Virtual Ocean Strategy – the way to reset strategies with a purpose driven “industry structure is irrelevant” mindset?

With our Virtual Ocean Strategy (VOS) receiving some great press within the blogosphere, some of our fellow strategy practitioners, have challenged us with a set of follow-up questions - the most notable one being - "how is it different from the popular approaches like Red Ocean and Blue Ocean Strategies?". Instead of answering them all individually, we decided to synthesize them in the form of three questions, to make it relevant for our larger audience -

1. Why another approach now?


2. How does it stack up against the other popular frameworks like Red Ocean (ROS) and Blue Ocean strategy (BOS) frameworks?


3. In spite of having these great strategy frameworks, quite a few strategy efforts, still do not produce its intended outcome - Why?
   

1.Why another approach now?

While the popular Red Ocean Strategy (ROS) and the Blue Ocean Strategies (BOS) have widely been successful in the last decade+ years, we believe that they may not be well equipped, to handle the ever-changing business needs of the 21st century! This does not mean that these two approaches have not lost their former glory; rather, the best way to comprehend our hypothesis is that some of the foundational principles of ROS and BOS, may not be well equipped to handle the seismic shift happening within the social media/digital technology driven, global business environments of the 21st century.

In other words, the right way to frame this “Why another approach question” within the context of this seismic shift being – “what elements of ROS and BOS can be blended together, to form a hybrid approach (with some value-adds), that can, not only help companies to reset their strategies, but also, help them to stay relevant in the 21st century?”

First things first - let us start with some basics. Porter’s ROS is built with the mantra of beating the competition with a unique winning path, whereas, BOS is built with a mantra of entering the deep blue ocean markets, with a “competition is irrelevant” mindset. While there is time and place for each of these worldviews, we believe that none of these approaches, in its current form, are designed to handle the emerging "boundaryless industry structure" mindset of the 21st century. In other words, in the last 5-10 years, the traditional boundaries existing among industrial structures, have started to blur, as evident from some of the recent industry convergence moves by Fortune 500 companies (e.g. Starbucks entering CPG type Juice industry, Google entering travel/media/mobile handset industry, Apple/Intel entering media/paid TV industry etc). What do these strategic moves tell us? Companies have started to look beyond their traditional industry structures for growth opportunities with an “industry structure is irrelevant” mindset, and so, the need of the hour is an approach that helps companies to accomplish that mindset, in a comprehensive way, as outlined in the picture on the top of the page!

While VOS is designed with an "industry structure is irrelevant” mindset, in its essence and spirit, VOS is all about executing those strategies with a collaborative heartbeat. In other words, while competition within a boundaryless industry structure, might be irrelevant during the beginning days (i.e. especially when companies enter the virtual oceans with a first mover advantage), it will catch up sooner than later, as digital and social media technologies have started to shrink the world much smaller, by tearing down the artificial walls, existing among the industry structures, and so, “collaborative execution” is the name of the game in the 21st century!

The implication is that the trade boundaries across industry structures are all being redrawn, thus validating the need for a “strategy reset journey” with an “industry structure is irrelevant” mindset! VOS starts that reset journey, not only, by resetting the purpose statement (with its five parts of vision, mission, values, codes and BHAG with priorities), but also, by balancing them with a multi dimensional balancing process, in value, cost, velocity, growth and purpose dimensions, as opposed to the two dimensional value-cost trade-off in ROS and value-cost balancing in BOS. VOS is the only approach in the market place that is sourced from an “inside-out” energy source called PURPOSE SEED that is manifested in three forms simultaneously -

• Purpose Driven Leadership framework using the “inside-out” emotional energies of faith, hope and love.


• Purpose Driven Strategy framework using the “inside-out” scientific energies of seedal energy, seasonal force and sequel power.


• Purpose Driven Innovation framework using the three value energies (shareholder, societal and emotional/cultural) that are manifested as purpose bundles, purpose models and purpose platforms.
  

Simply put, VOS and its three frameworks are being sourced from the common PURPOSE seed, very much like, how GOD-HEAD in most faiths happen to manifest himself in three forms depending upon the dispensational context, and yet operate as one person. In other words, VOS, although manifests itself in three forms (leadership, strategy and innovation) within the various cultural contexts, it still operate as one integrated approach, when it comes to decision making- which is what makes VOS, a sustainable approach for the long haul.

2. How does it stack up against the popular ROS and BOS?

3. In spite of having great strategy frameworks, still some strategy efforts do not produce its intended outcome - Why?

The essence of strategy, according to Michael Porter, is choosing what not to do, and so, we have developed 5 “WHAT NOT TO DO’s” to answer this question. One might ask - why the “negative” approach? Well, most research suggests that unlearning is the foundational prerequisite of learning, and so, we have identified these 5 “what not’s”- to unlearn some of these decade old mindsets, before learning to use VOS, with an integrated/systemic mindset and to stay relevant in the 21st century!

• What Not #1 -> Do not reset with a single dimensional strategy mindset, as opposed to an integrated systemic approach, in the three dimensions of leadership, strategy and innovation, as addressed by our TPF framework within VOS.



• What Not #2-> Do not reset strategy without resetting the purpose seed, as addressed by our Purpose driven seedal chain/scientific energy management principle driven Portfolio Thread view based strategic planning framework within VOS.



• What Not #3-> Do not go after an existing market, as opposed to going after the virtual ocean market and/or experience pools, which do not exist today with a motivational momentum themes creating experience moments or movements-> as addressed by our Experience Pool Portfolio (EPP) framework and our Purpose Innovation framework within VOS.



• What Not To Do #4->Do not mix up SCA vs. competency vs. capability within organic and inorganic growth strategies, but follow a portfolio approach, in avoiding this “capabilities mix-up trap” – as addressed by our Capability Pool Portfolio (CPP) Framework within VOS.
  o To put things within its context - SCA vs. Competency vs. capability is equivalent to Grandma’s hand trick of sautéing for the right duration with right temperature vs. Recipe vs. Ingredient.



• What Not To Do #5-> Do not execute without a real time performance visibility -> partly addressed by our big data driven real time valuation/Corporate performance management framework within VOS.

Conclusion:

Implementing a strategic plan, in itself is a big challenge for most organizations, leave alone resetting them all the way from the Purpose Seed, as strategy resets, invariably end up introducing lot more structural changes to the organizations, than we think. To manage those changes and to mitigate those execution risks that come along with it, we suggest companies to take a phased approach, and apply our VOS principles and frameworks with an integrated systemic mindset – as guided by our big data driven analytics/synthesis balanced, Corporate Performance Management (CPM) frameworks!

Please feel free to check out our Slide share version of our article for a better visual display as well.

Big Data Driven Real Time Valuation – The next wave in Performance Management Systems?

A recent study suggests that the value gap between the “stock price based market cap” and the “internal cash flow based market cap” of Fortune 500 companies, are constantly on the rise, especially in the last 50 years. The implication is that some companies are either grossly undervalued (up to 25% points in case of old economy style companies) or overvalued (up to 50-100% points, in case of dotcom/entrepreneurial style companies) - and rightfully so, this value gap, seems to be emerging as one of the top 5 issues, keeping the CEO, senior leaders and investors, on the alert.

Let’s face it - the true stock value of a company, in its essence is the combination of its “future cash flow value” and its linkage to “future expectation building abilities” discounted by today’s cost of capital. While there are quite a few valuation models (e.g. McKinsey's Zen of corporate Finance formula, DCF, NPV, IRR) available, to accurately quantify the cash flow value, there are not many proven models available, to accurately establish the causal chain relationship between the cash flow value and the “expectation building abilities” - and so, stock markets, often follow the tread mill effect of trading on mismatched expectations.

Part of the reason for that behavior is that, the so called “expectation building abilities” are often hidden within the “intangible” competitive advantage (CA) enabling perspectives of the company (i.e. learning/growth, customer, value chain and financial perspectives in BSC terminology) and so, they are not well understood by the street, within its right context. “Expectation building abilities”, in this context include, but not limited to are - the earning guidance, product portfolio pipeline for the next 5 years, share repurchase program schedules/dividend payout, management changes and other big ticket capital expenditures - provided by company executives on an ongoing basis, to better manage street’s expectations, and to boost their overall stock prices.

Trading Value vs. Creating Value

The implication is that street, either over reacts to those “expectation building abilities” in the form of higher stock prices, or in some cases, under react (or some might suggest punish) with lower prices – purely based on the way, it interprets the causal relationship between cash flow value and the “expectation building abilities”. As it turns out, this causality interpretation gap seems to be the single most important factor, that drives many company executives and investors, to get into this game of trading value, as opposed to creating them fresh, says Roger Martin.

What do we mean? From investor’s standpoint – while quantifying cash flow is important in making the near term investment decisions, interpreting the causal relationship accurately, is key for them to bet on a stock for the long haul. Similarly, from company’s leadership standpoint – while quantifying cash flow value is critical for making effective near term operating decisions (i.e. achieving Q-To-Q results), framing the “expectation building abilities” accurately, in the form of earning guidance statements, is very important for them to manage the expectations of their investor community, and to stay focused on their long term strategic choices.

How about Valuation in M&A deal scenarios?

As it turns out, this causality gap between “expectation building abilities” and cash flow value seems to be the biggest hurdle faced by leaders within M&A negotiation scenarios as well – as suggested by a recent study. For example in a M&A scenario, if we had to dissect the value components of a product life cycle of a target firm -

• Invisible value of discovering the unmet “Jobs to be done” value + Invisible idea/vision seed value +invisible incubator value + commercialization value(when there is no alternative product available) + commoditization value (when alternate products are available with heavy competition)
  

If we look at this equation, interestingly enough, they map 1:1 to the five value stations of the PTV framework picture above. Yet another interesting insight here is that- it reiterates our earlier point that stock prices are often decided based on the commercialization and commoditization vale components (i.e. financial value station), partly because, street does not have visibility to the unrealized invisible values of the early product life cycles, the primary driver behind those expectation building abilities.

Transparency without compromising the Integrity of Insider information
The follow-up question is how can we provide that end-to-end visibility, without compromising the integrity of the CA enabling insider information? While there is never a silver bullet answer for this type of questions, one of the best answers in our opinion, is to mine those “expectation building abilities, proactively from the tons of data that are often hidden within and outside the four walls of the companies, and integrate them within the performance management systems. Yes, you guessed it correct - that the emerging buzz word for that approach is “Big data”.

As it turns out, even company insides, often do not have visibility to all of their own company data, leave alone the external social media data, and so, the better way to frame the question is – how can this emerging big data concept, help us to establish the causal relationship between cash flow and “expectation building abilities” and provide that end-to-end visibility, without compromising the integrity of the CA providing insider information?

Big data – the panacea for establishing the causality between cash flow and “expectation building abilities”?
Let us face it - the key benefit of any analytics platform (leave alone the Big-data driven analytics platform), is to help make effective decisions with timely and accurate insights. With that definition, if we had to dissect the service components of a Big data analytics platform, it is all about delivering value in the form of “insights” using a set of “analytics services” (as the delivery vehicle), with a faster service delivery time (i.e. latency) than the traditional analytics platform. In other words, the three key service components of big data are:

• Matter or cost in dollars that are needed to create and deliver those insights


• Acceptable Time or latency involved in delivering those insights


• Space or size of the data of the data needed- which is often why the word big is put in front of data.

Big data classified using CLS index
Now that we have defined Big data with the building blocks of matter, time and space – it makes sense to augment our firm’s Experience Pool Portfolio (EPP) framework with some of the value-add features of Big data, to accurately establish the causal relationship between the cash flow value and the “expectation building abilities” that are being hidden within the large amounts of Big data. Speaking of intangibles being buried within big data, the next question is – what is preventing us from quantifying those intangible values within the big data – is it a cost (matter), latency (time) or storage issue (size)?

The answer in our opinion is not using the right set of data sources for the right type of analysis, and so, as a first step, we suggest to classify “Big data” with a new index called CLS index (Cost, Latency and Size), as shown in the chart below.

Depending upon which quadrant the data falls, we see five buckets of big data categories evolving.

• Transaction data producing the value for financial station (structured data with a low CLS mix index)


• P&S Purchase context data producing the value within the value chain station (structured data with a medium CLS mix index)


• P&S Purchase influencer data producing value within Learning/Growth station (structured data similar to IRI/Nielsen data with above average CLS mix index)


• Customer needs & want based data or” jobs to be done” data, producing value within Customer station. (combination of structured and unstructured data with high CLS mix index similar to social media/survey data in the form of opinions, likes etc)


• Purpose or Motivational driver’s data producing value within the central purpose station. (some combination of above four categories, helping us to answer the key purpose drivers question).
  

Big Data comes to life within PTV radial framework
Interestingly enough – this five types of big data map 1:1 to the five value stations of PTV - suggesting the need for four additional virtual exchanges on top of the wall street exchange ( i.e. primarily financial perspective driven)– and link them all together with causality - as outlined in the picture above and explained in detail in our firm’s Purpose driven strategic planning framework (http://www.managementexchange.com/story/strategic-planning-purpose-driven-way-using-nature%E2%80%99s-seedal-chain-principle)

• Job to be done or customer equity capital exchange, based on the formula -> Consumer/customer Value=Jobs-to-be done/Price



• Human capital equity exchange, based on human capital learning/growth, per one of my recent hack at MIX site (http://www.managementexchange.com/hack/reforming-performance-management-systems-%E2%80%93-virtual-purpose-equity-vizpity%C2%A9-exchange-way).
  


• Value chain equity exchange,based on the formula ->ROIC= Margin x Velocity



• Financial equity exchange, which is today’s’ street version based on the formula ->Share holder value= Profit x (1-g/ROIC)/ (WACC-g) - as outlined in our firm’s valuation driven PTV radial framework below.



• Purpose equity capital exchange ,based on our hypothesized formula -> Purpose value= Profit x (1-g/ROIC)/ (WACP*-g) where WACP=Weighted Average Cost of Purpose Capital
  

Providing this type of valuation visibility in these five dimensions, not only will help us to accurately establish the causal relationships, but also, help us to make the right call in M/A deal situations, as we had explained in one of our CPM articles (http://theacademyofbusinessstrategy-businessanalytics.com/2010/05/15/03/)

Conclusion with Implications

While the solution we have proposed is a 18 month solution, let me conclude with some immediate pragmatic next steps, that can help companies to lay the foundation for implementing this Big data driven performance management systems. First and foremost, companies must identify their causal/correlation chain relationships between “cash flow value" and the corresponding “expectation building abilities” impacting their overall stock prices. Some of the practical steps include, but not limited to are -

1. Identify the heavy hitters (top 50-100 investors) who have the “needle moving power” to influence value (and thus stock prices) within this causal/correlation chain relationship using a CPM framework like our PTV framework, as shown in the picture above.



2. Proactively manage the expectations of family owned and hedge/pension fund investors and document what makes them to tick.



3. Establish the causal chain of how they have reacted to the earning guidance and macroeconomic news/factors in the past, and then create a behavioral pattern map for their behaviors.



4. Depending upon those patterns, manage their expectations by releasing right type of insider information to media (and the analyst/investor community) in the right time, with a news staging mindset.



5. When company’s stock price changes, ask why the market moved and zero-in who bought, who sold, and why - with an empathetic mindset i.e. look at those investors with a lens of “alter-ego managers” or “indirect corporate owners”. In other words, learn to empathize with investors with various “what if scenario” options, within the context of the five perspectives of PTV framework.



6. Overhaul investor relations department and make them to actively manage the five big data types, by making them as joint data stewards, especially when it comes to regulatory data and annual reports.



7. Administer the big data registry with a causal map of shareholders and investor road shows, visits by analysts, and conferences; and major presentations to shareholders.



8. Integrate investor relationship management, part and parcel of strategic planning. Together make them responsible for managing the key-account processes to identify movers and understand their behavior. This way one can test all major plans, hypothesis and announcements, for their effect on the price of the company’s shares with various “what if scenario” options, and then suggest modifications to those earning guidance content, to better align with the views of key shareholders, thus becoming the key advisory arm of the CEO and senior leaders/board of directors.



9. Make investor relation leaders (in partnership with Corporate Strategy and Finance) as the people who co-own this big data driven valuation system and make them to proactively deliver the bad news when necessary. They will also have to be experts with “thinking on the feet” type communication skills, capable of handling tough interviews with investors who at times might be pressing them for information that cannot be divulged under SEC regulations or for maintaining CA integrity.




10. In closing, this type of big data driven integrated approach (i.e. structured and unstructured data driven approach) to strategic planning, Innovation, performance management, investor relations/valuation/stock price management and risk management, clearly require top notch talent, including the time and attention of senior management - and failing short on any of those commitments, would definitely leave the CEO, senior leaders and board of directors, in the constant game of never ending stock price guessing. It is a no brainer that no CEO and/or senior leaders/ board of directors, would ever want to be in that type of a guessing game, and so, the million dollar next step question is “What is in your docket ?” – and let that be our last word!

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

Purpose Driven Leadership (PDL©) Framework– the missing link within the Strategic Planning Processes?

Our article, last week on the topic of PTV+ TRIO, appears to have triggered quite a bit of enthusiasm, not only within the strategic planning circles, but also, within few other professional networking circles – as evident from, both the formal and informal questions, we received from our readers. As we were thinking about the best way to respond to those questions, we quickly came to the realization that there seem to be a missing link within our strategic planning processes i.e. lack of a “customized, inside-out leadership framework”, to better manage the nuances of the strategic planning engagements of the 21st century.

In other words, most experts agree with our assessment, that a customized, inside-out leadership framework, is one of the most important pillars (out of the top three essential pillars listed below) for successfully executing the strategic planning engagements - and hence, we decided to cover that subject within today’s blog – as part of answering our reader’s questions.

• Method in the form of an appropriate strategic view – e.g. our Portfolio-Thread View PTV© with EPP©, CPP© & PIP© frameworks.


• Motivation – in the form of a compelling OD culture driven collaboration/motivation process, energizing the stakeholders to come together for a common cause like strategic planning – e.g. our Power through Collaboration (PtC©) process promoted by Dr. Steve Willis.


• Means – in the form a customized inside-out leadership framework, facilitating the method and motivation pillars of the strategic planning engagement, from start to finish, in a flawless manner – e.g. our Purpose Driven Leadership (PDL©).

With us already have covered the first two essentials with our PTV© and PtC© processes respectively– we thought that it would be appropriate to propose an outline for our “customized, inside-out leadership framework” called PDL© as part of today’s blog. I hear someone asking – why yet another leadership framework? While we agree, that there are plenty of leadership frameworks available within the market place –we feel, that there is a need for a customized, inside-out leadership framework, to tackle the specific nuances of strategic planning engagements of the 21st century, given the fact, PTV© is one of the very few purpose driven strategic planning frameworks available, within the market place today. Yet another inspiration for our work comes from the impressive work done by the OD/Leadership coaching experts like Pete Delisi and Surya Ganduri who rightfully so, also has also placed the OD culture driven leadership framework, at the center of their systemic strategic planning approach.

Defining the multi dimensional concepts like Leadership

First things first - what is leadership? While there are plenty of definitions available, most experts agree that leadership is one of the most difficult concepts to define, partly because of its multi dimensional nature. This is perhaps one of the reasons, most experts still have some difficulty defining the infinite concepts like leadership (& culture, health etc) 100% effectively, for us to understand their fullest meaning. In other words, leadership is a variable concept (like size) and often is expressed, in terms of “more or less” - and so, it cannot be completely defined by the traditional “attribute based models” that are commonly used to define finite things like water or juice. Hence, it is important that we go back to the basics and understand the challenges involved in defining these infinite concepts, before defining what leadership is.

Another approach that is commonly used to define the infinite concepts is the “intention/outcome based model” – which is good in expressing the maximum possible “functional or emotional manifestation” of these multi dimensional concepts; however, they also have a limitation of expressing the outcomes from a just a “point in time” dimension only. This means, that there is always some delta meaning of the concept (fullest meaning – maximum meaning) that cannot be completely expressed in a definition format. This delta (fullest meaning - maximum meaning) varies from definition to definition, time to time, and human being to human being.

With that said, a balanced definition approach, deriving its best features from both attributes and outcomes based definition models, that are threaded together in the form of “leadership causal traits model” seems to be best way to go, given the inherent limitations of attribute and outcome based models. Yet another rationale for us taking a balanced approach is the need for standardizing the leadership traits (i.e. attributes and outcomes) with a common lingo, across both individual and empowered organizations, ultimately fostering the highest levels of leadership styles in the form of a causal thread with the “confidence, commitment, context, caliber and call- to-action” sequence– to help us achieve superior levels of productivity and performance – as explained in detail, later in the article.

PDL©’s Five Leadership Portfolios glued by the Purpose seed within a sinusoidal triangular construct!
With that prelude, let us see, if we can reenact our balanced definition, in the form of few leading questions and group them within a portfolio construct.

• Is it something we have it inside of us that is manifested in the form of a confidence creating trait? - Attribute based trait


• Is it something one exhibits during some of the difficult seasons of life or business? - Attribute based trait


• Is it something one exhibit to embrace each other unconditionally? - Attribute/Outcome combination trait


• Is it something we recognize when we see? – Outcome based trait


• Is it a tangible thing one can reap and experience? - Outcome based trait
  

As part of our attempt to define these attribute/outcome based traits in a balanced manner, we have grouped the attribute/outcome traits into five portfolios, and have chosen a sinusoidal trio construct (sinusoidal wave that is overlaid on top of the triangular construct - see picture above) – to better pictorially represent the nuances of these attribute/outcome based traits. We have also reversed the triangular construct of the framework for an important reason of aligning two of its base vertices to the two upper crests of the sinusoidal construct, with a goal of communicating an important message, that these leadership traits are governed by the seasonality principle, very similar to how PTV is governed by the seasonality principle, to resolve its six macro dilemmas.

As we can clearly see from the table above, that the leadership traits that are grouped under Faith and Hope Portfolio are mostly “attribute traits”, whereas, the traits within Love portfolio have the characteristics of both attributes and outcomes. On the other hand, Service portfolio (service) and Value portfolio (value) are mostly outcome traits – yet, all five of them are bound together, beautifully by the invisible glue (or instruction), called the purpose seed.

Yet another point that deserves our attention here is that – Faith and Love Portfolio traits are placed on top of the two crests of the sinusoidal wave (& hence the two bases of the triangle), whereas the Hope Portfolio traits are placed on the trough (& hence the vertex of the triangle) of the sinusoidal construct – to communicate another important message of aligning leadership traits with business seasons. In other words, exhibiting right type of leadership trait for the right moment is more important than exhibiting the vanilla leadership traits themselves - and rightfully so, PDL© encourages leaders to exhibit the Hope portfolio traits (more than the other portfolio traits) during those turbulent trough times of the business life cycle, and Faith/Love portfolio traits during the crest times of the business life cycle.

Another interesting aspect of PDL© is the emergence of seasonality driven sinusoidal wave pattern within PDL©’s purpose driven leadership journey. Like our personal lives, most businesses, also start their journey on a higher ground (or the crest) by exhibiting the Faith Portfolio traits, however, sooner or later, they invariably end up going through those trough times - and this is where PDL© encourages, leaders to exhibit Hope portfolio traits, so that they can pull their businesses out of the trough seasons quickly, and move onto the next crest experience exhibiting the Love portfolio traits - which then, is followed by Service and Value Portfolio traits - as outlined in the picture on top of the page.

While this sinusoidal wave pattern is the typical path for most businesses, history is also filled with examples, where some businesses, get stuck on the trough zone for an extended period of time, partly because of the failure on leaders’ part, to exhibit those optimistic Hope portfolio traits. Granted, trough or valley situations are bound to happen in most business journeys, but what is more important is, leaders steering the businesses, to come out of those trough times quickly. This is the reason, PDL© framework is designed with a sinusoidal construct to stress the need for leaders to equip themselves with a balanced set of five Portfolio traits, so that they can apply their intuitive judgment, and use the right portfolio trait, for the right moment, thus minimizing, the so called trough seasonal impacts. In other words, the means by which leaders achieve the end, is equally important as that of the end itself - as we learn from the three prime time, servant leaders of all times - Nehemiah, Omar Bin al-Khattab and Krishna - who exhibited the Hope portfolio leadership traits, during some of the difficult seasons of their leadership missions.

PDL©’s five Leadership Threads Enabling the Transformational Change leadership!
Now that we have laid out the leadership traits of PDL© in a portfolio format for easy understanding – the next important thing is, highlighting how the framework comes to life, in a real world leadership situation. One of the acid tests for leaders (per most experts) is how they handle the transformational change leadership, that is very much in demand needed to transform the 21st century businesses, where, the transformational/change leader is not only expected to exhibit the purpose driven versatile leadership, but also, be able to adapt to new conditions, open to innovative ideas, and be prepared to deal with both expected and unexpected events – all simultaneously, as echoed by fellow strategists like Gerald Nanninga and Ali Anani.

With that said, the natural follow-on question is how PDL© inherently helps one to be a successful transformational change leader? The answer lies in the important insight that transformational change leadership is not an event, but an ongoing process (or one can call it as a movement to be precise) – which means, each stage of that transformational change movement, has different business characteristics, and hence, need different set of leadership traits, to address the nuances of those characteristics.

As it turns out, every one of the leadership traits from PDL©’s five Portfolios, happen to form five unique threads, to meet the leadership expectations of transformational change experience, in alignment with the seasonality driven sinusoidal/triangular pattern, as outlined below, and on the picture on the top of the page. It is interesting to note that each of these threads, not only act as the stepping stone for the next thread, but also, map1:1 to PTV’s principles and frameworks, in a sequential manner, as outlined in the summary table below.

PDL©’s Five Leadership Threads in Action

Now that we have learned that the transformational change is an ongoing process or movement, it brings up yet another differentiating point about PDL©, that PDL© is an “inside out” framework as opposed to the “outside in” model used by most of the other popular leadership frameworks. What do we mean by that? PDL© handles the five stage transformational change process, first by creating the confidence within the hearts and minds of the leaders and followers alike, which then triggers them to voluntarily to do great things, as opposed to the other popular frameworks, that encourage leaders to exhibit the “call to action” leadership traits from the outside-in. This is one of the reasons, we suggest our readers to experience the five stages of transformational change process in a real word assignment (business, charity and/or society), so that they can better exhibit these five “inside out” leadership traits in the threaded sequence listed below.

Interestingly enough, these five threads, also align perfectly with the inherent meanings of our five fingers and so, we suggest our readers, to imprint these threads into their respective finger prints. Please note that our PDL finger printing sequence starts from the thump finger, followed by the small finger, and then the ring finger, middle finger and finally the index finger. In other words, PDL's fingers print sequence is– Thump-Small-Ring-Middle-Index.

1. Confidence creating "faith-hope-love thread", led by the Thump finger, that is known for its asserting power, confidence and will power – and rightfully so, this thread happens to be the foundational leadership thread that sets the right tone for the leadership, where all the other activities derive their strength from, as without confidence there is no leadership. Having the confidence on the part of leaders and followers alike, gives the assurance to the stakeholders that the organization can do what it is set out to do. Confidence usually starts with the faith – i.e. believing in the organization’s purpose when there is nothing substantial to believe in – as faith is substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen – which by the way, brings up our next attribute called hope, within this thread. While faith might be the starting point, hope is the thing that actually brings life to that faith, even on situations, when an organization is going through some of its worst difficult times. Hope may be the only thing, those organizations, may have to hold onto, during those darkest moments– as there is always a mountain top experience after the valley experience – which brings up our next portfolio called love that is supposed to be exhibited as part of those mountain top experiences. While some question the relevance of manifesting love portfolio traits within business environments, we choose to differ, and would even argue that love is one of the key traits, that needs to be exhibited in a business setup, as long as it is mixed in the right dosage with other portfolio traits.

2. Commitment producing "trust-aspiration-empathy" thread, led by the Small finger, that is known for its intuitive trust, energy and empathy– As the saying goes, confidence without commitment has no meaning - and rightfully so, confidence producing faith at times might fail us, whereas, the commitment producing trust will never. This brings up the need for the next stage of leadership, where the confidence created in the earlier thread manifests itself as the action with a “trust-aspire-empathy” mindset. In other words, within PDL©’s causal chain; if “faith-hope-love” thread is the cause, then “trust-aspire-empathy” is the effect.

3. Context creating "mindset-body space-heartbeat" thread, led by the Ring finger, that is known for setting the context for the relationship (creativity, expression and love) –rightfully so, this thread sets the right context for the leadership, as the text without context is the pretext and so, we cannot stress the importance of this stage of leadership anymore, given the fact, leadership always needs a context to operate. Context, in his case means, understanding stakeholders’ heartbeat, mindset and body space within their day-in-the-life cycle. Without this context, our prior threads of confidence and commitment have no relevance at all – and so, success of PDL leadership lynches on this ring finger thread called context. As it turns out, this thread of leadership is also stressed by the WestPoint leadership framework and interestingly, our context creating thread traits aligns perfectly with the “BE”, “KNOW” and “DO” focus areas of WestPoint framework as well.

4. Caliber producing "talent-skill-wisdom" thread, led by the Middle finger, known for its analytical reasoning (analysis, synthesis and discernment) – With Human resources seem to be emerging as the most important capability within the 21st century organizations, we have no words to express the importance of this thread as Caliber of an organization can make or break a situation in a snap moment. Interestingly enough, middle finger (along with Thump) is the only finger capable of making the snapping sound (symbolizing the make or break situation for organizations), especially, when leaders fail to hire/train the right set of people with the right caliber (i.e. mix of talent, skills and wisdom). At this juncture, it is important that leaders understand the subtle differences between skills, talent and wisdom, which sometimes are collectively called as “TALENT”. The reason we would like to highlight this subtle difference at this juncture is that certain sub-components of TALENT are more important than the others depending upon the strategic direction (organic core growth vs. adjacency growth vs. disruptive growth vs. some combination of the three) leaders decide to take their organization to –

• A skill is something that we learn (like driving a car) that needs to be “nurtured/trained” within the talent management process.


• A talent is something that comes naturally (like singing or public speaking) that needs to be “encouraged” within the talent management process.


• A gift is something that is given us from a Higher Power (e.g. wisdom) that needs to be “treasured” and used in right proportion at the right time for the right purpose.
  

With that said we cannot stress enough the importance of leaders identifying these sub-component level differences at the individual level and develop a customized TALENT management processes to grow the followers at the personal level. Discerning those differences early on at the individual level will help the organization to adopt the right TALENT development strategy for the right sub-component of TALENT. For example, nurturing/training strategy that works well for skill development, in general, does not work well for talent development. On the other hand, motivation process in general works well within the talent development process - as talents need encouragement, mentoring & the platform support.

Yet another trap leaders fall into is merging talent management process into the performance management processes – and so it is important to highlight differences between them as well. Performance management is a point in time assessment of the results against pre-established goals, based on the opinion of few managers, 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 its business operation, in alignment with its 5-10 strategic plan. Without this distinction, leaders will end up nurturing people with the outdated yardsticks of last century and developing wrong set of leaders who are not sufficiently equipped to handle the challenges of 21st century.

5. Call-to-Action producing "know-how-action drivers-Inspirational insight" thread, led by the Index finger that is known for calling the shots (knowledge, defense and offense ) – Last, but not the least, leadership, at the end of the day is walking the talk and talking the walk – which means, leadership is all about blending these “call to action” thread traits of “know-how, recommendations and intuitive inspirational insights” and translating them into actionable decisions that are appropriate for the moment - and until that happens, everything else has no meaning. With that said, “talk the walk and walk the talk” is the motto of this thread.

PDL© vs. other popular leadership frameworks

While it is true that our PDL© framework derives some of its best characteristics from other popular leadership frameworks like servant leadership, it also has few additional nuances to overcome some of the perceived shortcomings of servant leadership, especially, within a business s environment – i.e. SL’s over emphasis on servicing the followers. For example, Servant leadership, sometimes is wrongly perceived, as a style promoting too much of a charity mindset within a profit minded businesses. This is where, our balanced PDL© framework, with its balanced set of Portfolios and Threads help both leaders and followers alike, to exhibit the business focused leadership traits -with the “right portfolio/thread trait for the right moment” mindset. Having said that, we would be the first one to agree, that servant leadership is a timeless treasure and as a matter of fact, PDL© in its best form, always is manifested itself as servant leadership, especially when leaders are expected to exhibit the “unconditional love with a greater than myself” type of mindset - as alluded by Steve Faber and his team in their G5 leadership paradigm. I guess, no matter how we slice it, old is gold, as reiterated by scripture – the greatest is Love!

Conclusion

Finally, in closing, let us not forgot the fact that, some of the best leadership moments in history, have always happened, when leaders decided to put their faith into action, in the form an unconditional love and service, regardless of the environment - whether it being business, society and/or government. The classic example, that is very appropriate for this moment, is the leadership exhibited by Mother Teresa – and the impact she has made throughout the world, with her purpose driven leadership style. There couldn’t be any better moment, than this time of the year, to honor her, given the fact; we just finished celebrating Mother’s day. I am sure, we all could hear her whispering from Heaven “Happy mother’s day” as outlined in the picture above – echoing the slogan “thing of purpose is joy forever”, and so, it is time for business organizations to embrace PDL©, following the footsteps of Mother Teresa.

PTV©’s Purpose Seed – the Passover Lamb of Strategic Planning?

With the past week being observed as the Passover/Easter/New Year week, respectively in Judaic-Islamic/Christian/Indian traditions, we started our inquisitive journey of learning more about the significance of this week, within the scriptures of both east and the west alike. While the “Passover Lamb” is being portrayed as the symbol of “freedom” in Judaic and Islamic traditions, Christians have taken that symbolism, a notch above, and have equated it with Jesus’ death, as a means of unleashing grace to free mankind from the transgressions of this world, once for all.

As it turns out, Hinduism also has a similar perspective of their Avatars descending into this world, in the form of a Messiah unleashing the mukti experience, barring some subtle differences within the karma and grace dimensions. Nevertheless, the Sanskrit word Avatar, has an interesting origin - the term ‘Av’ part means ‘down and ‘tr’ part means ’Passover’ – meaning, God passing over the earth in a human vessel. Yet another interesting similarity is the word ‘Mesh’ within the word ‘Messiah’, as per the zodiac tradition, also happen to signify the Lamb, depicting the entry of the Sun into Aries during this New Year week – as further reiterated by both Chinese and Indian Siddhas.

While these are all interesting tidbits of information, I hear someone asking, what this “Passover Lamb” has got to do with strategic planning. Well, with our blog being known for deriving its insights from the scriptures, we thought of connecting the dots within those insights and expound PTV© in an all together different dimension!

The IGR Challenge comes to a newer life within this Passover Lamp metaphor!

Those of us, who have been following our blogs closely, might recall an earlier insight regarding – one of the important challenges facing most corporations today –

• IDENTIFYING, GUARDING and RESURRECTING (The IGR Challenge) those hidden value accelerators that are being buried deep within the pull side of the value chain in the form of a positive cash flow (i.e. value) generating growth opportunities.

While we had covered this IGR challenge, in detail, using our Experience Pool Portfolio (EPP©) Framework as part of that earlier blog, we thought of reframing the IGR challenge today, using a Funnel Metaphor, and bring this IGR challenge to a newer life, in a holistic manner – along with a TRIO concept called PTV+ that is being derived from, few scriptural insights –

• E-GRACE (Experience Pool’s Greatness & Riches (or insights) At Capability Pools’ Expense), that is being represented as the upper opening of the funnel - resembling grace in the form of manna/body/unleavened bread.


• P-GRATE (Purpose driven Portfolio’s Greatness & Riches (or insights) At Thread’s Expense), that is being represented as both sides of the funnel (5 Portfolio Principles and 5 Thread Principles) – acting as the gravity, pushing the E-GRACE down the funnel in to the radial framework for it to be grated/filtered - resembling the law or the 10 commandments.


• C-GRAPE (Capability Pool’s Greatness & Riches At Purpose Seed’s Expense), that is being represented as the lower opening of the funnel, transforming E-GRACE into stakeholder value - resembling faith in the form of grape vine/rod/blood.

In other words, the experience pools (or growth opportunities) that passover the funnel in the form of the Lamb, first transforms itself into E-GRACE, and then, gets grated/filtered by P-GRATE (using the 10P driven radial framework), before transforming itself into stakeholder value using C-GRAPE– as depicted in the picture on top of the page. Coincidentally enough, this TRIO concept also has a greater resemblance to another one of our earlier article PTV as the Ark of your businesses as well.

The PTV+ TRIO and its supporting insights

As part of forming this PTV+ TRIO concept (E-GRACE, P-GRATE & P-GRAPE), we specifically coined the acronym E-GRACE, resembling the word GRACE (God’s Riches At Christ Expense), to help us comprehend the following insight –

• While the Purpose (Seed) driven growth opportunities (or experience pools) are freely available to everyone (including the competitors), the phrase “Capability Pool’s Expense” within E-GRACE, is the one that helps us to understand, the extent of capability price (or the C-GRAPE), that needs to be paid, before one can transform, those experience pools into stakeholder value.

Similarly, we have coined the acronym P-GRATE resembling the word GRATE (or filter/purify), to help us comprehend the following insight –

• While there are plenty of experience pools (or growth opportunities) freely available, the phrase “Thread’s Expense” within P-GRATE, is the one that reminds us the importance of applying the Thread Principles, in filtering the best out of the Portfolios, using the radial framework (with its three sub frameworks called EPP© , CPP© & PIP©).

Similarly, we have coined the acronym C-GRAPE resembling the word GRAPE (or juice/blood) to help us comprehend another insight –

• While the capability pools are definitely constrained with an upper limit, the phrase “Purpose Seed’s Expense” within E-GRAPE is the one that reminds us the fact that the Purpose Seed has the unique ability to continuously renew/recycle/recharge/reenergize/refresh the stakeholder value (and hence, renew C-GRAPE continuously as well).

PTV’s Purpose seed, the corner stone of the SCA mix

As we look at these three insights – one can clearly recognize the fact that the common denominator across all of them is the purpose seed, and rightfully so, purpose seed is the cornerstone of our PTV© - and hence, it is important that corporations, to get their purpose seed (with its five part instructions listed below) correctly identified, for the PTV+ TRIO to function effectively, within their growth and/or turnaround journey.

1. Vision (what the firm aspires to be)


2. Mission (why does the firm exist/what does it stand for)


3. Values (what drives us)


4. Codes (what guides us)


5. BHAG (BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOALS)

In other words, this purpose driven PTV+ and its TRIO (E-GRACE, P-GRATE and G-GRAPE), must flow in an optimal fashion within this Funnel Metaphor, for corporations, to produce the so called sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) driven value! Simply put, the primary objective of PTV is to arrive at the SCA producing TRIO mix – which means, the funnel must have all of its three passages (top opening, the middle tapering/filtering passage and the lower opening) opened in an optimal manner, for the value to flow efficiently, producing the SCA mix.

PTV+ TRIO , the Manna/Amrit flavored Dessert?

The fact that these three TRIO’s are the ingredients of the optimal SCA mix , also reminds us, yet another heavenly food called Manna/Amrit – where, the manna/amrit, symbolizing E-GRACE, first gets grated/filtered/purified using P-GRATE, and then gets mixed with the five fruit flavored C-GRAPE (i.e. five capability pools within CPP© framework) – resulting in a tasty dessert called Manna/Amrit+. What an insightful way to comprehend PTV+ and its TRIO concepts, using this powerful manna/amrit+ inspiration from the scriptures!

Conclusion

Finally, in closing, we would like to highlight, yet another important point, that the Passover event happened on the Easter week, 2000 years ago, is the event that divided history into two eras - B.C and A.D - similarly, PTV©, is being reframed, today, with a potential to transform the strategic planning engagements from the B.C era of “passive ceremonial impression” type of effort (i.e. historical data based, expected events driven, left brain thinking enabled, analytics driven planning) into the A.D era of “active gracious expression” type of effort (i.e. historical/survey/word-of-mouth/consumer content based, expected/unexpected events driven, left/right brain thinking enabled, analytics/synthesis balanced planning) - and so, it is time that corporations to embrace our PTV©, very much like how, history embraced the Passover Lamb 2000 years ago!