Adopted from wikipedia , read more about the chairman emeritus of South West Airlines and what made him a visionary , infinite minded , 10X leader
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Kelleher
South West Airlines over the years has become renowned as an iconic Airlines in the United States of America.
The chairman of SWA , Herb Kelleher built the company’s culture around employee benefits , respect to employees which was a key aspect that helped SWA outperform competitors.
As a leader Herb Kelleher exhibited “Productive Paranoia” , always vigilant about the external operating business conditions to help SWA stay afloat.
Once such strategy was to maintain a conservative balance sheet and surplus cash balance without being too greedy for growth.
What this did was that it helped SWA continue with its 20 Mile march and reap profits even during rough times for e.g post 9/11 , SWA was the only Airlines who did not fire people and who registered profits when its competition was falling apart.
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book titled “Great By Choice”
David Breashers was the director of the IMAX film titled “Everest” which was shot in Mount Everest ,the tallest peak in the world.
This was filmed during the 1996 Mount Everest Disaster which killed quite a few mountaineers.
It was the “Productive Paranoia” of the 10X leader David Breashears which saved his entire team and helped in production of the iconic film titled “Everest”.
By use of “Productive Paranoia” he was able to preempt the storm and hence his team was better prepared in the face of the storm.
Read more about “Everest” the film and 1996 Mount Everest Disaster from the following wikipedia links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everest_(1998_film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Mount_Everest_disaster
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book titled “Great By Choice”
Black Swan theory is referred to an unforeseen event which hits hard when it comes.
Since this is an unpredictable event hence businesses need to be well prepared for such events with the necessary contingencies in place.
Please refer to the following link(Source wikipedia) to know more about this effect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory
Jim Collins makes a mention of this in his book titled “Great By Choice”
10X or high performing companies over the last 30 to 40 years exhibit an unique quality of “Productive Paranoia”.
This quality helps them remain afloat through thick and thin when others around them fall by the wayside.
The three dimensions of “Productive Paranoia” are:
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book titled “Great By Choice”
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book titled “Great By Choice”
The iPod story illustrated a point that though a big successful venture can look like a single step creative breakthrough but in reality it is a multi step iterative process based on empirical validation than visionary genius.
Apple’s revival via the iPod bears testimony to the combination of “fanatic disciple” & “empirical creativity”.
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book titled “Great By Choice”
“Fire Bullets” Then “Cannonballs” approach mentioned in his book needs firing cannonballs when the bullets hit the incremental innovation targets.
10X companies for e.g. SWA ideally fire calibrated cannonballs out of empirical validation and hence have achieved unparalleled success.
But history is witness to the fact that even SWA have fired “un-calibrated cannonballs” for e.g. acquisition of Muse Air in 1980’s.The only difference is that these companies have the needed discipline to learn from their mistakes and hence have been able to turn around from failures.
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book titled “Great By Choice”
In the “Fire Bullets” Then “Cannonballs” approach lets try to understand about cannonballs.
Once the incremental innovations are tested by firing “bullets” and they hit their targets , the “cannonballs” need to be fired.
Cannonballs can be 1) Calibrated and 2) Un-Calibrated
A calibrated cannonball has confirmation based on empirical validation and are more likely to be successful.
An un-calibrated cannonball can lead to calamity because they are fired without any experience based confirmation.
Think of Pacific SouthWest Airlines’s demise and their FLy-Drive-Sleep was an un-calibrated cannonball that eventually led to the demise of PSA.
Adopted from Jim Collins’s book titled “Great By Choice”.
Innovative high performing companies adopt a “Fire Bullets” then “cannonball” approach to outwit their rivals in the infinite game of business.In such an approach starting from firing bullets to test out the incremental innovation is imperative to scale up and later fire cannonballs.
The following are the three components of a “bullet”
Once these steps are validated and “bullets” fired hit their targets it should give a fair enough indication to scale up and fire “cannonballs”