by Adam Hartung | Jan 28, 2007 | Disruptions, General, In the Rapids, Leadership, Openness
How can we recognize a Phoenix company? One that will sustain its success for a prolonged period? We can start by looking at the one and only company which has been on the Dow Jones Industrial Average ever since it was created. The one company that has overcome Schumpeter’s dire predictions of individual company failure, and demonstrated it is possible to earn above average rates of return for extended time and simultaneously grow. That company is General Electric.
A recent article on GE’s Medical Devices business (see article here) highlights key characteristics of how to overcome Lock-in to an existing Success Formula by internally Disrupting and using White Space. Mark Morita is the Manager for Disruptive Technologies within this GE business. Mark is not an engineer, nor is he in product development. GE recognizes that it must maintain a powerful group always focused on making incremental improvements in their products and markets. But, they simultaneously must have a Disruptive focus that can produce breakthrough results.
And that is where Mark comes in. Mark Disrupts the engineers by introducing technologies from entirely other fields. While they attend medical equipment conferences, Mark attends gaming and consumer electronics conferences. While they try to make sonogram machines that are 10% lighter or 10% cheaper, Mark looks for ways to make them the size of a GameBoy at less than half current cost. His role is not only tolerated in GE – it is mandated. All across the many GE businesses they maintain roles which are dedicated to attacking Lock-In and Disrupting the existing Success Formula. Mark and his counterparts constantly keep the GE businesses operating White Space to create new Success Formulas leading to growth.
Jack Welch, the famed former CEO of GE, had the nickname "Neutron Jack." This referred to his willingness to Disrupt GE in order to seek above average results and growth. No business was sacred in GE, and no market was beyond their reach. Welch constantly Disrupted GE from within, and kept Lock-in from leading to deteriorating performance. It wasn’t mere goal-setting that kept GE dynamic, it was an institutionalized practice of internal Disruption and extensive use of White Space. New CEO Jeffrey Immelt is now continuing that practice, with dramaticly large recent acquisitions of about 2/3 of Abbott Labs (medical diagnostic equipment) and Smiths Group (aerospace) while indicating he plans to sell the $10B plastics business (see article here).
Even a huge company, such as GE, can operate according to The Phoenix Principle and sustain success. The Phoenix Principle does not apply only to small companies, nor those in high-tech markets. Any company can achieve and sustain success if they are willing to identify their Success Formula and Lock-ins, attack those Lock-ins with programs designed to generate internal Disruptions, then fund White Space in which permission is given to develop new Success Formulas. These steps may seem mundane, but those who follow them can become the next GE – and that would not be a bad thing.
by Adam Hartung | Jan 21, 2007 | General, In the Rapids, Innovation, Leadership, Lifecycle, Openness
Walgreen’s is the kind of company that can make an investor very worried. It’s an "old fashioned" retailer, and the company has certainly seen dramatica changes in its markets. Over the last decade, we have changed how we purchase licensed pharmaceuticals, as well as how we think about "drug stores" as many competitors have begun offering to fill prescriptions. The "corner pharmacists" has practically disappeared. Is Walgreen’s a company on the brink of disaster?
As I’ve written before, look for a growth stall. Any time a company sees declining revenue or profits for 2 or more consecutive quarters, or two or more quarters of declining year-over-year sales or profits, the company enters a growth stall. When this happens, there is a less than 7% chance the company will ever again sustain growth of a meager 2% per year. Interestingly, Walgreen’s has not stalled. This despite all the changes in insurance rules about drug payments, the advent of on-line and mail-order pharmacies, corporate moves to drastically cut employee drug costs, the entry of new competitors such as discount retailers (WalMart and Target) and just about every grocer, and competitor moves to offer generic drugs at extremely low prices.
At its recent annual meeting (see article here), the new CEO very clearly identified many of these influences as Challenges the company must face. He followed this up by listing all the actions Walgreens had taken to set up White Space projects to maintain company growth, which include but are not limited to: digital photo processing, refilling printer ink cartridges, introducing exclusive department store type cosmetics, and now even opening in-store health care clinics for walk-in customers. As the CEO, Jeffrey Rein said, "We’re testing everything we possibly can to see what happens, to see what does work. We don’t know until we put it out there." After a very clear statement that the company faces many market shifting Challenges, similarly clear statements about using White Space to drive new growth.
This new CEO is not an outsider by the way. He’s a 25 year company veteran. So it’s clear that companies can internally develop leaders who can recognize Challenges, Disrupt and establish White Space. Whether Walgreens can maintain its 32 years of ongoing growth is no sure thing. The fact that the company has not stalled however is a great testament to identifying Challenges and reacting. As a company that is facing tremendous Challenges, Walgreen’s leadership is a model of how to keep up the growth by using White Space.
by Adam Hartung | Jan 12, 2007 | General, In the Rapids, Innovation, Leadership, Lifecycle, Openness
My last blog led to a reader comment "Can there be White Space without Innovation?" (click here to read full comment) Quite simply, I don’t see how. Of course, innovation is a term open to wide interpretation. Some think that innovation requires a huge breakthrough invention, a new product, or a never-before-seen business model. Maybe a patent or a copyright. In fact, innovation simply means introducing a new way of operating for yourself or your customers. Defined this way, we can innovate in all parts of our business model, and innovations can be "small" or "large". What’s important about White Space is that we use innovation processes to attack old Lock-ins and develop a new Success Formula.
Take for example Foulds, a 121 year old $25million revenue company that makes pasta in Libertyville, IL (see full article here.) Pasta is far from a "high-tech" business. And the distribution channels are extremely stable and well known. Suppliers are HUGE agribusinesss competitors like Cargill, and customers are HUGE supermarket chains like Jewel, Dominick’s, Safeway and Kroger. Many competitors are extremely well funded such as New World Pasta that spend millions of dollars on ad campaigns for Prince and Creamette brands. In this competitive situation, the world changed in the late 1990s when the Atkins diet craze swept across America and many people stopped eating pasta entirely. Suddently, Foulds was facing a stagnant market, surrounded by industry forces much, much better resourced than they were.
The easy answer for Foulds would have been to drop into a price war to drive volume. Or to have dumped money into advertising – largely to no avail. Or possibly closing shop, or looking for a buyer to "consolidate" the industry. Doing "more of the same" to Defend & Extend the 121 year old business model would have led to loss of share to the big players and possibly failure. So, company CEO Chris Bradley opened White Space in the company he ran. He allowed his employees to face the Market Challenge, and atack the Lock-ins so prevalent. In their effort, the team overcame commitment to a century-old recipe for pasta. They experimented with different ingredients and then different manufacturing processes (literally adjusting the time-proven work of generations). In the end they developed a pasta with 6 times the normal fiber of regular pasta and a taste and texture that is considered better than what dry pasta was like before.
This new pasta is not a patentable product. And it doesn’t open some new "food category." But it does allow people who seek a high-fiber, high-protein and healthy product for their diet to eat pasta – something not allowed on some diets at all and heavily restricted on others. And this innovation has helped the company to not only deal with the Market Challenge, but actually to thrive. Foulds recognized a Market Challenge, Disrupted its Lock-in to old recipes and hand-made manufacturing processes, and then gave permission to the team to innovate a new Success Formula which could appeal to a shifting market. The value of White Space is that it gives innovation a place to flourish, a place to succeed, by intentionally acquiring permission to break old Lock-ins and thereby develop a new Success Formula that incorporates innovation – of any type or scale that addresses Market Challenges.
by Adam Hartung | Jan 2, 2007 | Leadership, Openness
What is strategy? To far too many people, strategy is thought of as "how can we succeed doing what we’ve always done." To be honest, most of what is written on strategy, going back to the seminal work by Michael Porter "Competitive Strategy", deals with how to identify a strategy and then execute it. What strategy must be is developing an approach to win in a competitive marketplace.
On New Year’s Day, 2007 I observed one of the best uses of strategy I’ve seen in a long time. Little known Boise State University went into the Fiesta Bowl to compete with Oklahoma University. This was truly a David and Goliath match-up. Oklahoma has been a top 10 powerhouse in football for decades. Its annual funding for the football program is 10x the entire athletic department at Boise State. Why, Boise State wasn’t even qualified to be considered as a top-ranked football team because they weren’t considered a BCS team (BCS is the acronym for the people who determine the bowl games and how they will determine the national college football champion.) Nonetheless, Boise State was in the game and they were projected to be killed by the much better funded, more experienced and far larger Oklahoma football program.
But, Boise State did something no one predicted. They did not enter the stadium and play a traditional game. From the opening salvo, Boise State was executing plays not expected by Oklahoma. Within the first 5 minutes they had used unexpected play calling to jump into a 14 point lead. And Oklahoma was scratching its head. The game played on, and Oklahoma slowly scratched and clawed back. With just over a minute left in the game, Oklahoma finally went into the lead. But, Boise State did more than not give up. They came back with a series of unexpected plays. On what was destined to be the final play of the game, and needing to go a third of the field for a touchdown, Boise State executed a play from the 1930s – something never seen on the modern football field any more – the "hook and ladder" play. They scored, and tied the game. In overtime, Oklahoma jumped into the lead. But Boise State came back, once again with unexpected plays. On the final play, needing to score or lose, Boise State again used a play almost never seen any more – the Statue of Liberty play – and they won the game as the Boise State player walked all alone into the end zone.
After the game the announcers kept commenting on how Boise State kept Oklahoma off kilter. "They used every play in the playbook" an announcer said – by the way, that announcer was Barry Switzer who used to be the head coach at Oklahoma and had won a national championship. What was even more telling was how the announcers reacted. When asked who should be the "most valuable player" the agreement was they wanted to select THE COACH! By using plays that his competition did not expect, he managed to beat a team that was far better funded, with lots more resources and a lot more coaches.
Strategy mattered. Boise State did not play the game that the entrenched and better funded competitor wanted to play. They avoided the Lock-in, which was sure to beat Boise State. Instead, the coach kept Challenging the large competitor, and Oklahoma could not react. The much larger competitor had not ignored their smaller competitor, but they were not prepared for the use of an unexpected strategy. In the end, the team that pushed competition into White Space won by demonstrating a different Success Formula than what the traditional, entrenched competitor was prepared for.
We all can learn from Boise State and their upending of Oklahoma. As individuals, work teams and businesses we can recognize that those who develop strategies which change the competitive field have a distinct advantage. If we can overcome our Lock-in to traditional practices, and try new things that are unexpected, we can come out on top even if our competition is much larger, better funded and loaded with advantages we don’t have. Whenever you need reassurance of the value of innovating to change the competitive field, just remember the coaches at Boise State.
by Adam Hartung | Dec 11, 2006 | General, In the Rapids, Innovation, Leadership, Openness
The Phoenix Principle is not just for big or old companies. Any business, even small and family owned ones, can greatly increase their success using The Phoenix principle. And a great all-American example of this is NASCAR and the phenomenal growth it has achieved. (Read more about the success of NASCAR here.)
Forty years ago stock car racing was tied closely to blue collar guys with a set of wrenches and a desire to drive faster than the cops would allow – without getting caught. When we went to watch stock cars on hot nights you got muscled-up street cars driven with a fair bit of abandon. Most races were interspersed with local beauty pagents, and more than an occasional demolition derby. Sometimes you wondered if you came for the races, or for the crashes. A good time to watch, but not the stuff of big business. Not, at least, until the France family decided to try some new things.
The elder Mr. France realized that by linking all these fans to sponsors there could be money in this sport. As long as anyone could drive, the purse would be low and the competition would be less than stellar. So he didn’t start with cars, instead he started buiding his own tracks, where the environment could be safe and he could control who got on the track and what they drove. Then he helped good drivers find sponsors who would pay for the cars in exchange for advertising. Using personalities like Richard Petty, France slowly took stock car racing from broken down Pontiacs ready for the salvage yard (and modified cars coming from Detroit’s auto companies) into the world of Winston Cup Racing. And big money brought faster cars, better drivers and more fans. All of these ideas born of his family’s imagination and a relentless effort to find ways to get the winning purses up.
Now, his son Brian France is continuing to innovate. It’s no longer Winston Cup – with ties to cigarettes, the South, and old fashioned notions of stock car racing. Now its the Nextel Cup with ties to being national, technology, and innovation. And he truly understands the importance of recognizing Challenges and breeding White Space. As he said "The time to make changes in my view is when you don’t have to. If you’ve got a situation where you have to change, that’s a much tougher environment. You get more momentum when you don’t have to change." Now those are great words of advice for businesses seeking growth and long-term success.
Did you know that NASCAR racing is the second most watched television sport in the U.S.? (Surpassed only by the NFL). But if you go to the track (owned by France, don’t forget) you get even more. Attendees can actually get visuals from inside the car – see the race like the driver does – while getting real time stats on the race. And Mr. France is constantly pushing for changes in cars, including recently allowing Toyota to race on what has long been considered the asphalt dedicated to "big American iron." Why? Well, after all, have you seen "The Fast and the Furious"? All those young fans are driving a very different "hot car" than I grew up with – and they want to see on the track what they get in and drive home! It’s all part of trying new things, seeing what will work, and moving forward.
Seventy-Five years ago America’s sport was baseball. Babe Ruth and Joe Dimaggio, then Mickey Mantle and Roger Marris dominated our lives. Now, it’s a much more competitive world for athletic entertainment. Football, basketball, and hockey have all become major U.S. sports. Every four years the World Cup of soccer gets more U.S. fans as the children of "soccer moms" grow up. Golf has seen another emergence as Tiger Woods has reinvigorated watchers. It would have been easy for stock car racing to simply become a niche like watching billiards, darts or horseshoe pitching. But it’s not. And it’s not because this family-owned business recognized the Challenges which existed in attracting fans, Disrupted itself by constantly seeking out new sponsors and new competitive dynamics, and never stopped using White Space to find a better Success Formula that would help it grow.
The opportunity exists for any family-owned company to be long-lived and highly successful. And if you follow the model of the France family you could find your business very successful indeed. It’s not about vision and dedication. It’s about experimenting, feeling paranoid about competition, and never stopping the use of White Space to find a better Success Formula.
by Adam Hartung | Nov 22, 2006 | Disruptions, In the Rapids, Innovation, Leadership, Openness
When asked about companies that are great examples of Phoenix Principle companies I like to discuss Virgin. For years Virgin was considered a small company, but it is a great example of a small company that has become very, very big by following The Phoenix Principle. There is no doubt that the company founder, Richard Branson, had a lot to do with the company’s enormous success (just as Steve Jobs has had a huge impact on the success of Apple and Pixar). But we can look beyond the flamboyance of Branson to see that the success has had everything to do with avoiding Lock-in to a particular Success Formula and instead accepting Disruptions to constantly create and then manage White Space.
Virgin was founded as a "publishing" company, putting out its first magazine in 1968. In 1970 I guess you could say it became a "media" company as that’s when it entered mail-order music sales. By 1971 Virgin expanced into hard assets by opening its first retail record store, and then in 1972 opening its own studio to actually produce its own content, leading to the Virgin label introduction in 1973. In 1976, Success Formula expansion continued with the opening of a nightclub in 1977. In 1979 Virgin ignored the thinking of everyone else in the "music" industry by signing on The Sex Pistols – an outrageous band which made Virgin a well known label and very wealthy. By 1980, Virgin was pretty well established as a publishing/media/music company with enormous profits and great success. This could easily have Locked-in Virgin.
Then, in 1984 the company realized it had to expand or stagnate. But it didn’t select just one project. The company opened a potpouri of new White Space. Virgin Atlantic Airways was opened to haul passengers, and Virgin Cargo to haul goods. A hotel was opened in Deya, Mallorca. And Virgin Vision opened shop with a 24 hour satellite music channel. What do these have in common? Nothing more than each was a new opportunity to expand the company into high growth industries. The businesses did not even share the goodness of being in high margin businesses – as practically all were markets where profits were extremely rare to nonexistent. Thus, the second great Phoenix Principle axiom was applied. Virgin did not dictate how these projects would succeed. Rather, they were each given resources and permission to find a new Success Formula in markets where Locked-in competitors did poorly.
In 1994 Virgin Cola was launched as a company to compete with Coke and Pepsi. In 1996 Virgin opened Virgin Bridal, the first mass-retail approach to the formerly cottage industry of bridal shop goods. Virgin also partnered with a company winning the contract to build the Channel Tunnel rail link between the UK and Europe. In 1997 the company got into the rail business full bore with 15 lines in England and plans to expand. That year the company also launched Virgin Vie – a cosmetics company. And Virgin Direct banking was opened in the U.K. Why do I mention these? Because they were just some of the projects launched in the 1980s and 1990s that did not become wildly well known successes. Part of creating and managing White Space is trying things that don’t work out. Portfolio management says that we need a mix of projects, yet most organizations cannot stand the thought of investing in something that does not succeed. At Virgin, managing White Space does not just mean starting new things – it also means knowing when to sell or otherwise get out.
This all got my attention recently because Virgin America will be going into service soon, carrying air passengers across the U.S. (See full article in CIO Magazine here.) The project is a marvel at how to manage White Space, culled from decades of doing it well. Simplification is a cornerstone, as the new enterprise is ignoring long-held "beliefs" about what works with airlines – an industry in which 160 air carriers have gone bankrupt since the deregulation in 1978. Virgin relies heavily on vendors and contractors/consultants to get things done in the early days. Rather than use "industry standard" software packages for critical applications like bookings/reservations and scheduling they are literally building their own; and using Linux open source code rather than proprietary source from companies like Oracle or Microsoft. And much of the work is being done in India by companies that has never worked previously for an airline. Virgin is demonstrating that competing means doing what your competitors don’t – in order to be more flexible and develop a new competitive advantage.
Great companies are no accident. What they have in common is a willingness to Disrupt their Lock-in and use White Space to create new Success Formulas. Long-term, success does not come from understanding your "core competency" and optimizing it (if that were true Virgin would likely have followed the path of Playboy magazine or Sun records – the fabled company that launched Elvis but is now gone), but rather from overcoming market Challenges and developing new solutions to compete. To this day Virgin follows this path, fearing no new markets and entering with their own unique Success Formula developed in White Space. And anyone can participate, on the company web site is a link where you an submit your own Big Idea for consideration – always on the lookout for Disruptions and opportunities.
by Adam Hartung | Nov 10, 2006 | General, In the Rapids, Innovation, Leadership, Lifecycle, Openness
I’ve long said that any company can innovate and grow. ANY company. This week we saw an example of a stodgy company, in one of the stodgiest industries, explain how it’s possible to take the steps toward improving its long term success. That company is Allstate – best known for it’s insurance business and its decades old tag line "your in good hands with Allstate." (See complete Chicago Tribune article here.)
I’m optimistic about Allstate, and do think it shows a high likelihood of outperforming its peers. And not because I think they have better underwriters, better risk managers and better agents. Nor because they are looking at all kinds of new products like pet insurance and identity theft insurance, as well as others. Nor because they are planning to roll out new "hipper" office decor.
I’m optimistic because the fellow who’s taking over as CEO shows the willingness to create and manage White Space within Allstate. Starting in 1999, Thomas Wilson took a look at Allstate Financial and wondered why it only sold unregistered products like life insurance and annuities rather than a larger suite of products including mutual funds. He could have studied on this question, pondered the potential market, hired consultants and generally analyzed the question unendingly. But, instead, in his own words he said to the unit leaders "Here’s $10million. Talk to me every two weeks."
With this small act ($10million is relatively small in a $33billion company) and short directive he created White Space in Allstate. He gave the unit permission to try new things, and the funds to execute. He also had the unit report to him, not somewhere down in the company where potential product line conflicts would eventually destroy the innovations. And he started his experiments in an important business, but not the legacy business, so that this unit could demonstrate success without contradicting too rapidly or strongly existing Lock-in.
He did it again in 2003. After decades of advertising, Mr. Wilson felt the advertising was insufficient and ineffective. So he tripled the budget, and told the ad agency to put in place a new team to develop a new program. Not an incremental act, but instead the granting of permission to try something new and plenty of budget to make it work. And again, he took responsibility.
Mr. Wilson wasn’t "born and raised" in Allstate. He worked in accounting, venture capital, investment banking and even the oil business (Amoco – later bought by British Petroleum [BP]) before joining this venerable company. That may have helped him to see the need for White Space, and to take actions to create it at this huge, analytically-driven company. Whatever has driven his actions, like a cross town fellow CEO Ed Zander at Motorola, Thomas Wilson is imbuing Allstate with White Space, and that portends very good things for investors, employees and customers.
by Adam Hartung | Oct 28, 2006 | In the Rapids, Leadership, Lifecycle, Openness
A week ago Motorola missed analyst’s expectations for third quarter revenues and profits, and the stock fell (see story here). Given that the stock price has had a great run the last year, investors might well be tempted to sell the stock, fearing a stumble in the long run of growth.
While that was page one news on the business section, on the same day Motorola made an even more interesting announcement that made page 2. They hired a new Chief Marketing Officer (see full article here). And the person they selected, Casey Keller from Heinz, should put bullishness back into investors.
While at Heinz, 45 year old Keller was responsible for launching the EZ Squirt line of ketchup products, which came out in green, purple and even blue. Needless to say, a new bottle shape, and funny colors, does not drive me to buy more ketchup. But what these launches demonstrate is that Mr. Keller knows how to get permission and funding to try new things – even in a company as staunchly boring as Heinz. He has demonstrated he knows how to get White Space created, and he knows how to manage it for innovation. Innovation that drove brand protection, price support and incremental revenues in an extremely "mature" product line.
Motorola actually saw its 2006 revenues grow 17% versus 2005 in the third quarter, as cell phone market share has risen from 14% to 22% since 2004. That is not a growth stall. But it missed estimates. What does the company need to do now? Why continue the development and implementation of more White Space – leading to more innovation – just as Ed Zander has done since taking the helm of the company.
Looking around Motorola, there aren’t many people with the skills for creating and managing White Space. That was not the winning personal Success Formula before Mr. Zander. So to find a leader that understood how to identify Challenges, and then create and manage White Space Mr. Zander and the Board had to go outside. There they found someone with the right skills – White Space management skills – that should be able to produce even more robust results in the dynamic Motorola of today.
Investors should think twice before jumping out of Motorola. If he’s as good as his past, Mr. Keller just might help Motorola keep their double digit revenue growth going.
by Adam Hartung | Oct 2, 2006 | Disruptions, In the Swamp, Leadership, Lifecycle, Openness
Two very unlikely companies demonstrated this week that anyone can Disrupt and create White Space to develop a new Success Formula. IBM and General Motors both showed signs of what any company can do.
Last spring the leaders of IBM Disrupted their product development process when they opened it up to all employees, suppliers and their family members (read article here). As a result, they involved 53,000 people and generated 37,000 ideas. How, by simply asking for their input. CEO Palmisano attacked hierarchy and sacred notions of product development in high-tech, and as a result he achieved a breakthrough in the potential to redefine IBM’s Success Formula. Now IBM is creating White Space to develop those ideas, committing (in advance!) $100million for operation InnovationJam to see what can work. When Louis Gerstner wrote "Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance" about IBM’s turnaround he demonstrated that size does not preclude innovation and growth. And now that legacy is living on in a tremendous example of just what any company can do.
Even more surprising is what is happening at GM – a company I have unabashadly beat up on the last year. Yet, within the confines of a horribly Locked-in organization we now can see the use of White Space in product design (see complete article here.) As recently as 2001 the hierarchy gave vehicle line executives the say on a car’s appearance – the kind of analytical, cost saving process that produced such great autos as the Pontiac Aztek (don’t remember it? – that’s the point!). "Design had been relegated to putting a wrapper on something that everyone else had decided what the dimensions, the proportions and the interior package were going to be", according to design head Bob Lutz.
What’s different now? "Tom Peters, a GM designer for 22 years called Lutz a ‘breath of fresh air’ because he lets designers start with a fresh sheet of paper." Lutz was brought in, at almost age 70 mind you, by CEO Waggoner as a Disruption to the old hierarchy. As head of design, he reports outside the old hierarchy and directly to the CEO. And his dedicated budget was carved out of the old product groupls. Thus permission and resources were both granted up front, and Lutz has made the most of it.
Many people accept the notion that older companies are unable to change. Like somehow organizations are destined to Lock-in and eventually fail. Unfortunately there is no data to support that notion. The ability to Lock-in and fail is just as apparent in start-ups as in behemoths. And, behemoths can Disrupt and use White Space just as well as a start-up. IBM has shown it’s ability to do so, and we can hope they will keep up their efforts to again be reborn – continuously, like a Phoenix. GM has a much longer and tougher road, but it can be done. If they can just get the rest of the company to behave like Bob Lutz and his design group!
by Adam Hartung | Sep 29, 2006 | General, In the Rapids, Innovation, Openness
As I talk with various groups many tell me that they simply can’t see any White Space opportunities in their area. I tell them the opportunity is always there, you just have to see it. Their problem is too many people try to "think outside the box." What they need to do is "Get outside the box, now think."
A great recent example comes to us from education. For all our uproar about education in America, and expressions of concern, little has changed in the last 50 years. Lock-in still dominates, and most of us see our children going through the same steps as we did. Meanwhile, we know that other countries, India in particular, are finding ways to educate more people to higher levels faster and cheaper than we are. But, when our education professionals get into meetings they mostly come up with minor improvements to the existing system.
Reuters reported today (see article here) that Americans can get tutoring now for as little as $2.50/hour. By going on-line, and using a combination of web tools and internet phone service, our children can receive quality 1-on-1 tutoring, by professionals with master’s degrees in the subject area, every single day for only $100/month. This is about what one hour of traditional face-to-face tutoring costs. And those students who are using the resource are findng huge value.
Of course, these tutors are in India.
Our education professionals are trying to solve problems by "thinking outside the box." Their obvious problem is that when you’re in the box it’s really impossible to think outside. At best, you can push on the sides a little and consider small improvements. But everything about the box keeps you Locked-in to the old Success Formula.
The founders of these offshore services used the approach of "Get outside the Box, now think!". By going offshore, by viewing the capabilities of new technologies without focusing on limitations, and by omitting the concerns created by traditional Lock-in, they identified a new Success Formula. And then, they didn’t try to launch this in the U.S, or with traditional education suppliers. Instead, they developed their own approaches for marketing, distribution and sales. Removed from the Lock-ins (removed from "the box") they were able to develop new solutions.
We all can benefit from getting outside the box. Existing industry conferences and trade shows are primarily focused on Defending & Extending the existing Success Formula. To see new ideas, to identify White Space opportunities, you need to move beyond those forums. You have to find some new terrain for the conversation. Take a trip to India, China or the Phillipines, and visit with companies that have a whole different approach to what you’ve done. And instead of looking for why it won’t work, see if you can create some White Space to try and make it work.
You won’t find White Space if you stay inside "the box." Get outside the box, go to nontraditional sources, and then start thinking about how to make it work. There’ll you find your opportunities for White Space.
