You might say my fetish for paradoxes is getting out of control, but what can you do when life keeps proving you right?

 

A quote from racing legend Mario Andretti says:

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough"

And it couldn't be truer.

 

From what I've seen, the threats a Company should worry about are almost never external. Instead, they come from within.

The bigger a Company gets, the more sophisticated its internal structure gets. From a handful of dreamers in a garage, it becomes an office in a hip neighborhood with 20 employees, then a secluded industrial park in the outskirts of town.

This means more layers, different interests and, above all, different speed between departments.

An opportunity, a piece of inspiration or a threat that once everyone (4 pals and a mascot) would have noticed instantly, now takes weeks to get to the attention of top management - assuming nobody tries to hide it from them.

It's the way human congregations work. But that doesn't meant you have to accept it.

 

Here's a piece of advice I am happy to share for free, as long as you promise you'll execute it as soon as you're done reading this post.

 

1- Live the street: allow some time every week for employees to live the real life of your consumers- not as examiners, but as consumers themselves. Let them go free for some hours and see what people really do or talk about on the streets. The more disconnected you get, the slower you'll move.

 

2- Live at least one hour a day as your "product": what would you read? what news would you find interesting? what would inspire you? This will keep you up to speed more than any internal meeting (which you still need, sorry).

 

3- Have each and every one of your employee follow your example.

 

4- Establish experts, empower them and enable them to become know-it-alls of their own field. This way you'll have their content and everyone else's interest in what they share, which will boost their energy and get them going.

 

5- Hire nothing less than a data king: people who don't only collect data but elaborate questions, purveyors of scenarios and opportunity, investigators of your world.

 

6- Pedal to the metal: this is no buffer-time activity. This is THE activity. Starting from you, everyone (and I mean it, janitors and drivers included) needs to start their own work with this framework in mind and act quickly, proactively.

 

In the end, being proactive means to go faster even when you think you can totally slow down.

It's a mindset.

It's what will keep you up for an extra lap of racing.

So, next time you talk to your marketing managers, tell 'em about good old Mario Andretti and get them running.

 

We'll be at the paddocks to make everything smooth.

 

THEMONK