Total Competition: Lessons in Strategy from Formula One

by Ross Brawn

It’s the same in Formula One: you commit, not knowing what the results are going to be. But you know that if you’ve got the right people with the right resources and you give them the opportunity, then they will come up with the goods. You know as well as I do, you don’t know in twelve months’ time where you are going to be with your aerodynamic performance. But you know if you have given them all the facilities they need and you have got bright people and they have the time, and you back them and motivate them, they will be so many percentage points better in twelve months’ time than they were. It’s creative intellectual work that you can’t really quantify. But in time you will have a car that’s 20 points better than where you are now. It’s a machine. It’s the same with all innovation. You have got to create the right environment, right people, right resources, give them the vision. Manage it as it goes along, do regular reviews. But it’s a process.