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Q: Which of the New Rules of the Road is the most important/critical?
OH: I wish I could say, but as I review them, they're all important!!
Q: Coyote companies talk about employee empowerment. You call such things "masquerading as a roadrunner." I understand we're talking about 'transformation not imitation', 'metamorphosis not mimicry'; that 'hops of faith' or 'jumps of faith' aren't enough, so how does a mid-level coyote begin the transformation to roadrunner if not by starting small?
OH: You can start small (it's hard to make an instantaneous transformation). The trick is to relentlessly and conscientiously continue the process, even when it's difficult, even when you enter unfamiliar territory.
Q: How can one identify a roadrunner company to go to work at?
OH: A company that "smells" of excitement, vitality, personal initiative, speed, accountability, joy, and collaboration in pursuit of extraordinary goals. It sounds very daunting, but we know it when we see it, if we take the trouble to listen and investigate.
Q: You write, "Today businesses operate within a certain set of rules... (that) reflect what we call professional management." I write for an audience of mostly professional managers. Are they going to be immaterial in the roadrunner world?
OH: Not at all. There will always be a need for professional roadrunner managers. Our point is that what is that what is often described as conventional wisdom "professional management" is often right out of Wile E. Coyote's playbook: secrecy, grimness, analytical detachment, and a mental model that emphasizes the very opposite of the New Terrain and the New Rules of the Road. We'll always need great leaders and managers, but to be great they'll have to be doing something quite different than what they're doing today. Your website is helping them do just that!
Q: You write that Glen Tullman was able to "capitalize on IT to change an entire business process" at CCC, but earlier you wrote only coyotes worry about process? What am I missing here?
OH: Coyotes worry about internal process to the exclusion of whether the process makes sense strategically, or whether it enhances customer care and speed and creativity. Tullman focused on business process to boost speed, innovation, and customer care. He wasn't obsessed on process per se, he was obsessed on creating some extraordinary value for customers, which meant he had to make some radical changes in his IT process.
Q: In one of my favorite passages, you say Sir Francis Drake, et al., used maps and premises based on the realities of the time, which were wrong 90% of the time. Yet they did some amazing things. Is this the lesson of the New Rules of the Road?
OH: The lesson is that we can't count on the realities of today, or on what made us successful in the past, to predict what we ought to do to be successful tomorrow. A lot of strategic planning premises are based on today's conventional wisdom. But tomorrow will look a lot different than today. Roadrunners understand this; they adapt quickly, they turn on a dime, they shed old habits, and they capitalize on (rather than resist) new technologies and new market opportunities.
Q: Your "No more supremacy" means the successful executive in the roadrunner world will have to be a leader, not just a manager, right?
OH: That's true, and it also means that in today's world, there is no one company that will ever continue to dominate any industry. More than half the 1980 Fortune 500 are no longer on that list, many don't even exist any more. The best market leaders in their industries (Microsoft, Dell, Nike, Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines, etc.) are deadly afraid of complacency, and exhibit a healthy paranoia.
Page 3: Edison Improves the Candle
