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made the choice to build sophisticated, relatively expensive shaving systems rather than fight a low-margin battle with disposables, they did so in large part because they just couldn’t get excited about cheap disposable razors.
The point is that they felt passionate about what they were doing and the passion was deep and genuine.
This doesn’t mean, however, that you have to be passionate about the mechanics of the business per se
The passion circle can be focused equally on what the c...
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First, the comparison companies never asked the right questions, the questions prompted by the three circles. Second, they set their goals and strategies more from bravado than from understanding.
Despite its vital importance (or, rather, because of its vital importance), it would be a terrible mistake to thoughtlessly attempt to jump right to a Hedgehog Concept.
Insight just doesn’t happen that way. It took Einstein ten years of groping through the fog to get the theory of special relativity, and he was a bright guy.
It took about four years on average for the good-to-great companies to clarify their Hedgehog Concepts.
Recognize that getting a Hedgehog
Concept is an inherently iterative process, not an event.
Do we really understand what we can be the best in the world at, as distinct from what we can just be successful at? Do we really understand the drivers in our economic engine, including our economic denominator? Do we really understand what best ignites our passion?
“Build the Council, and use that as a model. Ask the right questions, engage in vigorous debate, make decisions, autopsy the results, and learn—all guided within the context of the three circles.
When asked, “How do we accelerate the process of getting a Hedgehog Concept?” I would respond: “Increase the number of times you go around that full cycle in a given period of time.”
The Council is a standing body, not an ad hoc committee assembled for a specific project.
What if you wake up, look around with brutal honesty, and conclude: “We’re not the best at anything, and we never have been.”
Infused with the Stockdale Paradox (“There must be something we can become the best at, and we will find it! We must also confront the brutal facts of what we cannot be the best at, and we will not delude ourselves!”),
she did not know if she would become the world’s best triathlete. But she understood that she could, that it was in the realm of possibility, that she was not living in a delusion. And that distinction makes all the difference.
what your organization can be the best in the world at,
not what it “wants” to be the best at. The Hedgehog Concept is not a goal, strategy, or intention; it is an understanding.
You might have a competence but not necessarily have the capacity to be truly the best in the world at that competence.
Conversely, there may be activities at which you could become the best in the world, but at which you have no current competence.
Interesting, how do you get to this insight? I think Seth godin has written about this in The Dip—gaining insight that you can become best, and then deciding and persevering through the dip to get there
It took four years on average for the good-to-great companies to get a Hedgehog Concept.
“No company can grow revenues consistently faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth and still become a great company.”
core values are essential for enduring greatness, but it doesn’t seem to matter what those core values are.
if you ever stop doing any one of the key ideas, your organization will inevitably slide backward toward mediocrity
