June, 2005
A Question for You
A few weeks ago I attended my business school reunion. At these reunions
the fun part is reconnecting with old friends and seeing how the aging process
has affected them, and the serious part is attending sessions featuring professors
giving short lectures on their recent research and findings. These lectures
are invariably thought-provoking and entertaining.
One of the sessions I attended focused on understanding how we as human beings make decisions. The assumption is that by breaking down this process and understanding each of its components, we are able to improve the odds that our decisions will lead to the results that we seek.
To stimulate the audience's thinking and illustrate the professor's particular point, throughout the lecture he posed a series of questions and puzzles.
One of the questions was as follows:
"You are stranded on a deserted island. A genie allows you to have one book or one person with you. Which book or person would you choose?"
I'll now count to 10 while you consider how you would answer this question. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Who or what did you choose?
In my session, attendees immediately started calling out all kinds of answers ranging from "my wife/husband/kid(s)" to "Jennifer Anniston/Halle Berry/Brad Pitt/Harrison Ford" to "the Bible/Torah/Koran", etc.
The professor kept listening until someone gave him the answer he was waiting for:
"The best boat builder in the world."
Silence.
At this point the professor said "Let me ask the question a little differently":
"You are stranded on a deserted island. On the assumption that you didn't choose to be in that situation, what's the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO YOU?"
In unison now, the attendees said:
"GETTING OFF!!!"
Thinking in Terms of a "GOTI" Objective Radically Simplifies The World
"GOTI" stands for "Getting Off The Island". When faced with being stranded
on a deserted island, there is really only one objective that matters (or
should matter!) to you. Thinking in terms of a "GOTI" objective radically
simplifies how to expend your energies. It filters out the noise, distractions,
and misperceptions about what you might be tempted to consider
important, but which in fact isn't.
Yet, consider how decisions about what to focus our energies on are actually made. Let's face it, our motivations drive our actions. And our motivations are formed by our perceptions and decisions about what outcome we most desire. In the above example, not getting the big picture objective right would have left you on the island because you didn't choose the one thing you most needed.
Isn't it remarkable how easily people get distracted from the big picture goal they should focus on? Or is "distracted" even the right characterization, because they may have never even taken the time to determine what their true big picture goal is? And are we prone to accepting our current circumstances and trying to make the best of them, rather than focusing on what's most important to us?
Regardless of whether you've assessed your situation correctly or not, whatever you end up deciding is your GOTI objective becomes the driving force of your actions (and the results that ensue).
GOTI in the Workplace
GOTI thinking is extremely applicable in the work environment, especially
in large companies, where thousands of highly disparate people try to work
together, all with their own personal GOTI objectives lurking in the background.
Think about the people you know or work with. What do you think their GOTI
objectives are? In my experience I've seen: "make a ton of money", "get as
much personal credit as I can", "be home consistently to coach my son's soccer
team", "meet my manager's objectives, no matter what", "be heard in each
and every meeting I attend", and the list goes on.
Despite these wildly divergent personal GOTI objectives, these people are brought together and told "work as a team" and "make the company successful". But is the company's GOTI objective even clearly articulated to them? And if it is, is it reinforced by the executives' actions and words, or is it compromised here and there, thereby slowly eroding any corporate GOTI momentum that may have been built up?
Even when a business's GOTI objective is well-understood, a gigantic new variable can turn things upside down. In particular, a dramatic shift in customer behavior brought on by a breakthrough technology can threaten the company's status quo assumptions for success. When this occurs, the traditional tools and policies (e.g. decentralized P&L control, product-centric business unit organizational structure, stock option, etc) for organizing employees to achieve the GOTI objective may no longer be applicable.
How GOTI Objective Thinking Relates to Broadband
Like electricity, air transportation and the telephone (to name a few innovations),
broadband internet connectivity is an enabling technology that changes fundamental
consumer behaviors. It has already affected the way tens of millions of people
lead their daily lives, in turn affecting how many businesses sell and deliver
their products and services.
But broadband's effect to date is just the tip of the iceberg of what's yet to come.
I believe broadband is in the first inning of playing out its biggest role yet - that is, reconfiguring the way video is distributed to consumers. Broadband enables a direct channel to be established between video producers and their target audiences. As a result, all the players in the media business - broadcast and cable TV, advertising, movies, music, radio, newspapers and magazines are going to feel the greatest effects of broadband's proliferation.
To give one example of what this means, the average American household watches about 8 hours of TV per day, which equals something like 30 billion hours per year (I think) of human time spent consuming video at home. And this figure doesn't even include time spent on other broadband-affected pastimes like going to the movies, playing video games and reading printed media.
A Proposed GOTI Objective
So, given the significance of broadband video distribution, what might be
an appropriate GOTI objective for those media businesses about to be affected?
Is it "maximize this quarter's subscriber acquisition number", "keep the
price of an important product high as long as possible, even in the face
of aggressive price-based competitors that are gaining market share", "meet
Wall Street's cash flow expectation" or other examples like these?
I'd argue that it's somewhat obvious that none of these should be the GOTI objective of any company affected by broadband. However I believe the words and actions of many companies' executives drive their people to think these goals are indeed their company's GOTI objective.
But don't take my word for it. Try this little exercise - if you work in a business affected by broadband, ask your colleagues (and your executive leaders), what they think the company's GOTI objective is. I'll bet you a buck you'll be amazed at the divergent opinions you'll hear!
I'd suggest that the GOTI objective of these broadband-affected companies should be:
Reinforce existing customer relationships and learn how to build new ones according to the new rules of customer engagement being created by the proliferation of broadband internet connections.
By looking at the objective this way, all decisions regarding which strategies and tactics to pursue can be boiled down to the following: what helps the company accomplish this objective and what doesn't. That's it. No noise. No distractions. No wasted energy.
One Final Thought
Just as you weren't asked to be stranded on a deserted island, companies
do not ask to be buffeted by the strong winds of broadband and other significant
technological change. However, those that focus on the GOTI objective of
valuing their customers above all else will be the ones that will ultimately
reach the safe and profitable shores of an as yet uncertain, but nonetheless
inevitable, video distribution world soon to be dominated by broadband.
••• ••• •••
What do you think? Do you agree with my recommendation for the GOTI objective for broadband-affected businesses?
Email me at wrichmond@broadbanddirections and next month I'll post your responses!
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Finally, stay tuned for exciting news in the next few weeks about upcoming Broadband Directions initiatives!