LESSONS 4 CULTURE + BUSINESS SUCCESS? Part 2

THE FATE OF ‘OBSCURE DVDs’ – LESSONS for CULTURE + BUSINESS SUCCESS ?

Part 2

CREATING AN OPPORTUNITY OUT OF A CRISIS

To play on a famous Chinese term, which connotes both ‘crisis’ and ‘opportunity’ – what will enable a business to turn a crisis into an opportunity ?

A little bit later, I will point to two current examples that show to what extent a successful business is built first and foremost when the driving force is Creative Thinking, or Creative Problem Solving.

For now, take a look.

The buzz words, INNOVATION, INVENTIVENESS, and their terrible step sibling, Thinking Out of the Box, do have a valid point.

If you want to discover viable, successful strategies to overcoming great business obstacles, you cannot think in a simple, linear fashion. (BTW, check ‘linear thinking’ and ‘non-linear thinking’ by Googling it online. You will be enlightened…)

One of the great things that I have learned over the years - by absorbing various forms of Far Eastern thought, philosophy, arts, and religion - was to value the ‘non-linear’ approach as an important tool for the business leader’s tool kit.

Sometimes, you have to see the value of inverting the linear into the non-linear perspective: Small is Beautiful. Less is More.. Fast is Slow, Slow is Fast.

THE NON-LINEAR APPROACH

In fact, one of my clients aced his second GMAT – after getting a very low score on the first round – by repeating my slogan at the beginning of each 2-minute segment allotted to answering a single question:

‘Go Slow, you Get there Faster.’

In ALL the past trial tests, and in the actual first GMAT round, he was constantly short of time, and his score was low.

At the end of this second GMAT go- round, he raised his score by a hugely substantial number of points. But in addition, as he screamed at me jubilantly over the phone, he also had an unexpected bonus: more than ample time to complete his replies .

“ I raised the score to XYZ” he yelled , laughing and crying; “And you are not going to believe this: I had time left over in each question, at least 20, sometimes 30 seconds. I had time to review, to regroup. Unbelievable.”

In the first GMAT round, no Business School would look at his application.

After the second GMAT round, he had his pick of Business Schools.

And he chose The London School of Economics.

Who ever said that non-linear solutions do not bring good business results ?

It becomes especially handy when the odds seem very unfavorable to ‘our side.’
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Want to hear how some current organizations are implementing non-linera solutions to turn

<>a crisis into an opprotunity ?

Come back for the next segment.

Have a glorious day !

All Rights Reserved C 2007 Dinnah G. Pladott , Ph. D.