Managing Leadership^®

The two great elements of competitive advantage, so clearly obvious, yet so elusive, are mission and execution. Simply put, know what it is you do, and then do it. Yet, it is a really wonderful thing to contemplate how very few organizations are able to develop even an adequate focus on these.

And that, indeed, is the main problem: focus. Most organizations and their managers really don’t have it - or they don’t direct it with sufficient discipline. Those who do, possess an inherent institutional competitive advantage that is of inestimable value. It is a tool - an intellectual framework, or organizational sense of balance - that imparts both momentum and agility to an organization, regardless of the field in which it operates. Such a simple concept, so easy to see, yet so rarely achieved. Let’s take a moment to consider why it seems to always be just out of reach, before we discuss how to overtake it.

Albert Einstein is famously purported to have said, “Physics should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Not just physics, but everything should be no simpler than possible - and no more complicated. Unfortunately, it is exceedingly difficult to find, and to consistently navigate, the safe zone between these rocks which constantly attempt to draw us aground.

Certainly, managers are often seduced by numerous oversimplified formulas touted as solutions to their problems, but which inevitably prove to be shallow and inflexible. On the other hand, there are temptations in every quarter driving us to overcomplicate the issues managers face, and the methods for addressing them. While we often reel with disappointment from one simplistic promise to another, it is the insidious tendency to overcomplicate that proves the more enduring and damaging danger.

Managers and their advisers are strongly tempted to create complex procedures and byzantine organizations. There is much satisfaction in this. It helps to convince them that they are intelligent and accomplished - more so than those that can’t boast being the masters of such impenetrable procedural solutions or labyrinthine organizational structures. It also has the virtue of constituting a sort of flak which they can throw up to confuse those, whether analysts or shareholders, who keep pressing them for results. But the truth is that these ungainly constructions are not the result of managerial brilliance - but the sclerotic accretions of numerous instances of managerial ill-discipline and lack of focus.

Montaigne said, “No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.” Unfortunately, these days, an awful lot of wind is used up just in identifying the port. Forget the poetry and the lofty rhetoric. Leave the consultant-facilitated vision-drafting sessions for senior executives in glamorous off-site locations. Let your misguided competitors indulge in unveiling the marble-engraved products of such nonsense in their corporate headquarters. As for you, keep it simple.

The best way to find out what you do is to ask those most likely to know (and, by the way, senior executives are typically not in this group). Ask your front line employees. Ask your sales staff. Ask your vendors and your customers. Ask your competitors. You might be surprised - even inspired - to learn what others think it is that you do. Then, ask certain of them, especially your customers, what they want you to do, what they would like to be able to gain from your services. Ask them what the problems are that they have when they think of your organization as a source for a solution.

This is the critical step, so do it right. The greatest - and most common - error made in problem-solving is failing to properly frame, or define, the problem. Take the time to learn what object you should be directing your attention to. Avoid being among those who simply mistake activity for forward motion.

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Please be sure to see all the posts in this series:

1. Competitive Advantage: Keeping it simple
2. Competitive Advantage: Taking it easy
3. Competitive Advantage: the flip side of prioritizing

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• Competitive Advantage: Taking it easy
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