28.03.2012 17:49:20 |
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| Wayne
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Based on the book by Leonard A. Schlesinger, Charles F. Kiefer, and Paul B. Brown
We all know how new projects happen in a predictable world: A team is assembled, a market analysed, a forecast created, and a business plan written. Resources are then gathered, and the plan is set in motion.
But how do you launch new projects in an unpredictable environment? What's the best way to do it in an age where the proliferation of data and opinion makes truly decisive analysis impossible; when faraway events have immediate, unexpected impact; and when the economic crisis has made companies reluctant to take big bets on unproven ideas?
Take a look at what serial entrepreneurs do - they navigate through uncertainty, minimising the risks as they go !
Academics and major consultancy practices have spent years studying these leaders and the logic they use to create new products, services, and business models in situations where the old methods of analysing, forecasting, modelling, planning and allocating no longer work.
A detailed study of 27 serial entrepreneurs, by University of Virginia's Associate Professor of Business, Saras D. Sarasvathy was undertaken, from which the results were enlightening:
· instead of starting with a predetermined goal, these entrepreneurs allow opportunities to emerge:
· instead of focusing on optimal returns, they spend more time considering their acceptable loss; and
· instead of searching for perfect solutions, they look for good-enough ones.
The point is that successful entrepreneurs don’t just “think different.” They translate that thinking into immediate action, often ignoring analysis. Rather than predict the future, they try to create it.
Look at Starbucks' CEO Howard Schultz: Coffee sales had been steadily declining for two decades before he came up with the café concept that would grow into a multibillion-dollar business.
This logic shouldn’t be limited to entrepreneurs working outside the bounds of traditional organisations. (After all, Schultz first tested his café idea when Starbucks was a small retailer of coffee beans, teas, and spices, and he was its director of marketing).
We believe that any manager can, and should, follow the same process when confronting the unknown. It presents them with an extremely low-risk way to launch new projects and thus begin to change organisations and improve their performance.
For more information including how we can help you, please visit the rest of our website or give us a call. In addition, please contact us if you would like a free copy of our change model sent to you by e-mail.
