a python digesting an animal that was far to big for it, and a large company that was consuming another company through a merger or acquisition. A few of them are below.
1) The pythons heart grows to a size about 40% larger than it normal as the creature digests its food. Similarly, a corporate will increase the number of passionate people involved within it’s bowels when a merger happens. Unfortunately for the business, and fortunately for the python, the heart does shrink back to normal onve the digesting is done. In many mergers, the people who cared passionately about their respective companies, end up facing being somewhat jaded by the whole experience. They end up leaving for greener pastures, leaving behind a smaller heart in what is now a much larger company.
2) The python is pretty defenseless whilst it eats its prey. It cannot breathe, save for it’s windpipe, which pushes itself out of the reptiles mouth to allow for air to be brought in. Large companies, too, are quite vulnerable whilst in the midst of a takeover bid. Private Equity raiders, competitors and even new start-ups generate new activity to take advantage of the new opportunities that will be standard once the merger has gone ahead. For many companies, it can be hard to adjust to the new way of operating, but many of those people left outside the takeover are quite aware of what to expect from the market once it settles again after the ‘digestion.’ They move faster into a position to take advantage of the soon to be new surroundings.
3) The Liver of the python doubles in size to help digest the prey, as does the number of external helpers and number of Learning and Development people present in a company going through a merge. I’m a great fan of consulting, and think it has a very real place in our business landscape. But, be aware, just like the python expanding it’s liver and draining it’s body of energy consulting fees can leave a company bereft of excess funds used to actually make stuff happen once the merger has finished.
Finally, there were many other similarities, but the thing that struck me most was that once the python digests the prey it may not have to eat again for months, or even a year. Many companies tend to work the same way. They feel hungry for growth, are tiring of the ‘business as usual’ paradigm that often sets in when a mission or strategy dwindles in allure. Once the ‘head,’ or the CEO office, decides that it is in fact hungry the business sets out to consume a new company for energy. Once sated, they sit for a long time after, maybe years, running down the people and energy that existed there during the ‘take-over’ years. Then, they saddle up again and go through the whole, draining process of swallowing another acquisition for yet more growth and energy. Some companies, such as Macquire Bank, seem to be forever hungry as they have teams of people specialised in digesting large takeovers and mergers.
Is this the way we should function as an economy, business and society?
Topics: biomimicry, malfunctions of the human way | 1 Comment »
The Experimedia Experience: wifi, desk, ambiance
By Steve Hopkins | April 4, 2008
This is just a quick post I thought I would share before venturing off on a day of coffees and other meetings. I have been chilling out in the State Library today, crunching some work and the like. It has free wifi, cheap lockers to store stuff in, a free (large) desk and an ambiance that is to die for.
I’ve been working in the Experimedia section of the library, which seems like a space created as an afterthought to the structure of the library. If you ever come hear to work, you’ll see what I mean. It is a space juxtapositioned between the main library building and the other wings which have been constructed at different times. It is a little like a court yard, but covered over. That gives it a sense of huge space and freedom that you would be hard pressed to find in town, for free, anytime of the week.
A few tips:
You can bring your bag into the library, so make sure you have a $2 coin for the lockers that operate out in the foyer. They’re very safe, and even serve as a useful dumping point to allow you to de-burden yourself for the day whilst you do what you have to. 6 hour costs you $2 for a more than adequately large locker.
2) The wifi, whilst free, requires that you sign up to become a library member (also free). This is too easy, and well worth doing anyway to access the books the library has on offer. The only thing to be aware of - it takes about 20mins for the registration to process so you have to wait a little while before you can go online.
3) Like any good public space, there is a competition for desks. I found this one easily at about 12pm on a Friday afternoon and it seems like you can always chill on a chair whilst you wait anyways.
Check out photos on my flickr site
See you there!
Topics: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »