Purpose shifting lenses - a way to reset businesses and to launch the next big game changer type opportunities?

As we are getting ready to welcome the holiday season of Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year – it appears, as if, the “Festival of lights” season (we had observed in our earlier blog), seem to be reemerging all over again, with a SHIFT- and rightfully so, one of the pressing questions, facing most business leaders being – what would be the next big paradigm shifting idea, they can bet on in 2012? While there is no silver bullet, the short answer, in our opinion, is the experimentation mindset, - as we never know, which experimentation project, will bring forth the “aha’ moment! However, we often hear another follow-up question, from our clients – does that mean one need to experiment every idea under the sun? In other words - how do we go about identifying a handful of high potential ideas (or the strategic choices), for the so called experimentation adventure?

"Connect the Dots" in three phases - Decide, Destine and Disrupt

Our experience suggests that most of those high potential paradigm shifting ideas, in most cases, happen to exist, just around us, and so, it is just a matter of identifying them with a right set of purpose shifting lenses. What do we mean by that? To explain it further, let us start with the concept of Gestalt, as illustrated by the famous optical illusion picture of “duck & rabbit” –as listed on the top of the page.

Depending upon, how you look at it, the picture could be a duck or a rabbit. In other words, when we start looking at the opportunity space, with a purpose shifting lenses, we, not only get the ability to spot the ducks and rabbits distinctly, but also, we get the ability to discern how ducks slowly shift into rabbits and vice-versa. As it turns out, these mind shifts, usually occur in both steps (like a duck) and in jumps (like a rabbit) and so, as leaders, we, not only need to master this “connecting the dots” game of discerning those shifts quickly, but also, we must learn to apply those shifts, within the right business context (CORE vs. EDGE) for us to be successful in the 21st century. To help master this “Connect the dot” game, we have put together a 3D framework (Decide, Destine and Disrupt), as part of this article.

1. Decide Phase is all about discerning those shifts (i.e. ideas/strategic choices in the form of ducks and rabbits) using the purpose shifting lenses. In other words, this phase is all about resetting the five part purpose seed (vision/mission/values/codes/BHAG) of the corporation, and start looking at the opportunity space with a fresh set of eyes, with a green field mindset.

2. Destine phase is all about properly slotting those shifts into “STEPS” and “JUMPS” into core and edge businesses, depending upon the velocity of those ideas(i.e. distance divided by time). As it turns out, ducks move in steps and rabbits in jumps, and so, this phase is all about answering “how far” and “how long” questions, from the standpoint of slotting those ideas (or strategic choices) into the appropriate step and jump type markets, by answering the following questions –

- How far would we want to go? – Establishing the geographical market boundaries to help answer “where to play and what to play” question- Force in Play
- How long would it take to get there? – Setting the timeline expectations to help answer “when do we need to win” question - Power in Play

3. Disrupt Phase is all about transforming core businesses with edge ideas/choices, with appropriate amount of capital (resources), to produce the extraordinary results by answering the following question –

- How much would it take? – Setting the resource or capability expectations to help answer “How do we win” question - Energy in Play

Core, Edge and Fringes Defined within the context of this 3D framework
Now that we have outlined the 3D framework, let us define few terminologies to get our message across with little more clarity -
• CORE are, the businesses that generate majority of the revenue for the firm, per their purpose seed (i.e. vision/mission/values/codes/BHAG) by meeting the unmet needs of the customers, and by exploiting their capabilities, within a well guarded environment, that is managed by an established set of rules.
• EDGES are, the businesses that generate a minority percentage of the revenue for the firm, not necessarily in alignment with the purpose seed (which means, it provides the opportunity for the leaders to reset their purpose seed), by meeting the unmet needs of the customers, with a help of their exploited (i.e. CORE’s capabilities) and unexploited capabilities, within a boundaryless environment, that is operated by a set of rules, that are constantly being redefined. Edges, over a period of time usually transform in to CORE or FRINGE.
• FRINGES, for all practical purposes, are edge businesses, with one difference – i.e. edge businesses that fail to transform into core within a reasonable period of time (say 1-3 years), end up as fringes, which usually go into extinction soon after.

Core and Edges come to life within a spinning wheel metaphor
What do these definitions tell us? Core and edges are not independent businesses, rather, they are children, born of the same parent, and so, they need each other for them to be successful in the long run. While edges have significant growth potential, to scale its growth, it is essential for edges to gain access to the resources and markets of the core. At the same time, core has another challenge to deal with i.e. to meet the margin pressures of the street; they are also constantly looking for new growth platforms, to meet the demands of the street.

To comprehend this interdependent relationship little better, let us use a spinning wheel metaphor -imagine for a moment that the corporation as a spinning wheel, with three types of dices (core, edge and fringe) that are being rolled into the spinning wheel, that is spindled on a common axis of purpose seed (vision/mission/values/codes/BHAG as the axis) - the core dices are the lucky ones (older established businesses) that get plugged tightly into the inner groove (i.e. wheel win region) quickly, whereas, edges & fringes are the chaotic roller dices, trying to find a spot inside that spinning wheel, that is being constantly spinned(disrupted) with varying speeds (i.e. changing the rules of the game). In other words, edges and fringes are the moving targets that are spinning with varying speeds within the wheel (i.e. corporation) with one difference - edges over a period of time, transform themselves and find a spot inside the core, whereas, fringes transform themselves into extinction.

Core and Edge Integration Options

What does this metaphor tell us? Winners in the 21st century are the companies, who not only find a way to make their core and edges to work collaboratively, but also, simultaneously disrupt the core with their edges, before they go into extinction. A corollary to that hypothesis is - Are today's corporations overly focused on “STEP” type core P&S’s and business models, and insufficiently aware of the “JUMP” type edge opportunities, and hence fail to disrupt their core, and thereby, let their competitors to eat their own lunches? If we had to further synthesize them - it all boils down to answering the key question – what are the possible organization models available for corporations, to make their core and edge businesses, to work together (but, still disrupt the core) and yet achieve the extraordinary business results, all simultaneously?

While bringing edge to the core is one of the best organizational models (as suggested by Professor Clayton Christensen), we also believe that there are situations, where, we may have to bring core to the edge, especially, when core resources need to adopt the emerging management practices of the edge – which means, we have three possible types of organization models evolving. Depending upon the culture, industry and size of the company, one needs to pick and chose one of the following three models, as one size does not fit all.

1. Edge comes to Core - the centrifugal model: This model is all about taking edge resources and slowly integrating them into core, within the four walls of the existing business division. One efficient Go-To-Market strategy for this type of model is product bundling– i.e. bundling core P&S with edge P&S - and then phasing out the core P&S’s, over a period of time.
2. Core comes to Edge – the centripetal model: Take core resources and move them into a newly formed, autonomous, edge business division with a different set of performance measurement/reward schemes. The edge business divisions come up with a revenue sharing and/or transfer pricing models, with different weight factors across both edge and core BU boundaries. After edge BU is commercially successful, edge can be merged back to the core BU.
3. Core and Edge meets in the middle of the road, with a hybrid spin-off model: Take a set of talented resources from both edges and core business organization, and augment them with an entrepreneurial talent from outside (preferably from different industry) and form a new “edcore Inc”, with a different set of leaders, performance measurement/reward schemes. After "edcore Inc", is commercially successful, it can optionally be bought over by the parent.

Conclusion:
With that said, let us conclude with a key take away – as leaders, we not only must learn to master this “connect the dots” game, with a purpose shifting lenses mindset, but also, we must learn to be both a stepper (duck) and jumper (rabbit) – to face the ambidextrous leadership challenges of the 21st century! Simply put, the billion dollar leadership question before us today is – as leaders, do we want to be a stepper, jumper or both? The choices are crystal clear before us, like the fork in the road, in the words of Yogi Berra- and so, it is up to us, to take it, with an integrated systemic mindset, and then solve it with our 3D process (Decide, Destine and Disrupt) within the context of our firm’s Triune Purpose Frameworks. Interestingly enough, these three phases happen to align perfectly with our firm’s Triune Purpose framework (TPF) dimensions of leadership, strategy and innovation, respectively, as outlined below.

• Leadership is all about discerning those decisions with a purpose shifting lenses mindset – Decide Phase
• Strategy is all about destining those decisions within the destiny puzzle (i.e. Core and Edge) with the purpose shifting lenses mindset – Destine Phase
• Innovation is all about disrupting CORE with EDGE, with the purpose shifting lenses mindset– Disrupt Phase

Having said that, we do agree that edges do have significant obstacles, before transforming themselves into core. However, given the tremendous promises we have outlined earlier- (i.e. scalability, differentiation, consumer relevance, preventing competitors eating one’s own lunch and last, but not the least, the aspiration), edges have a plenty of compelling reasons, to work together collaboratively with core, using one of the three organization models, suiting to the culture of the corporation. And so, let us finish with an optimistic note – while edges, at times, might have lost their battle, the war is not over yet, and so, cheer up edges –very much like how, we are enjoying the gifts of this holiday season, because of the shift that happened 2000 years ago(from law to grace), there is still hope – as tomorrow’s edge gift is always better than today’s core shift – and so, let us continue to collaborate with each other, and make the core-edge integration to work as part of our common sense of purpose– and let that be our last word!

Wish you all Happy Holidays!

Virtual Reality Experience (VRE) Portfolio driven Gamification Platforms – The next Billion dollar Game Changer Opportunity Platforms?

Happy Diwali (aka festival of lights) to our readers from both east and the west alike! As it turns out, there couldn’t have been a better moment than today, to publish this article - as light (energy), according to most “faiths”, indeed has originated from the Word – and rightfully so, it all started with that Word (the creator), saying- “Let there be a light”. Granted, that Word might sound different, in different faiths/philosophies - i.e. as “the Word”, “dvr”, “om”, “allah” or "cosmos"– however, the common consensus, among most of them is that, all of these different sounding words mean the same only.

In other words, the Word, not only created the light, but also, has put the “purpose driven seedal chain principle” in motion, which eventually separated the universe, into real and virtual worlds, within the time, space and matter dimensions, as depicted in the picture above! Rightfully so, the same purpose driven seedal chain principle (i.e. Purpose Driven Word->Light->Energy->Force->Power->Virtual Reality Experience), not only, happens to be the key principle behind our firm’s Triune Purpose Frameworks ( PDL©, PTV© and PIP© ), but also, is a key enabler for answering the following three key questions faced by businesses today, in an integrated manner, within the dimensions of leadership, strategy and innovation - as explained in detail, in one of our earlier articles.

• How far would we want to go? – Establishing the geographical market boundaries to help answer “where to play and what to play” question- Force in Play


• How long would it take to get there? – Setting the timeline expectations to help answer “when do we need to win” question - Power in Play


• How much would it take? – Setting the resource or capability expectations to help answer “How do we win” question - Energy in Play

The journey for the next Billion dollar game changer opportunity starts now…

With that said, I am sure, someone is asking – Where are we going with it? Let us face it – most breakthroughs within civilizations (or businesses for that matter) have happened, only when humans invented new experience pool moments (or market segments), within the context of these three dimensions of time, space and matter, spanning both physical and virtual worlds. While history, (all the way from stone ages), is being filled with many such examples, the one example, we all can relate and understand better is, what Apple/Google/Motorola and others have done, recently within the smart platforms space (Phone, Tablets etc). If you look at it deeply, they, not only have created a brand new experience pool (or market segment which never existed before), but also, have masterfully mixed, both the real and virtual world experience moments, and custom tailored, it to the needs and wants of the 21st century consumers – resulting in the creation of the billion+ dollar market segment, which never had existed before, in the first place.

Sure enough, one of the key questions, that is often asked in our C-suite advisory engagements is – “what is going to be the next billion dollar game changer opportunity within our industry?” The reason it has become such an important question is, because, history is filled with many examples, where most companies, not only, have failed to seize their billion dollar moments on a timely manner, but also, sadly in some instances, have let their competitors eat their own lunches too. So, the natural follow-up question is - is there a proven recipe (or formula) to proactively identify those billion dollar opportunities, on a timely manner, much ahead of the competitors? The answer, in Einstein’s words is- “opportunity identification is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” - meaning experimentation mindset, is the answer here- as we never know, which experimentation project, will bring forth the next billion dollar “aha’ moment.

Billion dollar game changer opportunities are all about creating Experience Pools that never had existed before!

With that said, our experience also suggests that most billion dollar game changer opportunities, share a common characteristic of creating experience pools(i.e. market segments) which never had existed before - as evident in the Smart Phone/Tablet story. How do you do that? Part of the answer, is in the phrase experience pool itself – I.e. It is all about redefining the experience moments, within the three dimensional experience continuum of time, space and matter - and then, rendering company’s P&S’s and business models (new and old) within the context of those experience moments. In other words, the success recipe(or formula) is all about augmenting real world physical experiences, with simulated virtual experiences, in the form of hybrid experience models, that is custom tailored to the needs and wants of the 21st century consumers.The challenging part, though is, finding that optimal VRE mix between virtual and real word experiences, as it varies from industry to industry (and company to company as well)- as some industries, like media and entertainment, are very high on virtual experiences, whereas, old economy style brick-and-mortar industries like manufacturing, are high on real world experiences, but very less on virtual experiences.

Virtual Reality Experience (VRE) Portfolio Mix

With digital and telemetry technologies taking the virtual experiences, altogether to newer heights - the key question, that needs to be asked/answered within the context of this billion dollar opportunity phenomena is - what is the optimal virtual and real world experience mix for your industry and then for your company?

Before answering that question, let us first set the stage, with our own purpose innovation driven VizPlanet concept posted within the MIX site (http://www.managementexchange.com/hack/purpose-landing-vizplanet%C2%A9-our-generation%E2%80%99s-sputnik-moment) , as our VizPlanet platform, is one of the great examples, where we had augmented real world experiences, with virtual experiences, in the form of hybrid experience models, and custom tailored them to the needs and wants of the 21st century consumers. With that said, timing couldn’t have been better, that the need of the hour is a framework to arrive at that the optimal virtual reality experience (VRE) portfolio mix for each industry - as optimal VRE mix is going to be the next deal breaker, when it comes to succeeding in this digital experience driven 21st century economy.

Pure Play VRE Portfolio Realms

First things first – Let us define some terminologies. In rudimentary physics terms, Experience pool is nothing but objects (matter or P&S’s) that move in time and space dimensions, producing unique intervention moments! The corresponding real world experience pool equation is => matter+ time+ space => as depicted in the upper right hand side of the picture above.

Similarly, virtual experience pool is the reverse of the above definition - it is nothing but virtual objects (i.e. no-matter or virtual P&S’s) that move in both “no-time” and “no-space” dimensions, producing a similar, yet unique intervention moments! The corresponding virtual experience equation is => no-matter+ no-time+ no-space => as depicted in the lower left hand side of the picture above.

When we combine these two equations, in all possible combinations, we see the following 8 pure-play VRE realms emerging. For an easy readability, we have given a gamification platform example for each realm, so that readers can comprehend the characteristics of these 8 VRE realms within its context. For example, those of us who have played the “Wii” game can easily relate and comprehend the meaning of “augmented virtuality” realm, and so on and so forth. We call these 8 realms as pure-play VRE reams, because they follow a straight line progression within the three dimensional chart of time, space and matter- as opposed to the free-flow progression exhibited by the hybrid-play realms, as explained in the next section.


Hybrid-Play VRE Portfolio Realms

The next natural follow-on question is – what if, if every one of these 8 Pure-play VRE realms get mixed and matched, with rest of the pure-play realms, thus resulting in free-flow progression based, hybrid-play VRE portfolios realms? Rightfully so, some of the business model idea configurations, we had proposed within our larger VizPlanet platform, are classic examples for this free-flow progression based “hybrid-play VRE portfolio business models”, as explained below –

• VizPlant© - Combination of Reality, Duplicated Virtuality, Augmented Virtuality and Alter reality enabled – postponement strategy/telemetry/nano-technology driven manufacturing
  (in-home and/or distributed) business model for CPG, Pharma and Precisions equipment industries.


• VizMall©/VizStore© - Combination of Reality, Duplicated Virtuality, Augmented Virtuality enabled Virtual shopping mall/store platform business model for Retail, Media, CPG and Entertainment industries.


• VizTown©/VizThemePark©/VizClassroom© - Combination of Reality, Duplicated Virtuality, Augmented Virtuality enabled Virtual work place platform business model for all industries.

Please note that these examples are just tip of the iceberg when it comes to the “hybrid-play VRE portfolio realm based business models”– however, when we scratch the surface beyond them, by mixing and matching them in different combinations, we can come up with variety of interesting business model combinations (maximum of 63350 possibilities i.e. 8 possible repeatable combinations out of this 8 realms - using the formula 15! / (8! x7!)), within our VRE portfolio framework.

Conclusion

With that said, the billion dollar challenge before us today is - how can companies, render their products, services and business models, within the context of this VRE realms (each with varying weight factor), producing unique experience moments, that is custom tailored to their company’s purpose seed (or DNA)? The winners, in our opinion, are those companies, who, not only find the right answer for this question, but also, who customize their P&S’s and business models, within the context of this VRE Portfolio Mix, that is further custom tailored to the needs and wants of the 21st century consumers!

In closing, let us fast forward to 2020- in hindsight, let history decide - if we were right on with our intuition!

Integrated Triune Purpose, the missing link between spiritual value and business value?

Those of you, who have been following our blogs closely, would have definitely noticed a key message that an integrated “TRIUNE PURPOSE” driven approach(with its three frameworks - PDL© for leadership, PTV© for strategy and PIP© for innovation) is the best approach, when it comes to discovering untapped growth opportunities. While most practitioners would agree with our conclusion, one of the fellow practitioners, made a causal comment during one of the recent networking events - and I quote -“While it all sounds great to talk about solving these growth opportunities, in an integrated manner, what matters at the end of the day is, financial ratios based business value, and so, everything else is secondary”.

Spiritual Value and Business value – the conjoined twin concepts defined

Our friend perhaps has a point as most valuation models, including McKinsey’s Zen of Corporate Finance Formula, are all based on just three key financial ratios of growth, ROIC and cost of capital. However, as we take a closer look at the six dimensional purpose value chain equation and its elements (spiritual, purpose, leadership, strategy, innovation, scientific as listed in the picture below), we could clearly see a “cause and effect” causal chain relationship, emerging among them, more so, within the triune purpose dimensions of leadership, strategy and innovation. With that said, we contained our enthusiasm (of jumping too quickly into the micro level causal chain analysis), and decided to step back, to define the conjoined twin concepts of business value and spiritual value first- to see how they are interlinked at the macro level -

• Business Value (BV), in its essence, is discounting future cash flows, based on today’s cost of capital, popularly represented using the Zen of corporate Finance Formula, listed below. In other words, corporations not only need to grow continuously, but also, must learn to exercise their investment capital, in a prudent manner, and start producing profitable cash flows, above and beyond the hurdle/threshold rate of WACC, for them to increase their business value -> BV= NOPAT x [(1- g/ROIC)/ (WACC-g)].


• Similarly, Spiritual value (SV), in its essence, is discounting our future heavenly experiences (which happens to be faith & hope driven in most denominations/religions), based on today’s cost of emotional capital (which happens to be love in most denominations/religions), that is expressed using our own version of Zen of Spirituality Formula, listed below. In other words, we not only need to grow spiritually, but also, must learn to exercise our spiritual capital of faith & hope, in a prudent manner, and start living a fruitful life on this earth, above and beyond the minimum threshold of love (or cost of spiritual capital called love), for us to increase our spiritual value -> SV= spiritual gain x (1- Spiritual growth/Return on Spiritual capital)/ (minimum love threshold-spiritual growth).

What do these definitions tell us?

Interestingly enough - very much like how Business value is dependent upon three financial variables of growth, ROIC and cost of capital (or hurdle/threshold rate called WACC), Spiritual value is also dependent upon three spiritual variables of faith, hope and love, and rightfully so, they are interlinked as shown in the picture below -

Spiritual Value is determined by Sustainable Spiritual Advantage (SSA) very much like how Business Value is determined by Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA)!

Now that we have established the six way macro linkages across the six purpose value chain dimensions, the next logical step is to layout the micro linkages among them, with a help of few financial charts, for the benefit of those of us, who chart these things for living. As a first step , let us recall one of the key guiding principles that drives value within our Triune purpose framework (PDL©, PTV© and PIP©) - “For Organizations to increase their business value, they must learn to excel in one or more of following 3C dimensions , to achieve the so called Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA)”

• Market/Experience Advantage, as covered within our Experience Pool Portfolio (EPP©) framework, addressing the growth variable within BV formula.


• Capability Advantage, as covered within our Capability Pool Portfolio (CPP©) framework, addressing the ROIC and WACC variables within BV formula.


• Collaborative Advantage or Purpose Innovation advantage, as covered in our Purpose Innovation Portfolio( PIP©) framework, addressing both growth (g)and ROIC variables, as collaborative advantage, in our opinion, is the next wave to unleash growth opportunities, especially within the pull side of the value chain, as covered in one of our earlier articles( http://strategywithapurpose.blogspot.com/2011/01/purpose-innovation-answer-for.html).

Within the context of this 3C formula, SCA would be represented as follows -

• SCA = market or experience advantage + capability or competency advantage + collaborative advantage

Similarly, within the context of spiritual value, we see a similar set of 3C’s, resulting in a Sustainable Spiritual Advantage (SSA) formula as well -

• SSA=faith/hope advantage + love advantage +inter denominational/religion collaboration advantage.

As we further dissect each of the 3C’s within SCA and SSA formulas -we can clearly see a pattern evolving - that the top 5 macro charts, that are being used to develop the diagnostic insights within the SCA and SSA dimensions, not only, follow a symmetrical pattern, but also, they end up becoming the stepping stone for each other’s insight (i.e. SCA and SSA),as outlined in the 15 SCA producing symmetrical charts (5 for Market/Experience Portfolio, 5 for Capability Pool Portfolio and 5 for collaborative Pool Portfolio) and 5 SSA producing symmetrical charts, as outlined below.

SCA enabling Market/Experience Advantage Charts

With that said, let us leverage our EPP framework (that is part of PTV), and analyze the Market/Experience Advantage, with a help of it top 5 macro level bubble charts, with revenue in $ being represented as the bubble. To put our symmetrical progression reasoning in perspective, we have provided a sample set of charts, we recently put together, as part of one of our client engagements, to show how the symmetrical progression is manifested within those charts.

• Company’s growth vs. Market Growth


• Company’s growth vs. Relative Experience or Market Share(RMS)


• Operating Margin (ROS) vs. RMS


• Capital Intensity (or Operating Velocity) vs. RMS


• ROIC vs. RMS
  
  

SCA enabling Capability Advantage is analyzed by 5 macro charts within our CPP framework

Similarly, as part of the CPP framework, Capability Advantage is analyzed by 5 macro level bubble charts, with revenue in $ being represented as the bubble.

• Company’s growth vs. Market’s Total capability (primarily capital only for now)


• Company’s growth vs. Relative Capability Share (RCS)


• Operating Margin (ROS) vs. RCS


• Operating Velocity or Capital Intensity vs. RC


• ROIC vs. RCS

SCA enabling Collaborative Advantage is analyzed by 5 macro charts within our PIP and PTC frameworks
Along the similar lines, as part of the PIP and PTC frameworks, Collaborative Advantage is analyzed by 5 macro level bubble charts, with revenue in $ being represented as the bubble.

• Company’s collaborative growth vs. Market’s Total boundaryless collaborative capability (Purpose model, Purpose bundle and Purpose platform etc.


• Company’s growth vs. Relative Collaborative Share (RCS)


• Operating Margin (ROS) vs. RCS


• Operating Velocity or Capital Intensity vs. RCS


• ROIC vs. RCS

Similarly, Spiritual Value is determined by Sustainable Spiritual Advantage (SSA)

Now that we have shown the symmetrical progression existing among the 15 charts from business value producing SCA standpoint, the next steps is to show how they relate to the spiritual value focused SSA. With this article being Business Value focused, we have limited the scope of SSA with just five charts, which hopefully is good enough to show the symmetrical progression from the standpoint of it supporting SCA’s 15 charts and its insights. As time permits, we will go into more details with the remaining 10 SSA charts in one of our future articles. For now, listed below are the 5 macro level bubble charts, with number of souls in # being represented as the bubble, which by the way, happen to be in perfect alignment with the 5 macro level charts of EPP framework.

• Spiritual growth (faith) vs. denomination’s Growth


• Spiritual growth (faith) vs. Relative Denomination/Religion (RDRS)


• ROIC (hope)vs. RDRS


• ROS (faith driven) vs. RDRS


• Operating Velocity (hope driven)vs. RDRS

Does that mean Spiritual Value is the starting point for Business Value?

With that said, I am sure, someone is asking – “does that mean, business value must always start with the spiritual value?” The answer is “IT DEPENDS”, as the spiritual value culture invariably precedes Purpose driven leadership (PDL) culture in most organizations, and so, it is fair to say that PDL can be sourced either from a “higher power” based spiritual leadership culture or from an emotional energy based leadership culture, as long as it has the three key ingredients of faith, love and hope. Nevertheless, our integrated “triune approach” is well positioned to bridge the missing link between business value and spiritual value regardless of the source of the spiritual value (higher power based and/or emotional energy based), as outlined in the picture on the top of the article. It so happens, our PDL leadership framework, equally works well for both realms of cultures i.e. higher power driven spiritual value culture and Emotional energy driven spiritual value culture, as outlined in the picture below as well.

Triune Purpose in action with real world examples…..

With that said, our research also suggests that leaders with a deep sense of spiritual value (or faith), tend to dream bigger visions, regardless of their source of inspiration (i.e. higher power based or emotional energy based) and those big visions are the ones that help them to create those futuristic experience pools (or market segments) which never had existed in the first place, as seen in the following 5 examples from 5 different walks of life-

• Colgate founder William Colgate, a farmer by occupation, venturing into the multi billion dollar Colgate empire, inspired by his Christian Faith –> Spiritual energy based.


• Aravind eye hospital founder Dr.G.Venkataswamy, revolutionizing eye care with a shop floor type business model, inspired by his Hindu faith based Seva Foundation roots –> Spiritual energy based


• Professor Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize winner, founder of the Grameen Bank, and one of the pioneers of micro finance, being inspired by his Islamic concept of charity and faith –> Spiritual energy based.


• Alexander the great, with his emotional energy based faith, conquering most of the known world in his era –> Emotional energy based.


• Steve jobs with his emotional energy based faith, revolutionizing the mobile space –> Emotional energy based.

In all of these five examples, if at all there is a common denominator, it is the fact that these leaders have always started their extraordinary journeys, with a deep sense of faith (higher power based or emotional energy based) and that faith is the one that had eventually helped them to revolutionize the market place or world in a larger context. In other words, in all of these five cases, these revolutionists, ended up creating an experience pool (or market segment), which had never existed in the first place at all. Without going too much into all of their life achievements, let us take the most recent example of Steve Jobs (as he has been in the news a lot lately), and see how his emotional energy driven, faith based vision, helped him to create an experience pool (or market segment) which had never existed before, further reinforcing our triune purpose linkage theme, as shown below.

• Emotional energy driven faith ->big vision->bigger experience pool/market segment which never existed->higher CAGR/ROIC->higher business value

As we further look at Steve Job’s legacy, it is apparent that his “hope and love” part of the emotional energy system was working in perfect harmony with his faith part, every step of the way, especially while he was developing Apple’s futuristic experience pools. In other words, it was his hope part of the emotional energy system that gave him the “never give up” attitude, even when things were impossible for him to climb. Let’s us face it – no matter how we slice it, odds of him reaching to the top of the most innovative company on the face of this planet, were near zero, if not, totally impossible– first growing up in an adopted home, then dropping out of the college, which when was followed by a period when he had to collect soda cans for a single meal, which then was followed by a period of success, and then came the unjust ouster from Apple during his first stint and then the cancer – wow, what a ride! But then, in spite of all of those odds standing against him so high- he neither lost his hope nor his spirits - and in my humble opinion, that is what made him one of the great business leaders of this generation! Not only that, during all those difficult days - he never lost his Mojo or his love for his profession (and to humanity as well) – and in nutshell, he truly lived up to his own slogan – “Stay hungry and Stay foolish”.

Conclusion

In closing, let us conclude with this thought – our combined experience, along with a decade worth of research is showing us that most companies, historically, have succeeded, only when they have taken an integrated approach in discovering untapped growth opportunities. Time and time again, we run into situations, where many “near picture perfect growth strategies” and game changer type innovation plans, have often been put on hold (or stopped?), partly because, appropriate leadership traits, were not exhibited during critical junctures - which makes us to propose another slogan "Lead with the Purpose Culture, Strategize from the Core and Innovate with the Edge". As we further dissect this slogan – we see the following sequence of events happening in any untapped growth discovery initiative, as reiterated further, by our triune purpose driven approach -

• Lead with the PDL leadership framework, to help develop the purpose culture that is needed to set the cultural context and order from the chaos.


• Strategize with the PTV framework, to help establish the boundaries as “Core and Edge”, so that the firm can start strategizing from Core.


• Innovate with the PIP framework, to help innovate without boundaries, yet, with an initial focus of innovating with the edge.

With that said, let us summarize the article with a final quote –

• “THE ME”, one wants to be (Spiritual value) must be aligned with the “THEME” (Business Value), the company wants to be, so that the stakeholders can reap their value, when it is completely THEMED to be!”

The prerequisite for such a magical transformation, is all about us removing the “ME” from the “THE ME” space first and then together transforming it into the “THEMED” place– and that is where, our integrated TRIUNE PURPOSE driven approach, stands tall and bridges that missing link perfectly - as outlined in the picture on the top of the page!

Leadership, Strategy and Innovation – Purpose in Three Forms?

It is not uncommon to hear these days about the “once glorious” corporations, either going out of business (e.g. Borders, Blockbuster etc) or in the process of making drastic directional changes (e.g. HP’s decision to spin off PC business and change course on its Palm based tablet strategy) – which, in a way, has started a religious debate within the business world recently– What derails a company? Good Boss, Bad Boss (or) Good strategy, Bad strategy (or) Good Innovation, Bad Innovation? Although, one can build a compelling case for any one of these three dimensions, the short answer, in our humble opinion is - some combination of the above, with varying weight factors, in proportion to, how well the company’s purpose statement with its five parts (vision, mission, values, codes and BHAG with goals & priorities), has been laid out from clarity and certainty standpoint. In other words, the root causes behind the derailment (whether it is a leadership failure, strategy failure and/or innovation failure) – all stems from “the lack of an agreed upon purpose statement (or seed) and/or that purpose seed not being germinated properly (in both spirit and essence) into developing their unique culture with a unique DNA”.

Simply put, the purpose seed, with its five parts, is the one that manifests itself as leadership, strategy and/or innovation - depending upon the cultural context– very much like how Godhead in most religious faiths happen to manifest in three forms depending upon the dispensational context –and so, getting the purpose seed right is the right answer here- which has inspired us to formulate a terminology/concept called “The Triune Purpose” – as a compelling answer to this debate, as further illustrated below and in the picture above.

• Creator/Orchestrator -> Leadership


• Redeemer/Sustainer -> Strategy


• Encourager/Disruptor -> Innovation

I am sure, someone is asking – “well, we have heard the concept of Trinity - but, what is this Triune Purpose?” As we further dissect the root causes behind these three dimensions (i.e. leadership, strategy or innovation), it invariably boils down to purpose seed not adhering to nature’s 3S seedal chain principle (i.e. Seed-Season-Sequel /Harvest/Value) – either during the seed formulation part or in its culture infusing germination part!

Six dimensional life chains stemming from the same purpose seed

As it turns out, this seedal chain principle, also maps one-on-one to various life dimensions as well - spiritual, nature, scientific, leadership, strategy and innovation (as outlined below)

• Scripture/Word –Life Season-Salvation -> Spiritual/Life chain Principle in most faiths


• Seed-Season-Sequel (harvest) –> Nature’s Seedal chain principle


• Energy-Force-Power –> Scientific energy chain Principle


• Purpose seed (manifesting as emotional energies such as faith, hope and love)-Season-Value -> Leadership chain Principle


• Energy – Season-Value –> Strategic planning chain Principle


• Purpose-Season-Value -> Purpose innovation chain Principle
  

If we have to further pick a common denominator among these six dimensional chains, it must be the theme of "purpose seed manifesting itself as organizational energies" – which has made us to propose a hypothesis –

• How well an organization develops and manages its purpose driven organizational energy portfolios in an integrated, systemic manner is the one that creates their unique culture that eventually decides its overall success.

As we propose this hypothesis - I am sure someone is asking –“well, most companies have a great purpose statements in paper, yet they don’t yield the intended harvest or value” – and that is precisely our point as well. While the purpose statement formulation (i.e. seed part) is the first step in the right direction, framing up the strategic growth opportunity space accurately with an expectation (per that purpose seed), within the context of their unique culture, that is further governed by nature’s three key principles (Seedal chain, Seasonality and Opposites) is what going to set the company apart from the competitors- as further explained below in detail.

Interestingly enough, SEASON, the second key component of the seedal chain equation, is the one that creates that unique culture from the purpose seed which then helps us to frame the problem space accurately within the context of its three sub dimensions- boundary, time, and quantity. In other words, whether it is a strategy formulation, leadership development and/or innovation development– it all comes down to answering the following three questions in an integrated systemic manner –

1. How far would we want to go? – Establishing the geographical market boundaries to help answer “where to play and what to play” question- Force in Play


2. How long would it take to get there? – Setting the timeline expectations to help answer “when do we need to win” question - Power in Play (not the political power play)


3. How much would it take? – Setting the resource or capability expectations to help answer “How do we win” question Energy in Play

Triune Purpose seed mapped to Our Leadership, Strategy and Innovation frameworks

As it turns out, this purpose driven, integrated problem solving approach, not only helps us to be purpose minded, but also, positions us to create integrated systemic solutions, across all the three dimensions of leadership, strategy and innovation, in a holistic manner, as opposed to solving problems within each of these dimensions on a standalone/ silo manner. In other words, solving these three questions within the cultural context of this TRIUNE PURPOSE driven hypothesis – is what brings forth integrated systemic solutions. An example being the VizPalnet and healthcare reform solutions, we had proposed within the Management Innovation Exchange (MIX) site recently.

First and foremost, within the leadership chain principle - Purpose seed (with its five parts), transforms or manifests itself into three energy portfolios – faith, hope and love - as we had seen in one of our Purpose Driven Leadership (PDL©) leadership framework articles and as summarized in the following mapping.

• Vision/Mission –> faith portfolio within PDL© framework


• Values/Codes –> love portfolio within PDL© framework


• BHAG –> hope portfolio within PDL© framework

Next, as part of the strategic planning chain principle, purpose seed (with its five parts), transforms into experience and capability pools - as we had seen in one of our Purpose Portfolio Thread View (PTV) strategic planning framework articles and as summarized in the following mapping.

• Vision/Mission –> experience pool portfolio (EPP©) within PTV©


• Values/Codes –> capability pool portfolio (CPP©) within PTV©


• BHAG –>experience and capability pools in some combination weight factor, as outlined in vision/mission statements within PTV©

Similarly, as part of the Innovation chain principle - Purpose seed (with its five parts), transforms or manifests itself into purpose causal chains - as we had seen in one of our Purpose Innovation Portfolio (PIP) framework articles and as summarized in the following mapping.

• Vision/Mission –> Purpose model portfolio within PIP©


• Values/Codes –> Purpose bundle Portfolio within PIP©


• BHAG –>Purpose platform portfolio within PIP©

Now that we have connected the dots, let us take one of these three dimensions (strategy) for a deeper dive and see how it comes to life within this purpose/energy management process, as part of today’s blog. As time permitting, we will go deeper into leadership and innovation dimensions, in one of our future blogs.

Strategic Planning Chain comes to life within our PTV framework using the energy management principle

With the fact that purpose is being equated to energy within the cultural context of nature’s three key principles (Seedal chain, Seasonality and Opposites) – let us have a quick primer on energy management, as it applies to the business world –as energy (or value) transforms from one state to the another, with value being either added or removed in every step of the way, as it serves the expectations of its stakeholders (e.g. serving customers with appropriate P&S’s to meet their “job to be done”) . Accordingly, we have identified 5 business energy states/stations within the business life cycle (Kaplan/Norton’s BSC based four perspectives - Customers, Financial, Value Chain and P&S + our own Purpose perspective) to help manage this business energy flow within the strategic planning cycle using PTV©’s radial framework, as outlined below.

Once the business energy flow is contained within those 5 business energy stations (or perspectives) of the radial framework, nature’s 3S or seedal chain principle comes into play, resulting in six macro type opposing forces/dilemmas (i.e. Purpose vs. Profit, Customer Centric vs. Vision Centric Innovation, Pull vs. Push value chain, Operation Excellence vs. Innovation Excellence, long term vs. Q-To-Q results and Market based vs. Resource based view) – as explained in the picture above. As it turns out, strategy at this point in the PTV life cycle is all about making wise choices, not only within the context of these six dilemmas, but also within the other minor dilemmas (Core vs. Edge, Effectiveness vs. Efficiency, Hire vs. Nurture talent, Customers vs. Partners, Individuals vs. Teams, Collaborative vs. Command and control leadership style etc.) using the “principle of opposites”. In other words, answering the WHERE TO PLAY AND WHAT TO PLAY type of strategy questions, within the context of these macro and micro dilemmas, is all about tapping the energy flows within the right energy station (i.e. identifying the right geographical market boundaries along with the right energy accelerating growth opportunities within the right time span) – first, using our EPP© framework and then translating those growth opportunities into execution plans using CPP© framework – as elaborated in detail within our PTV© framework article.

Conclusion

While there are hundreds of articles and books written around the topics of leadership, strategy and innovation, it is interesting to see that organizations still have not been able to answer the key question of - what derails the company- effectively. Part of the reason, in our humble opinion, is that organizations have not framed up their opportunity space correctly within their cultural context of this triune purpose (leadership, strategy and innovation) in an integrated, systemic manner, as summarized below in the form of a hypothesis and its supporting set of questions. In other words, whether it is leadership development, strategy formulation and/or innovation development, it all comes down to solving the following hypothesis and it supporting three questions, in an integrated systemic manner, as opposed to solving them on a standalone silo manner (of course with some slight variations depending upon the unique culture of your organization).

Hypothesis and Key Questions: How well an organization develops and manages its purpose driven organizational energy portfolios in an integrated, systemic manner is the one that creates their unique culture that eventually decides its overall success.

The key questions that need to be answered as part of this hypothesis in an integrated, systemic manner within the triune purpose dimensions of leadership, strategy and innovation are -

1. How far would we want to go? – Establishing the geographical market boundaries to help answer “where to play and what to play” question- Force in Play


2. How long would it take to get there? – Setting the timeline expectations to help answer “when do we need to win” question - Power in Play


3. How much would it take? – Setting the resource or capability expectations to help answer “How do we win” question - Energy in Play

A Purpose Leader’s Declaration of Independence - Strategize from the Core & Innovate with the Edge!

With this weekend happen to be the July 4th weekend – we didn’t feel like writing a blog with a serious strategic content - and so, started searching for a topic – that, not only would lighten up the moment, but also, would re-kindle the independence spirit within all of us. It so happened that the topic of “declaration of independence” came to our mind - and to our utter amazement, we quickly learned that the dilemma that drove the founding fathers to come up with their five part manifesto – seem to be very similar to the “core vs. edge dilemma" that is being faced by most corporations today – and rightfully so, it ebbed up our curiosity, and so, we decided to learn more!

As it turns out, the 5C’s our Purpose Driven Leadership (PDL©) framework (as listed below), in conjunction with our strategic planning framework called Portfolio-Thread View (PTV©), seem to have a perfect answer for this core vs. edge dilemma, and so, we decided to summarize our answer, in the same format of the declaration of independence, - with the same language tone of the founding fathers, yet augmented by the tenor of our own PDL©/PTV© frameworks! We hope it lightens up your spirit– as we celebrate Independence Day this weekend!

1. The INTRODUCTION – Setting the new vision with the right tone of "CONFIDENCE”

When the course of “business as usual” is no longer an accepted norm, it becomes imperative for the stakeholders to redefine (reset?) the meaning of their core businesses (and its associated value), which have connected them with one another for so long, so that, they can embrace the truth behind their edge vision (e.g. Purpose Innovation driven VizPlanet©), the separate and yet almost equal planet station, to which the nature’s principles and God’s principles entitle them, driven by the tenets of the free market capitalism, that compels them, not only to “strategize from the core”, by declaring the causes behind their purpose value chain, but also, impels them to “innovate with the edge” with an edge platform like VizPlanet©, as depicted in the picture above!

2. The PREAMBLE – Renewing the “COMMITMENT” for the new vision

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all stakeholders (i.e. core and edge) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of purpose and profit. Those to secure these rights are called upon to rise among the stakeholders, as purpose innovators, deriving their inspiration from their creator and founding fathers!

3. The INDICTMENT – Establishing the “CONTEXT” for the new vision by identifying risks and returns

That whenever, any form of this edge vision, start cannibalizing their core, it is the right of the leaders to seize the moment, and mitigate those risks by exploring alternative paths of returns (or execution), including, but not limited to the option of spinning off a new start-up entity called “Edge Inc”, by laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such a form, as to them shall seem most likely to derive their collective purpose and profitability from their parent core.

4. The DENUNCIATION – Building the case for forming a new entity, with the right CALIBER of purpose leaders!

While self cannibalization of the core in some cases is a real thing, it is definitely not a compelling reason to quench the edge endeavor (as the saying goes, if we don’t eat our own lunch, someone else will!) – and so, edge, would like to peacefully work things out, as edge and core at the end of the day are still conjoined cousins (as they need each other), and so, hereby, the edge constituents, affirm and appeal to the open minded among the core, to accommodate edge’s aspirations and agree to co-exist as sister concerns, under the larger purpose holding umbrella!

5. The CONCLUSION– Closing the deal with the CALL-TO-ACTION

That, these united edge colonies, also envision the need to change the strategy and structure of the holding corporation, so that they can officially declare the existence of “Edge Inc” and of their right ought to be free and Independent operating entity; that they are absolved from the day to day oppression of the core, yet operating as conjoined cousins, to win the competition collectively and decisively, united by the larger purpose, that comes from their creator and founding fathers!


Editor/author’s closing comments:

While "Strategize From the Core and Innovate with the Edge" being the key strategic principle promoted within our blog today, by no means, we are suggesting that forming “edge Inc” is the only option to implement that principle , rather we suggest that, it is one of the most viable options available to large corporations - as history has proven again and again that “moving the needle” with the edge vision, especially within a large established core business, is not an easy thing.

On a side note - one of our business partners – after reading the draft version of the article – was quiet impressed with our timely “declaration of independence metaphor” and jokingly summarized the article with the following mapping. Although we did not mean it that way, it turned out to be that way, and so, we let you be the judge!

• 17-20th century British Empire –> depicting the Core or “business as usual”


• All former British Commonwealth colonies led by USA –> depicting the Edge type disruptive innovation businesses (e.g. our purpose innovation enabled VizPlanet© platform)


• Founding Fathers –> depicting the Overarching Board and Senior Leaders


• Declaration of Independence –> depicting the Edge manifesto with a proposal to form Edge Inc.


• Creator –> depicting the Common Purpose or a holding company uniting both core and edge under a common umbrella!

With all due respect, most former British colonies including USA, are still thankful to the British Empire –as they all have derived some of their foundational strengths from Great Britain, in spite of the shortcomings, that came along with the colonization. In other words, a former colony like USA cannot be the super power today, had it not derived some of its core strengths from the British Empire. Similarly, some of the emerging economic powers of today, were also, once colonies of British Empire- and in a way - they also have derived some of their foundational strengths from the British Empire, in spite of the shortcomings of colonization. The most notable one being the English language– which has become the link language for the whole world! In closing – no matter how we slice it, whether it is core or edge, we all need each other – as world is becoming smaller and smaller every day!

Wish you all a happy July 4th!

Purpose Landing on the VizPlanet© - Our Generation’s Sputnik Moment?

Courtesy: Google images customized within our prototype implementation

With our VizPlanet© article, that is being posted within the Management Innovation Exchange (MIX) site, generating some interesting follow-up questions within the MIX community, one of our readers, suggested that we cross-post it, within our blog to keep that momentum going. As it turns out, some of those questions, in fact, strengthen the case of our article, and so, we decided to incorporate them within our blog today. The most notable question being – is there a burning platform to call this revolutionary VizPlanet© idea, as our Generation’s Sputnik Moment?

The Answer is …..

The short answer is YES! Having said that, as we started thinking about the best way to present the compelling case for this burning platform – a key insight came to our mind – i.e. an insight from an article by Jared Diamond, assessing the impact of the increased rate of consumption happening among world’s population- as summarized in the picture below.


What does this insight tell us? The middle class boom of the developing world (more specifically the BRIC countries), that is being used by the western multi nationals, as the burning platform for their emerging market growth strategy, eventually might come back, and start even impacting their capital raising ability in the long run– especially, when those middle class populations, start competing for the limited set of natural resources, that are currently being consumed by their western counter parts, with a GH emission inequality ratio of 32:1. What do we mean by that? As it turns out, the emerging market growth strategies of most western multinationals, in a way, are a paradox because - on one hand, these corporations are counting on capitalizing the middle class boom happening within the developing world, to sustain and justify their double digit growth for the next 10 years or so - and, on the other hand, the same boom, eventually will end up increasing the competition for the limited natural resources (or cost of capital in financial terms)- and might even start reducing (or hurting) the quality of life, that is being enjoyed by all of us, perhaps not today, but definitely 10-25 years from now. In other words, no matter how we slice it, our planet’s current resource consumption pattern or lifestyle, is not at all sustainable and so, it is a no-win value proposition, for both the developed and developing world, in the long run.

As we present this argument, I hear someone pointing us to the progress we have made so far on developing those innovative sustainability solutions/strategies to reduce the carbon footprint (& hence reducing the resource uses) along with those efficient global capital/capability management strategies that have been instituted by most multinational corporations. While we don’t disagree with the intent and merits of any those strategies - most of those sustainability solutions/strategies, however, are still being centered around –just changing our personal choices, to reduce the carbon footprint, as opposed to changing our lifestyles in en-masse , before changing those personal choices. In other words, if we may use Prof. Clayton Christensen’s style of writing – most of our current sustainability solutions are stuck at the wrong side of the fork!

The root cause being …..

While we agree, that it is the right thing to do, to develop these innovative sustainability solutions (e.g. energy star programs etc.) to help reduce the carbon footprint at the personal/household/business levels, in our humble opinion, these solutions, do not fix the root cause of the issue i.e. -

• "With urbanization happening at a faster rate than ever across the globe, especially, in the last decade or so - more and more percentage of consumers (& corporations) are continuing to consume and compete for the limited set of natural resources to sustain their current life style (& profit margins) within the natural realm, in spite of a compelling alternative purpose/virtual lifestyle, available for them within the virtual realm, in a fraction of cost, providing almost the same “look and feel” type of experience, emitting just a fractional percentage of the greenhouse gases.”

One might wonder why we have not been able to fix this root cause, in its totality so far! The reason, in our humble opinion, is the lack of a compelling motivation (or incentive mechanism) on the part of both consumers and corporations, to embrace the alternative purpose/virtual lifestyle - and rightfully so, we propose a “lifestyle-changing”, root cause fixing, systemic approach, that MOTIVATES both consumers and corporations alike, to come together under a Virtual Community Environment(VCE, henceforth pronounced as Viz), that is bounded together by a powerful “Purpose Score driven, Virtual Reality/Avatar/3D/Interactive Gaming technologies/Tele-Metry based VizPlanet© Platform”, as outlined in the picture above, (that was put together as part of our recent prototype implementation), that inherently compels all parties (specifically corporations) to stretch their value chain into the VizPlanet© realm, thus making it possible for them to provide value-add purpose bundles of products and services with relatively less number of resources. Not only that - this type of a stretched value chain, apart from increasing corporations’ economies of scale & scope benefits, also, helps us to preserve God given, limited natural resources for the benefit of the future generation. In other words – it is all about us, changing our life style and making a conscious mindset shift, where possible, to consume certain services within the virtual realm (thus reducing the carbon footprint in larger percentages), as opposed to continuing our current lifestyle within the natural realm.

Resource Pool Portfolio (RPP) Framework – to help prioritize the VizPlanet© Services

To facilitate such a large scale sustainability driven purpose movement, we have developed a Resource Pool Portfolio (RPP) framework by grouping the high value resource consumption assets of our planet into 25 resource consumption buckets, and let the framework itself, to identify the top 5 high potential candidate buckets of services (as numbered in the picture below) that can be slowly moved from natural realm into the virtual realm, as promoted by our earlier purpose innovation platform concept.

Simply put, those purpose consumers (with a history of consuming/applying H&W P&S’s, consuming/reducing green energies, thus leading a purpose lifestyle, in body-soul-spirit dimensions with a higher purpose scores), who choose to consume all of their commerce and content services, using our VizPlanet© Platform, not only get a better value for themselves, but also, facilitate the noble cause of reducing the natural resource consumption rate by a substantial percentage. In other words, VizPlanet© platform, over a period of time, reduces the carbon footprint, by a substantial percentage (& hence operating cost as well) as captured in the three KPI’s of the RPP framework, thus increasing the profit margins of corporations as well.
Solution Options within the VizPlanet© Platform
With that said, the sustainable long term question that needs to be solved within the purpose reform context is – How do we change our lifestyle by resetting planet’s end-to-end resource consumption pattern and by moving some or all of the resource intensive commerce/content services from natural realm into the virtual realm – using one of the five options identified below

1. Brick and mortar platform along with a purpose score enabled vanilla online channel (current model with just addition of purpose scores based content and commerce services bundles).


2. Brick and mortar platform with a purpose score enabled vanilla online channel along with a third option of Purpose Score based VizPlanet© Platform in asynchronous mode i.e. near real time synchronization of SKU’s and content.


3. Brick and mortar platform with a purpose score enabled vanilla online channel along with a third option of Purpose Score based VizPlanet© Platform in synchronous mode i.e. real time synchronization of SKU’s & content - and so potentially replacing the newly constructed brick and mortar platforms


4. Brick and mortar platform with a purpose score enabled vanilla online channel along with a third option of Purpose Score based VizPlanet© Platform in synchronous mode i.e. real time synchronization of SKU’s & content with lot more value-add services like personalization and so eliminating the need for the new brick and mortar platforms, especially in the developing world


5. 100% “one-stop-shop” VizPlanet© Platform in synchronous real time mode eliminating all commercial real estate platforms(remediate the brick and mortar real estate for other services where virtual services are not possible to provide)

Having said that, by no means, we are suggesting that any of these options, will replace the current solution(s) in totality – rather, we suggest that these solution options, among many of the other experimentation solution options, has a great potential to compliment the current solution options. In other words, our solution is an experimentation option – with a potential to become the stepping stone, for the long ranging solution(s) within the 5-10 year purpose reform road map.

Conclusion
In closing, our hope is that sustainability experts, will pay a closer attention to our experimentation based solution options, given the fact, our VizPlanet© approach (including its ancillary platforms like VizMall©, VizTV©, VizDiner©, VizBev© etc), not necessarily, just solves those sustainability challenges, but also, it provides a better value (price) proposition for all parties, with an "almost similar look and feel type shopping/consumption experience" of their brick and mortar platform counterpart, thus motivating corporations and consumers to consume more and more purpose bundles, with an intention to increase their purpose scores -resulting in a win:win value proposition for all parties, in the long run!

Healthcare Reform – the Purpose Innovation© Way.....

With our Purpose Innovation idea, that is being posted, within the Management Innovation Exchange MIX site, seem to be getting some good visibility, some of our readers, informally suggested that we expound upon our earlier hypothesis – “Purpose Innovation, being a systemic approach, has a great opportunity to revolutionize health care reform”. Before we get into the nuances of our solution – in our humble opinion, there exist three foundational issues, in the way health care reform, in its current form, has been scoped –

• First and foremost, the health care reform problem space has not been framed up correctly. In other words, it has been wrongly framed, predominantly as a choice between public vs. private option (as pointed out by Prof. Clayton Christensen), as opposed to, being framed up as a choice between distributed, integrated or virtually integrated solution options.



• With the fact it has been framed incorrectly in the first place, it has also been approached with a “problem solving mindset of finding an immediate answer to fix the symptoms”, as opposed to being approached as a “systemic mindset of finding a long ranging solution, fixing its root causes”. In other words, it all comes down to “problem solving mindset of fixing the symptoms vs. solution providing mindset of fixing the root causes”.



• Finally, the health care reform has also been solved with a mindset of fixing the symptoms, with a 5-10 year planning mindset, as opposed to being solved with a series of experimentation based chunks of solutions, fixing the root causes, constituting 5-10 year road maps with an experimentation mindset. In other words, it all comes down to “symptoms fixing mode, with a vanilla planning mindset vs. “root causes fixing mode, with an experimentation based planning mindset”.

Systemic root causes of the Health Care reform

With that said, we propose a systemic approach, where we step back and re frame the health care reform, as an “opportunity for solution with an experimentation based chunks of solutions, fixing the root causes, leading up to the 5-10 year road map. As part of that attempt, we have also identified the top three systemic causes for the health care challenge (especially within the US context), before arriving at the solution part.

• Lack of a compelling mechanism motivating consumers to reduce their health risk profile, so that insurers can accept them readily without charging a high premium.
  


• Existence of Conflict of Interest (or lack of motivation) between providers and insurers - e.g. providers trying to extend hospitalization services whereas insurers trying to reduce the coverage of the services, thus resulting in a tension.



• Motivation of the providers to exploit the loop holes (e.g. performing mundane health care services as part of an in-patient care instead of out-patient care etc), resulting in malpractices and hence higher cost.

If we had to further summarize these three causes - it all comes down to the “lack of a compelling motivation (or incentives) on the part of providers, insurers and consumers” to come together and find a systemic solution, fixing the root causes. In other words, the primary root cause for the health care reform is - the lack of a compelling motivation among the three parties (providers, insurers and consumers) to form a joint alliance, so that collaboratively, they can create a win: win value proposition for all the parties involved.

Potential Solution Options

With that said, the sustainable long term question that needs to be solved within the health care reform context (especially when we add those 32 million uninsured people) is – which solution option? – distributed, integrated or virtually integrated solution options.

As part of this right framing, we have also identified the key pros and cons of these three solutions options, and let the "pros and cons", themselves decide the right solution option.

1. Under the distributed model (by and large the current model in US and most developed countries), hospitals are motivated to keep patients for longer - whereas the insurers are motivated to minimize reimbursement; thus creating conflict of interests – which means, any process improvement solution done on one end (provider side or insurer side) is not sustainable as it lacks a systemic view. In some cases, process optimizations, done in one side of the health care value chain, to save money or improve performance, invariably might have a detrimental impact on another side of the value chain, because the system lacks an end-to-end systemic perspective. The classic example, is privately managed private hospital providers, like hotels are motivated to fill their beds (or increase their room occupancy) whereas independent insurers are motivated to minimize reimbursement charges; thus creating the conflict of interest.



2. Under the Integrated model, (as proposed by Prof. Christensen), providers and insurers will come under one roof (perhaps as one firm) and so, provider’s action to reduce costs will also help the insurer side, as the conflict of interest, no longer exists as they are all part of the same organization. Increased room occupancy, a primary motivation for increasing the revenue in the distributed model, may not be a revenue opportunity under this model, and hence, conflict of interest, is greatly reduced, resulting in a better solution. On the flip side - while it provides a superior strategic/systemic solution, it might also introduce some structural challenges, in terms of making the health care value chain much more complex and bigger, potentially leading up to a monopolistic market model, as opposed to the free market driving the long term solution. In other words, a superior strategic solution, without a solid free market structure, sometimes, may not get the support from the business world!



3. As a middle ground solution, we propose the Purpose Innovation enabled virtual model, wherein, providers, insurers and consumers alike, are motivated to come together under a virtual roof, that is bounded together by a powerful “Purpose score based, virtual PurposeCare© platform”, that inherently motivates the parties to reduce the cost (with incentives to reduce their conflict of interest & malpractices), resulting in a “collaborative health care value chain” providing win: win value proposition for all, as promoted by our larger Purpose Innovation Idea. In other words - stronger their purpose causal chain (e.g. H&W consumers with a history of consuming/applying H&W P&S’s, leading a healthy lifestyle in body-soul-spirit dimensions), higher will be their purpose scores (and lesser their risk profile), and hence, resulting in increased number of uninsured being accepted by the insurers with lower premiums, facilitating a quick treatment turnaround time(as healthy consumers, in general, respond to treatments faster, with less expensive medicines & do-it-yourself and commoditized/shop floor type procedures), thus increasing the profit margins of all parties involved. It is also important to highlight yet another point here - that the spiritual dimension of "body-soul-spirit" has been consciously incorporated into the purpose causal chain, as health & wellness, in our opinion, also has a spiritual component, as history has proven again and again, that spiritual minded people (regardless of their religious denomination background), lead a healthy life style and have a better resilient power to recover quickly from health issues. On the down side - although, this solution is a sound systemic solution like option #2, (yet does not have as much of structural challenges like option #2), it still needs, some revamp of the health care value chain, as it needs lot more collaboration mindset among all parties (without much of direct control) - potentially resulting in a model, where we might need regulators policing the governance and purpose scores.
   

By looking at the "pros and cons" of these three options - options #2 and #3, in our opinion, deserve some additional exploration. Having said that, by no means, we are suggesting that any of these options, will totally replace the current solution(s) in totality – rather, we suggest that our solution, among many of the other experimentation solution options, has a great potential to compliment the current solution options, that are being considered by the experts from Washington. In other words, our solution is an experimentation option – with a potential to become the stepping stone, for the long ranging solution(s) within the 5-10 year health care reform road map.

Conclusion

In closing, our hope is, that experts from Washington will pay a closer attention to our experimentation based, Purpose Innovation option - given the fact, our solution (including its foundational purpose platform), not necessarily, just solves the health care reform, but also, has a potential to become the solution for other purpose reforms – i.e. motivating corporations and consumers to embrace green brands, green energy and also thereby solving externality other corporate social responsibility issues, given the fact, our solution is built on a purpose platform, that is bound together by a powerful purpose score based, purpose causal value chain.

Purpose Driven Leadership (PDL©) - as Stretch and (Eu)stress?

Courtesy : Google's image customized with our own add-on arts and wordings

As it turns out, Purpose Driven Leadership (PDL©), in its essence, is all about, leaders manifesting their emotional energies in – mindset (faith), heartbeat (love) and environment (hope) portfolio dimensions –- which brings up an interesting insight that, the ease, in which, leaders manage and manifest their “inside-out emotional energy traits” decides the effectiveness of their leadership. Simply put, the efficiency in which leaders manage their emotional energy flow, within these three portfolio dimensions, using PDL©’s five leadership threads (confidence, commitment, context, caliber and call-to-action) is the one that decides the effectiveness of their leadership, more specifically within the context of leading our Portfolio-Thread View (PTV© & EPP©, CPP© , PIP©) driven strategic planning engagements.

PDL - as a healthy chasm between “aspiration driven hopes” and “faith based visions”

Driven to learn more about, how such energy flow, helps certain leaders to be more successful than others (and hence, delivering superior performance and results) - we started our inquisitive journey of understanding the underpinnings of those emotional energy traits – from the standpoint of how those successful leaders, exhibit them in real world situations. For many purpose driven leaders, "being transformational" means, just pursuing opportunities that fit their company's “faith based visions and goals”. While that is the right thing to do, we also feel that there exist a better approach, in which these purpose driven leaders can “stretch” their leadership traits, to supplement their foundational leadership fit – and create a healthy chasm (or healthy stretch) between their aspiration driven hopes and faith based visions – to achieve higher levels of performance, as outlined above.

In other words, as depicted in the sinusoidal construct, that is embedded within the chasm part of the picture, leaders, usually start their leadership journey on a higher ground (or the crest) by exhibiting their faith based vision portfolio traits, however, sooner or later, they invariably, end up going through those tough trough times - and this is where PDL© framework encourages, leaders to elevate their “aspiration driven hope portfolio traits” greater than their “faith based vision portfolio traits”, so that they can pull their organizations quickly out of those trough seasons, and move onto the next crest experience of achieving superior performance - as outlined in the picture on top of the page.

The missing link in achieving superior organizational performance

With that said, we would like to hypothesize that managing the energy flow, efficiently within their leadership portfolios, not only directly impact the effectiveness of their leadership, but also, it impacts the overall organization performance. Rightfully so, we had prescribed PDL©’s 5 leadership threads (Confidence, Commitment, Context, Caliber and Call-to-Action) as an answer, to achieve such superior performance, in our blog, last week – more specifically, we had also stressed the importance of Caliber thread in discerning the differences between performance management and talent management (PT) processes, the missing link in achieving superior organizational performance.

What do we mean by that? Performance management is a point in time assessment of the results against pre-established goals, based on the opinion of one or two managers (which is highly subjective), whereas, talent management is assessing, whether an individual or an organization has the right set of talented people and processes (hiring, training, career plan, succession plan etc) in place, to sustain their business operations, in alignment with their 5-10 year strategic plan – and so, it is important that leaders make this distinction, to help enable organizations, to achieve superior performance.

Root causes inhibiting organizational performance

To properly manage these differences, we suggest organizations, to create a metrics based proactive PT culture, to objectively measure/monitor and manage both performance and talent management (PT) processes, on an ongoing basis. While it is easier said than done, in reality, PT processes, are the most difficult processes to implement, partly because, the causes inhibiting organizational performances, are not just PT related, rather, they are systemic, and hence, we need a systemic mindset in identifying the causes, leave alone fixing them. With that said, the top three systemic causes inhibiting organization performances, in our opinion are -

• The negative energy based stresses that get released within organizations, from over (or under) stretching the leadership traits within the PDL©’s portfolio and threads.


• The environmental factors – competition, insecurity, conflicts, politics, regulation and other unexpected events etc.


• The caliber of people (or the quality of the seed) within the organizations i.e. failing to hire and/or train the right people i.e. not differentiating performance and talent management processes properly.

Leadership as Stretch and Eustress

If we had to further summarize these three causes, the foundational root cause, in our opinion is - the negative stress that is being released because of over/under stretching those leadership traits. Leadership stretch is nothing but, a misfit among the portfolio traits (more specifically the tension among the mind/faith, body/hope, heart/love portfolios) and stress is the negative energy that is being released, because of that misfit e.g. when mind overrides the intentions of heart and body. The good news is that leadership under PDL©, is also equipped to release positive energy based stress (or eustress) to nullify those negative energies, and hence, there exist a tension – and so, we call “purpose driven leadership as stretch and eustress”, very much like how strategy is being characterized as “stretch and leverage” by CK Prahalad and Gary Hamel.

Importance of discerning the differences within PT Management Processes – A Case Study

With that said, for leaders to be successful, we suggest that they are proactive and find less stressful ways of elevating their “aspiration driven hopes” greater than their “faith based visions”, to proactively release their eustresses, so that they can continue to neutralize the ill-effects of their negative energy stresses. One such proactive way, within our PT context here is, to properly discern the differences between performance and talent management processes – thus avoiding the negative energy that is being released into the work place, in the first place. For example, our research shows, that on an average, around 10-25% of highly talented employees are given "less than what they" deserve type reviews every year, as reviews in most companies, are highly subjective, and are usually based on the opinions of one or two “like minded” managers, or the so called clicks. This is where, we suggest organizations, to have a well documented governance process, in place, for the “second or third line senior leaders”, to weigh in, and perform a “deep dive” objective review (with a help of a neutral third party or in some cases even by external firms), and review all of their employee stretch goal results, that might have been achieved during the course of the years.

An example being a case study we did with one of our clients – where, we were asked to give an objective opinion, and to help resolve an unfair treatment experienced by handful of employees in one part of their organization. As we started our review, very soon, we noticed that few talented employees were given poor reviews, by their immediate supervisors (and their peers), in spite of the fact, these employees had exceeded their objectives. In addition, a handful of those talented employees, had also achieved 21+ stretch objectives, over and beyond their assigned objectives.

During our confidential interview process with few stakeholders(both inside and outside the organization who had a closer knowledge of the performance of those employees) , we also uncovered the fact that this handful of talented employees, were very forward looking talented individuals, and so, ended up doing some advanced level of work, that is very relevant for the organization’s double digit growth (over and beyond their assigned objectives) – which got their immediate supervisor(s) and their peer group, threatened, and so, they started suppressing (punishing?) those talented employees, by giving them poor reviews year-after-year. Not only that, they had also worked backwards, and started building their case for their wrong judgments, with solicited corroborations from few powerful, unverifiable/behind the scene, manufactured sources ( planted evidences?), which sounded to us like a deliberate attempt, to defame/diminish the superior performance of those talented employees.

Some More Findings from our Case Study

While we agree that this example, perhaps was an unfortunate, isolated event, and not a norm in most companies, we quickly learned that this example was just the tip of the iceberg, as some of the other findings (as listed below), were all the more alarming. To overcome those findings, we helped our client, to implement a well thought out, performance and talent management (PT) process, along with governance guidelines, so that senior leaders, can proactively pay a closer attention to these discrepancies, especially to those percentages of employees, who were wrongly judged and placed in the 1-5 scale. Some of our observations included, but not limited to are -

• 10-25% of the employees who were given the rating of 1 are deserved to be 4 or 5.


• 10-25% of the employees who were given the rating 2 are deserved to be 5.


• Over 10% of the employees who were given the rating 3 are deserved to be 2.


• Over 10% of the employees who were given the rating 4 are deserved to be 3


• Over 10% of the employees who were given the rating 5 are deserved to be 3 or 2.

What does this observation list tell us? Performance and talent management processes are not only broken within most companies today, but also, these companies, end up nurturing wrong set of people, and hence, resulting in the exodus of talented people, who are critically needed to help them during these tough economic times, in the first place. Not only that – those talented employees, eventually might get hired by their competitors, and so, might cause them, double damage as well – and so, it is in the best interest of the organizations, that they pay a closer attention to this type of PT cover-up challenges, and nip them in the bud, before they spread too much into the larger parts of the organization.

Proactive leadership is nothing but effective energy management!

With that said, if we had to further summarize these PT challenges, it all comes down to the leaders, being proactive, in dealing with those PT based negative energies, that gets released into their organizations, more specifically, by those insecure middle managers, who try to sideline those talented employees, with an end goal of protecting their turfs. The solution, we had suggested to our client was, not only to implement the PT management processes, but also, a senior leaders/HR led, coaching process, to the middle managers, to renew their in-side out energy portfolio sources on a continual basis, and by, meticulously executing their 5 leadership trait threads. In a way, we call this type of proactive leadership coaching, as an aided energy management process. Once senior leaders (including the HR leaders), learnt to master such proactive energy management coaching process with a help of PDL©’s five threads, we started seeing some tangible changes happening, and today, our client is well positioned to continue to raise their “aspirational hopes” greater than their “faith based visions”, thus achieving superior levels of performance.

Conclusion

Creating a healthy chasm (or stretch) between “aspiration driven hopes” and “faith based visions” – is what helps leaders to exhibit their positive energy driven transformational leadership traits, in an exemplary way, further enabling them to achieve superior performance. Simply put, for purpose driven leaders to be transformational, they must elevate their aspiration driven hopes greater than their faith based visions. We call it as leadership as stretch or leadership intent. For this type of leadership intent to come to life, we suggest leaders, to master this energy management process, with PDL©’s five leadership threads, so that, they can continue to raise their aspiration driven hopes, greater than, their faith based visions, thus achieving much higher levels of performance.