Leadership

What do some businesses have in common with supersonic transportation? Let me tell you a story.

In 1956, the Supersonic Transport Aircraft Committee met in England to discuss building a supersonic airliner in a partnership between British aircraft and engine manufacturers, and the government. Planning and development for the project – named Concorde – moved forward, and in 1962 France joined the group.

When the wheels came up on the first Concorde commercial flight in January 1976, the enterprise was already plagued by prohibitive cost overruns. By the last Concorde flight in 2003, the Anglo/French financial misadventure had become legendary.

The good news is this story produced a handy term that covers valuable business lessons. Evolutionary biologists coined the term, “Concorde Fallacy” as a metaphor for when animals or humans defend an investment of time and resources – a policy, product, business, or nest – when that defense costs more than abandonment and starting over in another direction. Four centuries before Concorde, in Part One of “Henry IV,” it turns out that Shakespeare’s Falstaff proposed a handy bit of wisdom for when we find ourselves with a rude decision about something in which we’re heavily invested financially and/or emotionally: “The better part of valor is discretion.”

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This is Jim’s traditional Christmas column.
 
Some say I’m a scrooge. They might be right.
 
Here are three exhibits (some say excuses) in my defense of this indictment:
 
1. The early part of my career was spent in retail. Retailers know what that job does to your holiday spirit. There’s a syndrome for everything else; why not one for retail survivors? Let’s call it RPTHSS: Retail Post-Traumatic Holiday Shock Syndrome.
 
2. Since I don’t wait until the holidays to give someone a gift, I just don’t get all worked up about holiday giving. Not that the ladies mind getting stuff all year (let’s not lose our heads!).  It’s just that they want me to be giddy about giving at Christmas-time. Giddy? Bah! Humbug!
 
3. As an avowed and devout contrarian it would be antithetical for me to feel obligated to do what everyone else is doing. And if there’s one thing that has become part and parcel of the holiday season, it is obligation. For example:

a. If someone gives my significant other and me a last-minute Christmas gift, “Other” feels obligated to reciprocate. Not me. I’ll do something nice for them in March.
 
b. After the Christmas cards have been sent, if an incoming card is received from someone not on your list, do you rush to get a card out to them? I don’t. Maybe next year. In “The World, According To Ebenezer Blasingame,” giving should be voluntary, not obligatory. In fact, to a scrooge, not reciprocating is endearing. 

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As the 17th century dawned, cause-and-effect was merging two parallel universes.

In the Old World, a group of Leiden Separatists was making decisions that would put them on a circuitous journey. Meanwhile, in the New World, a manchild named Tisquantum was born to the Patuxet tribe of the Wampanoag Indians.

Both the Separatists and Tisquantum became very important to the future of mankind, but not before their lives would change and intertwine in ways not to be imagined by the inhabitants of either world.

In search of religious freedom, the Separatists crisscrossed Europe and then the Atlantic Ocean. On their odyssey, the Separatists would steel their convictions, which would prove handy in the New World.

Incredibly, first as a hostage and later as an interpreter, Tisquantum crossed the Atlantic six times. On his odyssey, Tisquantum learned Old World languages that, combined with his New World survival skills, would contribute to his rendezvous with destiny. 

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Seven score and fifteen years ago, Abraham Lincoln’s inspired speech at the Gettysburg Cemetery dedication included these immortal words: “…our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

Four score and seven years earlier, one of those fathers, an inspired Thomas Jefferson (with suggestions from no less able an editor than Ben Franklin), authored what is arguably the most important secular document in history. The second paragraph of America’s Declaration of Independence begins with this passionate passage:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

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In my last column I stated that every business, including small ones, have assignments that can only be performed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Plus, I revealed:

1. CEO strategic responsibilities are not optional.
2. Small business CEOs have to periodically transport themselves from the operating trenches to a 30,000-foot strategic orbit.
3. The CEO’s three Big Pictures: Where have we been? Where are we now? Where are we going?

The third Big Picture is the sole domain of the CEO, and that’s what we’re going to cover now. A handy way to find answers to “Where are we going?” is to apply what I call the Big Four Factors: Bricks, Clicks, People, and Capital.

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