Uncovering more strategic insights
The where, who and how of seeking strategic insights that will fuel a radically new strategy for your organization.
Greetings from Vancouver! 👋
One of the key ingredients behind an effective strategy are quality strategic insights. A handful of great insights can completely change a strategic plan, taking it from an obvious summation of next steps to a radical rethinking of the future.
In this week’s edition, you will learn different ways of how to seek out these insights by dividing deeper into the where you can find them, from whom and how to collect them.
Let’s jump right in!
Where to Find Great insights
James Cash Penny began his retail career earlier than most, he was 8 years old. At 27, he joined a small chain of stores called “The Golden Rule”, named after the famous verse in Luke 6:31 - 6:38 (also mentioned in Matthew). In case you missed this session at Sunday school, here’s the full verse:
Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. “For if you love those who love you, what thanks do you receive? For even sinners love those who love them.
Only the first sentence is remembered today, of course.
James would go on to become a partner in the chain and open several stores, eventually renaming them to J.C. Penney Co. He infused these stores with the principles he learned at The Golden Rule: fair prices (they had a motto of Honest Value at Honest Prices), customer service, and the golden rule itself (as the moral foundation).
James Penny demonstrates the value of seeking insights in the best place possible, your own company. He took his first hand experience, gained since he was a small boy, and used it to make strategic decisions for what became one of the most successful retail chains.
You can, of course, seek out insights from other competitors in your industry or perhaps the economy at large, but don’t dismiss the treasure of gold hidden inside your company. The larger the organization, the higher the probabilities that these insights are just waiting to be mined.
To further drive the point home, we can fast forward to 1941 when a young Sam Walton joined J.C. Penny as a management trainee. He spent 18 months working alongside James Penny himself, until he was conscripted to go fight in WWII. We all know how that story played out.
Question: Where do you typically seek insights, inside your company, from your competitors or from separate industries?
Who Has Great insights
I wrote before on how Howard Schultz visited Italy and fell in love with the coffee bar concepts that most Italians frequent regularly. They became the inspiration for Starbucks, adjusted for a non-Italian audience.
In the early 1990s, employees at a Santa Monica Starbucks noticed how coffee sales dropped in the summer months and started experimenting with cold beverages. They eventually settled on a sweet, cold concoction made by combining ice, coffee, milk and sweeteners. The Frappuccino was born.
This is one of the many stories showing how the best people to ask about great insights are your employees, especially those who deal with customers directly. Hotel doorman, airline stewardess, baristas, Uber drivers (technically contractors), and others have great insights that aren’t tapped deeply enough.
This idea is so exciting that a whole TV show—Undercover Boss—was created around it. It shows the obvious outcomes of what can happen if executives spend a little bit of time dealing with customers and seeing the challenges and opportunities first hand.
There’s value in asking customers and peers—from other companies—for insights but don’t dismiss the best source. I always chuckled when a CEO makes the news because he or she decided to follow this advice. The latest one is Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s CEO, who started his new role by completing 100 rides as a driver. Under his guidance, Uber has significantly improved their relationship with drivers, using insights he gleaned from those 100 rides.
You don’t need a TV crew to make this happen. You just have to go talk to your employees and ask them what they think.
Question: Who are you asking for insights?
How to Capture Great insights
Once you know where to find great insights and who has them, you need to explore the best way to capture them. There’s three possibilities: Real-Time, Replay and Rally.
The first option is to see insights in real-time. If an airline executive visits the terminal of a plane that is about to board, he or she will see all kinds of opportunities for improvement. For example, on a recent flight with Air Canada, employees talked to every person in line and gave them a white bag marker, specifying if this particular bag should go up in the overhead container or below the seat. A simple action that saves time as many passengers overfill the overhead container with small bags, reducing the space for other passengers.
The second option is to capture insights in replay. This occurs when leaders ask their employees for insights about events in the past. A client of mine scheduled 20-min meetings with managers to ask for their input ahead of a strategic planning session. The managers replayed situations that are worth considering.
The third option is to capture insights in a rally. Organizations will often bring individuals together for brainstorming sessions with the goal of generating great insights. I often do this within strategic planning sessions with groups of six to fourteen people. The group dynamic can create unexpected insights, especially if facilitated properly.
You will likely need a combination of all three approaches. Not all insights can be seen in real time or replayed or generated in a rally. However, don’t stick to just one approach, otherwise, you’ll be missing out on valuable insights.
Question: How do you capture insights and which of the three approaches feels more comfortable for you?
Cheers,
Ruben
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