INTRODUCTION: ROCKING HORSES DON'T BELONG IN BOARDROOMS

"Don't confuse motion for progress. A rocking horse moves all day but goes nowhere"!

- Alfred Montapert

Picture a child sitting on a rocking horse. She is laughing as she sways back and forth. Maybe she is pushing the rocking horse to go faster, encouraging it by shouting phrases like, "Giddy up!" As you watch the child enjoying her ride on the rocking horse, you smile. She is safe; she is happy, and you know that regardless of what her imagination is telling her, she is going nowhere (in the physical sense). You leave her to her game, confident that you won't look out of the window to see her galloping across the garden on her rocking horse in half an hour.

You would certainly think it odd if you walked into a boardroom to see the CEO, CMO, CTO, or any of the other directors sitting on a rocking horse. However, all too often, businesses have boardrooms filled with metaphorical rocking horses; they just don't realise it. They don't always distinguish between motion and progress, or know how to turn the motion they are generating into progress.

Charting progress in a modern business world

The business world today, especially after black swan events like the 2008 financial crisis or the global COVID-19 pandemic, is characterised by an increasingly big number of known unknowns. It seems clear that the past is probably no longer a safe basis for predicting the future, and much of what we have learned and been taught may well have limited relevance to our future decision making.

The competition feels like it can come from anywhere, and time is definitely no longer on your side. As Rupert Murdoch said (in 1999!), "The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow".

To not only survive, but to thrive in the new world is a constant challenge that requires businesses to fast become the masters of many things. Agility (speed) and adaptability (ability to change) have become strategic differentiators, giving those businesses that can rapidly adapt and build a muscle to respond to change a massive advantage.

"The speed and availability of data, technology, analytics, content, and platforms is creating this perfect storm where we can finally capitalise on the opportunity presented by the total customer experience in a way that we just couldn't before. If brands are not on that journey to that complete and total customer experience across those dimensions of sales, service, commerce and marketing, they just won't be around in the future."

Craig Dempster, Global CEO, Merkle

Some businesses have the advantage of already being in this state (let's call them the leaders). Others are undergoing massive transformations to close the gap and either attain or regain this state (let call them the followers, who are playing catchup). However, to do this requires sustained and directed momentum, or motion, but motion alone will not give you the advantage. The advantage comes from turning motion into progress.

This might sound simple enough, but often this is more difficult to achieve than it first appears. The result in many businesses is a great deal of motion that adds little real value and instead wastes precious time and resources, and may even contribute to a loss of competitive advantage. The opportunity, as we explain in this book, is to turn that motion into progress. To do that, you need to connect the three core themes of the business ecosystem, which we are calling the principal, the crew, and the season.

The race to the top

Our favourite analogy to describe what a business needs to do in order to turn motion into progress is Formula 1. Behind the fast cars, daring driving, and excitement of race days there are three key components at work: the principal, the crew, and the season.

The principal of each team sets the direction and leads from the front. The crew needs to collaborate and work together to constantly improve the car, its engine performance, drive the car, and find ways to shave even 0.1 of a second off the lap time or length of a pit stop because that 0.1 second can mean the team's driver wins the race. Then there is the Formula 1 season, which lasts for much longer than a single race. Every race throughout the season is different. The car itself will perform differently depending on both the track and the weather conditions on the day, and the crew will need to adapt according to the conditions.

Figure i.1

When we apply those three principles to a business, we can see a clear correlation to core enterprise functions and challenges. The principal represents the leaders within the business, the people who make those big decisions, keep one eye on the big picture, and make sure that the company is moving in the right direction. The crew is the broader teams, the people on the ground who make things happen. When they are all aligned behind an organisation's vision, great things happen and progress begins to accelerate.

The season is the external environment that will have an impact on not only how the business performs, but also on how the team functions and performs in different situations. The season is the one element of the pyramid that the business doesn't have total control over. What any organisation can control, however, is how it responds to its environment. This becomes a game of agility, where the businesses that learn fast and adapt quickly survive, and those that don't, die.

You need to have all three components of the pyramid in place and working together in order to achieve progress. Without all of these components, your business will struggle to successfully turn motion into progress.

If you just have the principal with the season, but the crew is not aligned and engaged, you create fatigue. You will only have a short amount of time to build momentum and achieve your goals before you run out of energy.

Figure i.2

If you have the principal setting a clear direction of travel and the crew aligned behind them, but no awareness of the season and external environment, this leads to obsolescence. You won't be creating and delivering the products or services the market, and your customers, need.

Figure i.3

Finally, if the crew is responding to the season and working within the external environment, but is doing so without any leadership or direction from the principal, what you are left with is chaos. There won't be any coherence in your activities and progress will stall.

Figure i.4

What many organisations are aiming for is what we discussed at the beginning: the principal setting a clear direction and communicating the big-picture vision; the crew aligning with this vision, buying into it and being given autonomy to work toward that goal; and the organisation as a whole being aware of and having the ability to adapt to an ever-changing environment. The ideal state is to find a balance among all three themes.

Figure i.5

"The economy has fundamentally changed. We've moved from a world with digital to a digital-first world; and there's no going back. Digital has become the way for people to connect, work, learn, and be entertained and the imperative for digital customer engagement has never been greater. Every business must understand their customers to deliver personalized digital experiences.

"The brands that win this race will have hands-on leaders who are open to change, a culture built around trust, rapid decision making and action, as well as a dedication to innovation and learning. Most of the evolution we have seen through COVID-19 has centred on transactional needs, be it the global pivot to online shopping or the rise of digital finance. However, brands must also consider how these unprecedented times affect people at the cultural and emotional level."

Paul Robson, President of Adobe International, Adobe

There are no silver bullets

If you have picked up this book hoping to find a silver bullet that will solve your business' problems, we're afraid we are going to disappoint you. Harmonising these three themes takes time, effort, and a great deal of motion. What we are sharing in these chapters, however, is aimed at helping you uncover how to translate your motion into progress and become a more adaptive organisation in the process.

Each part of this book covers topics related to that component of the business ecosystem. We begin in Part One with leadership, which comes from the principal. Without a clear direction of travel, you may meander aimlessly or go in circles, so setting that North Star is an important starting point. You also need to know how to measure your progress. Without clear measurement of the right metrics, you can't see how far (or not) you've gone and are therefore in danger of slipping back into a cycle of motion.

In Part Two, we move to your team and organisational ecosystem, including its culture. This component involves not only aligning your crew behind your vision, but also how you can support your team members to contribute to that progress, deliver on your goals, and do so in a way that draws on their strengths. Autonomy is one of the key concepts...