HBR AT 100

THE MOST INFLUENTIAL AND

INNOVATIVE ARTICLES FROM
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW’S
FIRST CENTURY

BY HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

 Contents

The Five Components of Emotional Intelligence at 3

Work
Figure 4-1 4
Table 5-1 5
Table 5-2 8
Figure 5-1 9
Eight Steps to Transforming Your Organization 10
Figure 8-1 11
Table 8-1 12
Figure 8-2 13
Figure 8-3 14
Table 8-2 15
What Happens on Good Days and Bad Days? 16
The Daily Progress Checklist 17
Table 11-1 19
Figure 14-1 20
Figure 14-2 21
Figure 17-1 22
Table 17-1 23
How to Find the Data Scientists You Need 24
Table 21-1 25
Figure 21-1 26
Figure 21-2 27
What Lean Start-Ups Do Differently 28
Figure 25-1 29
Figure 25-2 31
Figure 25-3 32
Building Competitive Advantage at Komatsu 33
The Process of Surrender 35
 The five components of emotional intelligence at work

Definition Hallmarks

297674_02_021-042_r2.indd 22
­Self-​­awareness The ability to recognize and understand your ­Self-​­confidence
moods, emotions, and drives, as well as their Realistic ­self-​­assessment
effect on others
­Self-​­deprecating sense of humor

­Self-​­regulation The ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses Trustworthiness and integrity
and moods Comfort with ambiguity
The propensity to suspend ­judgment—​­to think Openness to change
before acting

Motivation A passion to work for reasons that go beyond Strong drive to achieve

3
money or status Optimism, even in the face of failure
A propensity to pursue goals with energy and Organizational commitment
persistence

Empathy The ability to understand the emotional makeup Expertise in building and retaining talent
of other people ­Cross-​­cultural sensitivity
Skill in treating people according to their emotional Service to clients and customers
reactions

Social skill Proficiency in managing relationships and building Effectiveness in leading change
networks Persuasiveness
An ability to find common ground and build rapport Expertise in building and leading teams

04/01/22 6:05 PM
 FIGURE 4-1

Forces governing competition in an industry

Threat of
new entrants

The industry
Bargaining Jockeying Bargaining
power of for position power of
suppliers among current customers
competitors

Threat of
substitute
products or
services

297674_04_057-078_r2.indd 58 04/01/22 6:05 PM

 TABLE 5-1

A snapshot of blue ocean creation

This table identifies the strategic elements that were common to blue ocean
creations in three different industries in different eras. It is not intended to be
comprehensive in coverage or exhaustive in content. We chose to show Amer-
ican industries because they represented the largest and least-regulated
market during our study period. The pattern of blue ocean creations exempli-
fied by these three industries is consistent with what we observed in the other
industries in our study.

Was the At the time of

blue ocean Was it driven the blue ocean
created by a by technology creation, was
new ­entrant pioneering the industry
Key blue ocean or an or value attractive or
creations ­incumbent? pioneering? unattractive?
AUTOMOBILES
Ford Model T New entrant Value Unattractive
Unveiled in 1908, the Model T ­pioneering*
was the first mass-produced (mostly existing
car, priced so that many Ameri- technologies)
cans could afford it.
GM’s “car for every purse and Incumbent Value ­ Attractive
purpose” pioneering
GM created a blue ocean in 1924 (some new
by injecting fun and ­fashion into ­technologies)
the car.
Japanese fuel-efficient autos Incumbent Value Unattractive
Japanese automakers created ­pioneering
a blue ocean in the mid-1970s (some new
with small, reliable lines of ­technologies)
cars.
Chrysler minivan Incumbent Value ­ Unattractive
With its 1984 minivan, Chrysler pioneering
created a new class of auto- (mostly existing
mobile that was as easy to use technologies)
as a car but had the passenger
space of a van.

*Driven by value pioneering does not mean that technologies were not involved. Rather, it
means that the defining technologies used had largely been in existence, whether in that
­industry or elsewhere.
(continued)

297674_05_079-096_r2.indd 85 04/01/22 6:05 PM

 TABLE 5-1 (continued)

Was the At the time of

blue ocean Was it driven the blue ocean
created by a by technology creation, was
new ­entrant pioneering the industry
Key blue ocean or an or value attractive or
creations ­incumbent? pioneering? unattractive?
COMPUTERS
CTR’s tabulating machine Incumbent Value ­ Unattractive
In 1914, CTR created the busi- pioneering
ness machine industry by (some new
simplifying, modularizing, and ­technologies)
leasing tabulating machines.
CTR later changed its name to
IBM.
IBM 650 electronic computer Incumbent Value ­ Nonexistent
and System/360 pioneering
In 1952, IBM created the busi- (650: ­mostly
ness computer industry by sim- existing
plifying and reducing the power ­technologies)
and price of existing technol-
ogy. And in 1964, it exploded Value and
technology
the blue ocean created by the
650, when it unveiled the Sys- ­pioneering
tem/360, the first modularized (System/360:
new and existing
computer ­system.
technologies)
Apple personal computer New entrant Value ­ Unattractive
Although it was not the first pioneering
home computer, the all-in-one, (mostly existing
simple-to-use Apple II was a technologies)
blue ocean creation when it
appeared in 1978.
Compaq PC servers Incumbent Value ­ Nonexistent
Compaq created a blue ocean pioneering
in 1992 with its ProSignia server, (mostly existing
which gave buyers twice the technologies)
file and print capability of the
minicomputer at one-third the
price.

297674_05_079-096_r2.indd 86 04/01/22 6:05 PM

 TABLE 5-1 (continued)

Was the At the time of

blue ocean Was it driven the blue ocean
created by a by technology creation, was
new ­entrant pioneering the industry
Key blue ocean or an or value attractive or
creations ­incumbent? pioneering? unattractive?
Dell built-to-order ­computers New entrant Value ­ Unattractive
In the mid-1990s, Dell created a pioneering
blue ocean in a highly compet­ (mostly existing
itive industry by creating a new technologies)
purchase and delivery experi-
ence for buyers.

MOVIE THEATERS
Nickelodeon New entrant Value ­ Nonexistent
The first Nickelodeon opened pioneering
its doors in 1905, showing (mostly existing
short films around the clock to technologies)
working-class audiences for five
cents.
Palace theaters Incumbent Value ­ Attractive
Created by Roxy Rothapfel in pioneering
1914, these theaters provided (mostly existing
an operalike environment for technologies)
cinema viewing at an affordable
price.
AMC multiplex Incumbent Value ­ Unattractive
In the 1960s, the number of pioneering
multiplexes in America’s subur- (mostly existing
ban shopping malls mush- technologies)
roomed. The multiplex gave
viewers greater choice while
reducing owners’ costs.
AMC megaplex Incumbent Value Unattractive
Megaplexes, introduced in pioneering
1995, offered every current (mostly existing
blockbuster and provided spec­ technologies)
tacular viewing experiences in
theater complexes as big as sta-
diums at a lower cost to theater
owners.

297674_05_079-096_r2.indd 87 04/01/22 6:05 PM

 TABLE 5-2

Red ocean versus blue ocean strategy

The imperatives for red ocean and blue ocean strategies are starkly different.

Red ocean strategy Blue ocean strategy

Compete in existing market space. Create uncontested market space.
Beat the competition. Make the competition irrelevant.
Exploit existing demand. Create and capture new demand.
Make the value/cost trade-off. Break the value/cost trade-off.
Align the whole system of a company’s Align the whole system of a company’s
activities with its strategic choice of activities in pursuit of differentiation and
­differentiation or low cost. low cost.

297674_05_079-096_r2.indd 89 04/01/22 6:05 PM

 FIGURE 5-1

The simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost

A blue ocean is created in the region where a company’s actions ­favorably
affect both its cost structure and its value proposition to buyers. Cost ­savings
are made from eliminating and reducing the factors an industry competes on.
Buyer value is lifted by raising and creating elements the industry has never
offered. Over time, costs are reduced further as scale economies kick in, due
to the high sales volumes that superior value generates.

Costs

Blue
ocean

Buyer value

297674_05_079-096_r2.indd 92 04/01/22 6:05 PM

 Eight steps to transforming your organization

1. Establishing a sense of urgency

• Examining market and competitive realities
• Identifying and discussing crises, potential crises, or major opportunities

2. Forming a powerful guiding coalition

• Assembling a group with enough power to lead the change effort
• Encouraging the group to work together as a team

3. Creating a vision
• Creating a vision to help direct the change effort
• Developing strategies for achieving that vision

4. Communicating the vision

• Using every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and strategies
• Teaching new behaviors by the example of the guiding coalition

5. Empowering others to act on the vision

• Getting rid of obstacles to change
• Changing systems or structures that seriously undermine the vision
• Encouraging risk taking and nontraditional ideas, activities, and actions

6. Planning for and creating short-term wins

• Planning for visible performance improvements
• Creating those improvements
• Recognizing and rewarding employees involved in the improvements

7. Consolidating improvements and producing still more change

• Using increased credibility to change systems, structures, and policies that
don’t fit the vision
• Hiring, promoting, and developing employees who can implement the vision
• Reinvigorating the process with new projects, themes, and change agents

8. Institutionalizing new approaches

• Articulating the connections between the new behaviors and corporate
success
• Developing the means to ensure leadership development and succession

10

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 FIGURE 8-1

Factors affecting job attitudes as reported

in 12 ­investigations

Factors characterizing 1,844 Factors characterizing 1,753

events on the job that led to events on the job that led to
extreme dissatisfaction extreme satisfaction
Percentage
50% 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 30 40 50%
frequency
Achievement
Recognition
Intrinsic motivators

Work itself
Responsibility
Advancement
Company policy
and administration Growth

Supervision
Relationship with
supervisor
Work conditions
Hygiene factors

Total of all Total of all

Salary factors factors
Relationship with peers contributing contributing
to job to job
Personal life dissatisfaction satisfaction
Relationship with Percentage frequency
subordinates 80% 60 40 20 0 20 40 60 80%
Status 31 Motivators 81
Security 69 Hygiene 19

11

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 TABLE 8-1

Principles of vertical job loading

Principle Motivators involved

A. Removing some controls while retaining Responsibility and personal achievement
accountability
B. Increasing the accountability of Responsibility and recognition
­individuals for their own work
C. Giving a person a complete natural unit Responsibility, achievement, and
of work (module, division, area, and ­recognition
so on)
D. Granting additional authority to Responsibility, achievement, and
­employees in their activity; job freedom ­recognition
E. Making periodic reports directly Internal recognition
­available to the workers themselves
rather than to supervisors
F. Introducing new and more difficult tasks Growth and learning
not previously handled
G. Assigning individuals specific or Responsibility, growth, and advancement
­specialized tasks, enabling them to
become experts

12

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 FIGURE 8-2

Employee performance in company experiment (three-month

cumulative average)

100

Achieving

80
Shareholder service index

60
Control

40

20

0
Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept

Six-month study period

13

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 FIGURE 8-3

Change in attitudes toward tasks in company experiment

(mean scores at beginning and end of six-month period)

60

Control
Achieving
55
Job reaction mean score

50

45

40

35
March September

14

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 TABLE 8-2

Enlargement vs. enrichment of correspondents’ tasks in

­company experiment

Horizontal loading suggestions rejected

Firm quotas could be set for letters to be answered each day, using a rate that would
be hard to reach.
The secretaries could type the letters themselves, as well as compose them, or take on
any other clerical functions.
All difficult or complex inquiries could be channeled to a few secretaries so that the
remainder could achieve high rates of output. These jobs could be exchanged from time
to time.
The secretaries could be rotated through units handling different customers and then
sent back to their own units.

Vertical loading suggestions adopted Principle

Subject matter experts were appointed within each unit for other G
members of the unit to consult before seeking supervisory help.
(The supervisor had been answering all specialized and difficult
questions.)
Correspondents signed their own names on letters. (The supervisor B
had been signing all letters.)
The work of the more experienced correspondents was proofread A
less frequently by supervisors and was done at the correspondents’
desks, dropping verification from 100% to 10%. (Previously, all
correspondents’ letters had been checked by the supervisor.)
Production was discussed, but only in terms such as “a full day’s D
work is expected.” As time went on, this was no longer mentioned.
(Before, the group had been constantly reminded of the number of
letters that needed to be answered.)
Outgoing mail went directly to the mailroom without going over A
supervisors’ desks. (The letters had always been routed through the
supervisors.)
Correspondents were encouraged to answer letters in a more C
personalized way. (Reliance on the form-letter approach had been
standard practice.)
Each correspondent was held personally responsible for the quality B, E
and accuracy of letters. (This responsibility had been the province
of the supervisor and the verifier.)

15

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 What happens on good days and bad days?
Progress—even a small step forward—occurs on many of the days ­people
report being in a good mood. Events on bad days—setbacks and other
­hindrances—are nearly the mirror image of those on good days.
GOOD DAYS

Setbacks 13% 76% Progress

Inhibitors 6% 43% Catalysts

Toxins 0% 25% Nourishers

BAD DAYS

Setbacks 67% 25% Progress

Inhibitors 42% 12% Catalysts

18% 4%
Toxins Nourishers

16

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 The Daily Progress Checklist
Near the end of each workday, use this checklist to review the day and plan your managerial actions for the next day. After a few days,

297674_09_159-176_r2.indd 174
you will be able to identify issues by scanning the boldface words. First, focus on progress and setbacks and think about specific events
(catalysts, nourishers, inhibitors, and toxins) that contributed to them. Next, consider any clear i­nner-​­work-​­life clues and what further
information they provide about progress and other events. Finally, prioritize for action. The action plan for the next day is the most
important part of your daily review: What is the one thing you can do to best facilitate progress?

Progress Setbacks
Which one or two events today indicated either a small win or a Which one or two events today indicated either a small setback or a
­possible breakthrough? (Describe briefly.) possible crisis? (Describe briefly.)

17
Catalysts Inhibitors
□ Did the team have clear □ Did they have sufficient time to □ Was there any confusion □ Did they lack sufficient time
short- and long-term goals for focus on meaningful work? regarding long- or short-term to focus on meaningful work?
meaningful work? goals for meaningful work?
□ Did I give or get them help when □ Did I or others fail to provide
□ Did team members have they needed or requested it? Did □ Were team members overly needed or requested help?
sufficient autonomy to solve I encourage team members to constrained in their ability
problems and take ownership help one another? to solve problems and feel □ Did I “punish” failure or
of the project? ownership of the project? neglect to find lessons
□ Did I discuss lessons from and/or opportunities in
□ Did they have all the resources today’s successes and problems □ Did they lack any of the problems and successes?
they needed to move forward with my team? ­resources they needed to
efficiently? move forward effectively? □ Did I or others cut off the
□ Did I help ideas flow freely within presentation or debate of
the group? ideas prematurely?

04/01/22 6:05 PM
 Nourishers Toxins
□ Did I show respect to team □ Did I support team members who □ Did I disrespect any team □ Did I neglect a team member
members by recognizing their had a personal or professional members by failing to rec- who had a personal or profes-

297674_09_159-176_r2.indd 175
contributions to progress, problem? ognize their contributions to sional problem?
attending to their ideas, and progress, not attending to their
treating them as trusted pro- □ Is there a sense of personal and ideas, or not treating them as □ Is there tension or antag-
fessionals? professional affiliation and cama- trusted professionals? onism among members of
raderie within the team? the team or between team
□ Did I encourage team members □ Did I discourage a member of members and me?
who faced difficult challenges? the team in any way?

Inner work life

Did I see any indications of the quality of my subordinates’ inner work lives today?

18
Perceptions of the work, team, management, firm
Emotions
Motivation
What specific events might have affected inner work life today?

Action plan
What can I do tomorrow to strengthen the catalysts and What can I do tomorrow to start eliminating the inhibitors and
nourishers identified and provide the ones that are lacking? toxins identified?

04/01/22 6:05 PM
 TA B L E 1 1 - 1

Why new managers don’t get it

Beginning managers often fail in their new role, at least initially, because
they come to it with misconceptions or myths about what it means to be a
boss. These myths, because they are simplistic and incomplete, lead new
managers to neglect key leadership responsibilities.

Myth Reality
Defining characteristic Authority Interdependency
of the new role “Now I will have the freedom “It’s humbling that someone
to implement my ideas.” who works for me could get
me fired.”
Source of power Formal authority “Everything but”
“I will finally be at the top “Folks were wary, and you
of the ladder.” really had to earn it.”
Desired outcome Control Commitment
“I must get compliance from “Compliance does not equal
my subordinates.” commitment.”
Managerial focus Managing ­one-​­on-​­one Leading the team
“My role is to build “I need to create a culture
relationships with individual that will allow the group to
subordinates.” fulfill its potential.”
Key challenge Keeping the operation Making changes that will
in working order make the team perform
“My job is to make sure the better
operation runs smoothly.” “I am responsible for
initiating changes to enhance
the group’s performance.”

19

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 FIGURE 14-1

A road map for racial equity

Organizations move through these stages sequentially, first establishing an
understanding of the underlying condition, then developing genuine concern,
and finally focusing on correcting the problem.

Problem
P Condition
awareness
Do I understand what
the problem is and
Root-cause where it comes from?
R
analysis
Concern
Do I care (enough)
E Empathy
about the problem and
the people it harms?

S Strategy Correction
Do I know how to
correct the problem and
S Sacrifice am I willing to do it?

20

297674_14_213-226_r3.indd 214 05/01/22 3:38 PM

 FIGURE 14-2

21

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 FIGURE 17-1

Puppy or muffin? Progress in image recognition

Machines have made real strides in distinguishing among similar-looking categories of images.

297674_17_257-272_r3.indd 260
Vision error rate
30%
Algorithms
25

20

22
15

10

Humans
5

0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Source: Karen Zack/@Teenybiscuit Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation

04/01/22 6:05 PM
 TABLE 17-1

Supervised learning systems

As two pioneers in the field, Tom Mitchell and Michael I. Jordan, have noted,
most of the recent progress in machine learning involves mapping from a set
of inputs to a set of outputs. Some examples:

Input X Output Y Application

Voice recording Transcript Speech recognition
Historical market data Future market data Trading bots
Photograph Caption Image tagging
Drug chemical properties Treatment efficacy Pharma R&D
Store transaction details Is the transaction Fraud detection
fraudulent?
Recipe ingredients Customer reviews Food recommendations
Purchase histories Future purchase behavior Customer retention
Car locations and speed Traffic flow Traffic lights
Faces Names Face recognition

23

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 How to Find the Data Scientists You Need

1. Focus recruiting at the “usual suspect” universities (Stanford, MIT,

­Berkeley, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon) and also at a few others with
proven strengths: North Carolina State, UC Santa Cruz, the University
of ­Maryland, the University of Washington, and UT Austin.
2. Scan the membership rolls of user groups devoted to data science tools.
The R User Groups (for an o ­ pen-​­source statistical tool favored by data
scientists) and Python Interest Groups (for PIGgies) are good places to
start.
3. Search for data scientists on ­LinkedIn—​­they’re almost all on there, and
you can see if they have the skills you want.
4. Hang out with data scientists at the Strata, Structure: Data, and Hadoop
World conferences and similar gatherings (there is almost one a week
now) or at informal data scientist “­meet-​­ups” in the Bay Area; Boston;
New York; Washington, DC; London; Singapore; and Sydney.
5. Make friends with a local venture capitalist, who is likely to have gotten a
variety of big data proposals over the past year.
6. Host a competition on Kaggle or TopCoder, the analytics and coding
competition sites. Follow up with the m
­ ost-​­creative entrants.
7. Don’t bother with any candidate who can’t code. Coding skills don’t have
to be at a ­world-​­class level but should be good enough to get by. Look
for evidence, too, that candidates learn rapidly about new technologies
and methods.
8. Make sure a candidate can find a story in a data set and provide a
­coherent narrative about a key data insight. Test whether he or she can
communicate with numbers, visually and verbally.
9. Be wary of candidates who are too detached from the business world.
When you ask how their work might apply to your management
­challenges, are they stuck for answers?
10. Ask candidates about their favorite analysis or insight and how they are
keeping their skills sharp. Have they gotten a certificate in the advanced
track of Stanford’s online Machine Learning course, contributed to
­­­open-​­source projects, or built an online repository of code to share (for
­example, on GitHub)?

24

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 TABLE 21-1

Sketch 0ut your hypotheses

The business model canvas lets you look at all nine building blocks of your business on one page. Each c­ omponent of the business model con-

297674_21_303-316_r2.indd 306
tains a series of hypotheses that you need to test.
Key partners Key activities Value propositions Customer relationships Customer segments

Who are our key partners? What key activities do our What value do we deliver to How do we get, keep, and grow customers? For whom are we
Who are our key suppliers? value propositions the customer? Which customer relationships have we established? creating value?
require? Which one of our customers’ Who are our most
Which key resources are we How are they integrated with the rest of our
acquiring from our partners? Our distribution channels? problems are we helping business model? important customers?
Customer relationships? to solve? What are the
Which key activities do How costly are they?
partners perform? Revenue streams? What bundles of products customer archetypes?
and services are we offering
Key resources to each segment? Channels
Which customer needs are

25
What key resources do our we satisfying? Through which channels do our customer
value propositions require? segments want to be reached?
What is the minimum viable
Our distribution channels? product? How do other companies reach them now?
Customer relationships? Which ones work best?
Revenue streams? Which ones are most cost-efficient?
How are we integrating them with customer
routines?

Cost structure Revenue streams

What are the most important costs inherent to our business model? For what value are our customers really willing to pay?
Which key resources are most expensive? For what do they currently pay?
Which key activities are most expensive? What is the revenue model?
What are the pricing tactics?

Source: See www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas. Canvas concept developed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur.

04/01/22 6:05 PM
 FIGURE 21-1

Listen to customers
During customer development, a start-up searches for a business model that
works. If customer feedback reveals that its business hypotheses are wrong,
it either revises them or “pivots” to new hypotheses. Once a model is proven,
the start-up starts executing, building a formal organization. Each stage of
customer development is iterative: A start-up will probably fail several times
before finding the right approach.

Search Execution

1 2 3 4
Customer Customer Customer Company
discovery validation creation building

Pivot
1 2 3 4
Founders translate Start-up continues The product is Business
company ideas into to test all other refined enough transitions from
business model hypotheses and to sell. Using its start-up mode,
hypotheses, test tries to validate proven hypotheses, with a customer
assumptions about customers’ interest the start-up development
customers’ needs, through early builds demand by team searching
and then create orders or product rapidly ramping up for answers,
a minimum viable usage. If there’s marketing and sales to functional
product to try out no interest, the spending and scales departments
their proposed start-up can pivot up the business. executing its
solution on by changing one or model.
customers. more hypotheses.

26

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 FIGURE 21-2

Quick, responsive development

In contrast to traditional product development, in which each stage occurs in
linear order and lasts for months, agile development builds products in short,
repeated cycles. A start-up produces a minimum viable product—containing
only critical features—gathers feedback on it from customers, and then starts
over with a revised minimum viable product.

Requirements
Initial
planning
Planning Analysis and design

Implementation

Deployment
Evaluation Testing Minimum
viable product

Customer feedback

Planning Analysis and design

Implementation

Deployment
Evaluation Testing Minimum
viable product

Customer feedback

Planning Analysis and design

Implementation

Evaluation Testing

Deployment
Minimum
viable product

27

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 What Lean ­Start-​­Ups Do Differently
The founders of lean ­start-​­ups don’t begin with a business plan; they begin with
the search for a business model. Only after quick rounds of experimentation and
feedback reveal a model that works do lean founders focus on execution.

Lean Traditional

Strategy
Business model Business plan
Hypothesis-driven Implementation-driven

New-Product Process
Customer development Product management
Get out of the office and test hypotheses Prepare the offering for market following a
linear, step-by-step plan

Engineering
Agile development Agile or waterfall development
Build the product iteratively and incre­ Build the product iteratively or fully ­
mentally specify the product before building it

Organization
Customer and agile development teams Departments by function
Hire for learning, nimbleness, and speed Hire for experience and ability to execute

Financial Reporting
Metrics that matter Accounting
Customer acquisition cost, lifetime custom- Income statement, balance sheet, cash
er value, churn, viralness flow statement

Failure
Expected Exception
Fix by iterating on ideas and pivoting away Fix by firing executives
from ones that don’t work

Speed
Rapid Measured
Operates on good-enough data Operates on complete data

28

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 FIGURE 2 5-1

Inspiration, ideation,
ation
­implementation t
en
em

pl
Move on to the
next project―repeat

3 Im
Make the case to
the business―
spread the word
What
lem? W
tunity
(or so

Help marketing
design a communi-
cation strategy

Execute the Vision

Engineer the experience

Prototype some more,

test with users, test Involv
internally from
neeri

Communicate
internally―don’t work
in the dark! Pa
“ex
ch
Tell more stories (They Prototype, test,
keep ideas alive) prototype, test …

Apply integrative
thinking Put customers in
the midst of every-
thing; describe their
journeys

Build creative frameworks

(order out of chaos) Are v
sets,
inside

Make many sketches,

concoct scenarios

Or
sy
(T

Brainstorm
Id e

2
a tio n

29

297674_25_341-362_r2.indd 352 04/01/22 6:05 PM

 1 Insp
ira
tio
n
Expect Success
eat
Build implementation
resources into your plan

What’s the business prob-

lem? Where’s the oppor-
tunity? What has changed
(or soon may change)?

Look at the world:

Observe what people do,
how they think, what they
need and want

What are the business con-

Involve many disciplines straints (time, lack of resources,
from the start (e.g., engi- impoverished customer base,
neering and marketing) shrinking market)?

Pay close attention to

“extreme” users such as
children or the elderly

Have a project room

where you can share
insights, tell stories

How can new

Are valuable ideas, as- technology help?
sets, and expertise hiding
inside the business?

Organize information and

synthesize possibilities
(Tell more stories!)

Images copyright © IDEO

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 FIGURE 25-2

Coasting
A sketch (top, seat plus helmet storage) and a prototype (middle) show ele-
ments of Coasting bicycles. Shimano’s Coasting website (bottom) points users
to safe bike paths.

31

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 FIGURE 2 5-3

Aravind
Aravind’s outreach to rural patients frequently brings basic diagnostic
tools (top and center) and an advanced ­satellite-​­linked telemedicine truck
­(bottom) to remote areas of India.

32

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 Building competitive advantage at Komatsu

Protect Komatsu’s
Corporate home market against Reduce costs while
challenge Caterpillar ­maintaining quality
Programs Early 1960s Licensing deals with 1965 Cost Down (CD) ­program
Cummins Engine, International
1966 Total CD program
Harvester, and Bucyrus-Erie to
acquire technology and
establish benchmarks
1961 Project A (for Ace) to
advance the product quality of
Komatsu’s small and midsize
bulldozers above Caterpillar’s
1962 Quality circles company-
wide to provide training for all
­employees

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 Building competitive advantage at Komatsu

Make Komatsu an
international Respond to external
enterprise and build shocks that threaten Create new products
export markets markets and markets
Early 1960s Develop 1975 V-10 program to Late 1970s Accelerate
­Eastern bloc countries reduce costs by 10% product development to
while maintaining quality, expand line
1967 Komatsu Europe reduce parts by 20%, and
marketing subsidiary 1979 Future and Frontiers
rationalize manufacturing
established program to identify new
system
businesses based on soci-
1970 Komatsu America 1977 ¥180 program to ety’s needs and company’s
­established budget companywide for know-how
1972 Project B to improve 180 yen to the dollar when
1981 EPOCHS program to
the durability and reliability the exchange rate was 240
reconcile greater product
and to reduce costs of large 1979 Project E to establish variety with improved
bulldozers teams to redouble cost production efficiencies
1972 Project C to improve and quality efforts in
­payloaders response to oil crisis
1972 Project D to improve
hydraulic excavators
1974 Establish presales
and service departments to
assist newly industrializing
countries in construction
projects

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 The Process of Surrender

Unseen Underestimated Unconventional

strategic intent resourcefulness entry tactics

Competitive
surprise
gSaeyrt

Partial
response

Catch-up
trap

Lost
battles

Sense of
inevitability

Retreat
and exit

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