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Leading Companies Online Magazine
Mavericks at Work
By William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre
Reviewed by Debra Sherman, Beyster Institute Staff
 By now we’re used to seeing breakout companies like Southwest Airlines, Pixar, and Starbucks touted in business literature as innovative thinkers, product pioneers and celebrated successes. But having grown up in the world of banking where asking questions could get you labeled a rebel, I was anxious to see how banks, venerable blue chip companies, and of all things, a gold mine could be held up as examples of mavericks in business. Can you imagine corporate giant IBM as a nimble innovator, or avant-garde Cirque du Soleil as a model for corporate recruiting? I wanted to know more.
In the thought-provoking “Mavericks at Work,” the authors line up example after example of companies, divisions and individuals who have tried bold new approaches to perennial issues, with phenomenal results. But the solutions that work for these companies are not for the faint of heart. For example, take Craigslist, where they think about ways not to charge customers. Or Procter & Gamble, which is pushing R&D beyond the walls of the company. And Commerce Bank, where front-line employees have to check with a supervisor before saying no to a customer! That’s right – employees follow the “one to say yes, two to say no” rule, just the opposite of so many of their counterparts in retail services.
All of the companies highlighted in “Mavericks at Work” are progressive, and perhaps even revolutionary, in at least one of the four areas that the authors saw in their research and interviews as critical elements in the companies’ successes: Rethinking Competition, Reinventing Innovation, Reconnecting with Customers, and Redesigning Work. However, many companies put programs or teams in place to focus on these very things. So what separates the mavericks from the rest?
It seems that the one common thread among these companies, no matter their category or size, was that they did not think incrementally about creating or recreating themselves. They instead looked at the weaknesses of their industries and saw in them spaces in which to create almost unbeatable competitive advantages. And most importantly, they went after these advantages lock, stock and barrel. No lip service to the management idea du jour, no forming teams to do endless evaluation, and no worries about political correctness. Open-mindedness and a willingness to try new things is a commonality that many of these companies share. They stay true to their niches and don’t even come close to trying to please all of the people all of the time. And disruption is welcomed and controlled chaos is embraced rather than avoided.
One example is DPR Construction. In the business of commercial construction, “high quality, on time and on budget” is an almost mythical concept. Yet relative to quality, innovation and integrity, DPR wants to be thought of as the Toyota of their industry. To accomplish this, DPR makes sure it’s on the same page with its customers by collaborating to create a mission statement for almost every project. By understanding what the customer hopes to achieve with its new building or laboratory, there are fewer false starts, mistakes and reworks, which enables the company to hit on all points of the cost, quality and time triangle, and to get nearer its aspirations.
For those readers who might think that what’s offered here can only work for start-ups, avant-garde industries, or the tech world, the authors dispel that notion by offering up examples like a sandwich shop that competes as well as any of the big boys because they view the value proposition as a values proposition. Doing more for and giving more to customers than what they ask permeates everything the company does, right down to the size of their sandwiches and the décor of their stores.
With talent becoming scarcer and competition more plentiful, companies need to consider how they can change their business as usual models and embrace maverick methods and mindsets. “Mavericks at Work” is perhaps a glimpse of what companies of the future ought to be.
©2007 The Beyster Institute and its authors and their entities. All rights reserved.
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