The Five New Rules of Startups
There’s some classic expression I recall from rocketry or artillery, which cautions that in terms of launch preparations “if you’re off by an inch, you’re gonna miss by a mile.” This concept of precision planning is even more meaningful when you’re talking about starting or growing a new business. If you don’t get things right at the start, forget it. And if you don’t regularly and consistently communicate the company’s mission, vision, values, and goals — especially in the new hybrid world — you can be sure that you’ll end up in an unhappy and unintended place.
But, as with so many “obvious” things today, it’s not as easy as it was when most messaging was face-to-face and fairly simple and when – if you didn’t really care that much – you could even get nicely laminated mission statements and inspirational wisdom for your walls from Staples or Office Depot. And the far greater problem is how the content of the messages has changed. While the forms and format may have stayed the same, the critical messages are far different now and the conventional wisdom and all the old texts just won’t cut it anymore.
Even apart from the new pitfalls and land mines presented by concerns about political correctness, sensitive snowflakes and whatever the latest systemic grievances are, the ground rules for getting things done have changed. The strategies and standards we once relied on need to be updated to address the new normal in terms of things we’ve learned over the last few years regarding what actually works. You also need to pay attention in terms of the composition, concerns, and diverse interests of the new workforce as well.
I’d say that there are at least five time-tested concepts and cliches that have outlived their usefulness in providing guidance for business builders and managers. Maybe they still work for coaches in high school locker rooms, but even there we’re more likely to be dealing with Ted Lasso’s truisms than getting any guidance from the Gipper.
1. The Lone Ranger is Dead
Even if you’re not convinced yet by Elon Musk’s utter Twitter insanity that absolutely no one can do anything of value or importance entirely by themselves – not even Superman or The Lone Ranger — the rest of the world has decided that the myth of the entrepreneurial Übermensch has outworn its welcome. Teamwork, collaboration, and cooperation will ultimately prevail over any one-man army. No one going it alone is going to get anywhere important because the challenges that disruptive innovation present in any area are simply too much for a single individual to absorb and process. Getting the right team assembled, putting all the players in the proper positions, defining a central set of objectives and goals, and then turning them loose to attack multiple aspects and dimensions of the problem, is the clearest and fastest path to success. Betting on a single jockey – even the most visionary leader – isn’t the way to salvation. And the best part of this approach is that, done correctly, you’ll always have people on your side.
2. Darwin is Dead
Another part of the entrepreneurial myth is that the strongest and fiercest competitor, be that animal or human, is the one most likely to prevail in the long run. Darwin never said this, although “survival of the fittest” has come to be the most widespread and convenient way to shorthand and represent his conclusions. “Fittest” doesn’t mean that it’s the strongest or even the most intelligent creature or business that survives. It’s the enterprise that is most adaptable and best able to quickly react to and adapt its behavior and offerings in a constant stream of changing conditions and challenges in the world.
3. The Answer Man is Dead
If there’s one consistent message from the ChatGPT revolution, it’s that all the written and captured knowledge in the world is now accessible at relatively low cost and at amazing speeds. The answers are all out there. But only if you know how to train your people and your machines to ask the right questions. Employers with an eye to the future aren’t going to be hiring wise and shiny guys and girls who think they have all the answers; they’re going to be looking for quieter people (from all kinds of different tech and non-tech backgrounds) who have an inquisitive mind, creativity in abundance, an openness to ambiguity and goalless planning, and an iterative and patient persistence. Interestingly enough, patience in the face of ambiguity isn’t something we’ve ever associated with entrepreneurial DNA. In fact, it’s almost always just the opposite – “ready, fire, aim” is the name of the game, accompanied by irrational optimism and confidence. Sometimes wrong, but never in doubt. And there’s already a name for the new job: “prompt engineers” who are able to fashion and build streams of narrowing and iterative inquiries to best interrogate the new GPT systems, will be in great demand for many years to come.
4. Single Thread is Dead
For decades we’ve been taught to focus, to put all the wood behind one arrowhead, and to direct all of our energies and attention, aggressively and full force ahead, toward a single, optimal solution. Hedging your bets was discouraged by great entrepreneurs, who preached the gospel of “go big or go home.” Of course, these were the winners talking after the fact and not the folks on thin ice. The evaluation procedures and ultimate decision making were similarly constrained – almost every choice was framed in an either/or context – mainly for simplicity’s sake. No one wanted to confuse their board of directors by asking for a decision among too many competing choices. But now optionality is central to the smartest strategies – considering multiple alternatives at all times leads to demonstrably better results. Preserving as much flexibility and avoiding irrevocable commitments to a fixed path as late in the operations as possible is the way to assure the best outcome. The more choices, the merrier. In the ideal world of tomorrow, it will never be too late or too costly to turn back or alter the course regardless of how far down the path you’ve progressed. Teaching your people to keep checking and to welcome necessary course corrections rather than opting to ignore or avoid them will be crucial.
5. One Size Fits All is Dead
One of the most obvious objectives of every smart startup is scale. Getting bigger is almost always the path to getting better: better operating results, easier fund raising, improved customer confidence, and the ability to recruit and hire better and more costly talent. And the most fundamental key to scale is streamlined replicability: doing whatever it is you’re making, selling, building, or otherwise providing to your customers and clients flawlessly, efficiently and over and over again. The second most important element in this equation is standardization. Bespoke and a là carte are the worst possible words that a young business builder can hear. One size, one product, one deliverable that fits any and all comers is key. That’s the main reason that all the early Model T Fords came only in black, although quirky Henry Ford also determined that black dried faster than any other color.
We used to tell young entrepreneurs to stick to their knitting and do one thing really well. Once they’ve solved the basic creation and delivery problems associated with their initial product, the best news was that the CEO could finally stop selling and go on to other new things. But before that time, it was all about offering one size that fits all. Unfortunately, that’s no longer the way the world works.
Today, instead of trying to convince people to learn to use a new product, every product needs to be fitted to meet the people’s desires and requirements. And those progressive demands continue to grow and accelerate over time. We’re fully into the era of mass customization where a successful company needs to be all things to all of the people all of the time. While this is much less of an issue for digital products and software services than for hard goods, it still represents financial risk due to increased complexity, product mixes and support costs. This is radically different from the times when early development and marketing costs for a new product could be offset and recovered as the company grew through economies of scale.
Bottom line: toss the books and go back to the basics, but with an eye to the future. Teamwork, adaptation, iterative inquiry, optionality, and product personalization at scale are the keys to the kingdom of tomorrow.
Source: incafrica.com
