My date with Jim Collins
I love reading books, both fiction and business, and I love hearing great speakers. Imagine my delight when I discovered that Jim Collins, author of How the Mighty Fall, Built to Last, Good to Great and Great by Choice, was going to be speaking in the UK? An opportunity not to be missed.
I, along with several hundred business people made my way to Excel on a cold and damp Wednesday morning to hear what Jim had to say about building GREAT businesses. OK – so it wasn’t really a date, I missed my opportunity to ask Jim a question, but it is up there on my list of life accomplishments.
For those reading who may not have come across his work, Jim Collins is well worth checking out. He has made his life’s work the evidence-based study of what differentiates GREAT companies from those who fare less well, and the lessons he lays out demonstrate how GREAT companies have succeeded in times of dramatic change, not by changing everything, but conversely by sticking to “timeless fundamentals.”
Jim’s session brought to life many of the findings of his 25 years of research. He has distilled this into 12 key questions that business leaders can use to develop GREAT companies. If you’re curious you can find them here at http://www.jimcollins.com/tools/TwelveQuestions.pdf.
What struck me was one particular question. It was new to me, and clearly, in one of the books, I haven’t yet read – note to self to put that right! “How can we do a better job at Clock Building, not just Time Telling?”[1]
What struck me most about this question is the analogy of Clock Building vs Time Telling can be seen on 2 different levels. In Jim’s question, he is reflecting on the fact that Great leaders, at some point in the life of the business, moved from Time Telling to Clock Building, that is to say, they stopped being the person who told people what to do, and built systems to ensure it got done, even when the leader was no longer there. In effect, Great leaders build a company that will work without them. Great leaders recognise their most important product is the company itself and this is where they channel their energies.
This philosophy is totally in alignment with the thinking of Michael E Gerber, with whom I was privileged to have an audience around 18 months ago, when he too was on a tour of the UK – I’m a bit of a guru junkie you see. Gerber advocates building a company around a clear purpose, vision, mission and a set of systems which allows the company to operate, irrespective of who is performing an operation at that time. In the vernacular of Jim Collins, irrespective of who is sitting in “that seat on the bus” at any given time, the way of doing it prevails.
However, the concept of Clock Building vs Time Telling can be used to illustrate another principle, one which is equally important. Far too many businesses, when asked what they do, describe the product or service. “We make clocks.” Customers are rarely buying a clock, for the sake of buying a clock. What the customer wants is a means of “Telling the Time.” When a business truly understands that its purpose is to help people “tell the time”, and when there is a clear understanding throughout the business of exactly how the company does this, a business has a strong Value Promise. This Value Promise describes how the business creates value for its employees, shareholders and customers. In great companies, this is clear and compelling and is delivered consistently by a company that has been built to operate independently of the people involved at any given time.
When working with clients we are often asked to review and improve processes and procedures. Of course, we’re happy to do this, in fact, we love doing this. If you were to ask us to describe our best day ever, it would, without doubt, involve some form of process review, adaption or creation. The difficulty comes when we want to talk about the Value Promise. And we do want to talk about the Value Promise. For, as crucial as process and procedure are, without purpose they are pointless. Unless the company understands its Value Promise, how can it possibly develop and align its process and procedures to deliver it?
The difficulty is that Value Promise is often the preserve of Marketing, whilst process and procedure lie with Operations. The reality is, when we look at the GREAT companies studied by Collins and others, we see companies that understand that processes and procedures are there to serve the company’s true purpose and that everything has to start there.
So next time you hear words like “we need to improve our processes”, or “can we change the way we do things?” stop. Pause, take a breath and ask yourself what do we sell? Do we sell clocks or are customers buying a way of telling the time? If you don’t know the answer, if your company’s purpose isn’t clear, start there. Define and understand the purpose. I guarantee you’ll end up with a totally different perspective on the process and procedure as a result.
[1] © 2014 BY JIM COLLINS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED