Sharing a book I enjoyed reading on a recommendation – “Going on Offense” by Behnam Tabrizi of Stanford University. It is about how companies need to transform themselves in order to be continuously innovating. The book just released about a week ago. I couldn’t put it down, partly because I can relate to my experience driving 0-1 innovation in startups and large companies, but mostly because of the book’s content and organization. The author dives into the following drivers and characteristics of continuously innovating organizations:
1. Existentialism – making work matter, meaningful purpose, North Star, but more than just platitudes and PR, existentialism captures the seriousness of the need to change.
2. Customer obsession – knowing customer needs, but going beyond with empathy. Solely relying on the marketplace to determine your products and services might only yield incremental iterations of value.
3. Pygmalion effect – scaling culture beyond just the leadership team. This is not just about communication and propaganda, but creating a community of like-minded individuals.
4. Startup mindset – putting aside normal calculations of profitability, missionaries vs mercenaries.
5. Managing tempo – when to be patient and when to go full throttle.
6. Working bimodally – one part of the organization is optimized for incremental growth of the stable and the familiar, while another part is optimized for disrupting through experimentation. The new is to be shielded from the pressures of the business as usual.
7. Move boldly – overcoming the temptation to seek growth that may be easy and profitable. The bets need to tie back to the existential purpose.
8. Radical collaboration – Silos are a fact of organizational life, choosing where to allow silos depends on strategy, resisting the impulse to work with people you know
The chapter I loved the most is the extended case study of Starbucks, where this all comes together, and I liked the fact that this was not the typical FAANG company case study.
Highly recommend: https://lnkd.in/gMRh2W95
On Product Leadership 