I’ve been focusing a lot of my large clients on thinking bigger lately.
Too many big firms — and small ones, for that matter — think defensively on instinct. Defensive thinking is small thinking, which does the following to companies:
- Stifles creativity
- Delays action
- Forces overthinking
- Instigates disagreements
- Breeds corporate-wide fear of failure
- Worse, breeds corporate-wide fear
- Damages product development: products are safe, boring, not particularly helpful
- Screws up your marketing — you don’t say the right things because you’re too worried about saying the wrong things
- Action is fast and decisive
- Executions aligns with strategy
- Prudent risks are taken without fear
- Departments are in alignment
- Products are interesting and exciting
- Marketing focuses on the right areas, with compelling messages
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is known for pushing his teams to think big. He’s talked about how it’s ok to walk down corridors without knowing where they lead. Sometimes they lead nowhere. But sometimes they lead to goldmine. Or maybe just a good idea, which is okay too. Amazon thinks big.
Some say Research in Motion was thinking big when it first focused on developing its Playbook tablet and then rushed it to market to get it to consumers faster. I disagree: I think RIM was thinking small. It was afraid of missing the tablet device boat. Fear was the driving force behind rushing an unfinished product to market.
Microsoft is trying to transition from a corporate culture of small thinking to big thinking, and its proving difficult. Successful television ads that focus on consumers and emotion are proof of bigger thinking. But the company must go even bigger still if it is to survive the diminishment of consumer computers.
Apple thinks big every day. The proof is in the results.
Google thinks big. You can tell by the big ideas and services it brings to market. In fact, every time Google kills off something that doesn’t work, that’s big thinking on display.
So, success comes to those firms which practice big thinking on a regular basis.
Does your company think big?
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