Founders Mentality - Our read of the season!

 

Here at B23 we're always interested in reading material that will ensure our future success. For this article we wanted to share with you 'The Founders Mentality' by Chris Zook & James Allen. It is so interesting and no matter where you are as a company, whether it be starting out or well established, this is a must read. 

Special thanks to Bain & Co as well who we have been lucky enough to see first hand and understand the benefits of a Founders Mentality. Their insight is invaluable and you can get a great understanding of it through their eyes on the internet. 

The best way to introduce you to this mentality is to say that it's about how companies can combat the Growth Paradox, but what does that mean? Just 1 in 9 companies achieve sustained profitable growth over 10 years. 85% of executives blame that on internal factors. Put simply, Growth creates complexity and complexity kills growth.  

Every company sets out as what we call an 'Insurgent'. They grow profitably to scale, waging war on their industry. They have a clear sense of mission, their employees have a deep feeling of responsibility to the company which celebrates the frontline and detests bureaucracy. 

It's a key source of competitive advantage for younger companies going up against larger, better endowed 'Incumbents' that is to say established companies with a large share of the market.

There are three traits; An insurgent mission, an owner mindset and an obsession with the frontline. This is the Founders Mentality and your best defence against the Growth Paradox. 

As companies grow they usually follow a default path, moving from insurgency to incumbency. This is attractive at the onset, it indicates you are becoming a leader of the industry and the benefits that the size of that company brings. However, it comes at a cost and ignore this at your peril. As you grow there are challenges, which the book calls winds, that will influence your growth. These include, forgetting the frontline, your revenue growing faster than your talent and the erosion of accountability to mention just three. 

So how do you combat this? There are six building blocks but we want to talk about 3 key ones. 

First of all, it's the need to future proof. You must ask yourself what the future insurgents of the industry will do. In other words, how will they take your customers from you? This requires you to embrace the insurgent mentality - Lots of experimentation, lots of failure and fast adaptation. Nothing is off limits, just be quick to pull the plug if an idea isn't working out. However it's better to do this than not try something new. 

Secondly, instil the right mindset. Meetings and deliberation only swallow up your speed and slow you down. Likewise, policy and process will just muffle your frontline voices. They'll have something invaluable to say but the process will deter them. So act with speed. Some companies prefer decision making models such as RAPID to assist with this. It clearly defines who is recommending the change and who the decision maker is, so that bureaucracy is limited. 

Finally, decide on Micro-Battles. This is about reconnecting leadership with the frontline and rediscovering the art of doing stuff fast. The aim is to act like a scale insurgent. The conflict between executing known playbooks vs company survival, is a conflict in every business in need of resolution.

Well we're sold, we are big fans of the mindset. If you're interested in reading more then go check it out. One way that we stay obsessed with the frontline is by appreciating the diversity in our workforce. If you want to hear more from us, read our diversity and inclusion article here; 

Diversity & Inclusion (b23marketing.blogspot.com)

Or our myth buster article;

The myth buster article - Why is B23 different? (b23marketing.blogspot.com)