I’m Feeling Lucky
I recently read a particularly thought provoking article by Scott Anthony, a discussion leader for the Harvard Business Blogs, that discussed whether or not large incumbent companies should even bother with innovation. I’ve written previously about Toyota and Honda and the fact that while analysts, academics, experts, and lay people alike are praising them now, in the past few decades both companies have been criticized publicly several times for pouring money into “unproven” technologies while refusing to follow the rest of the industry into large sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks. Well, as I said before, “unproven” is what innovation is all about! Both of these companies exemplify not only how important innovation is for incumbents but also how successful the correct approach to innovation can make them.
But today I actually want to briefly give mention to a different aspect of success- one that I find is often neglected or forgotten- and that is luck. Jim McCann started out selling flowers on the side and ended up with 1-800-FLOWERS, the world’s largest florist. Ted Waitt started Gateway 2000 on his family’s cattle farm in Iowa and in less than ten years was running a billion-dollar company. What special ingredient do these and the hundreds of other famous success stories have in common? Luck. (I recommend reading about these and other successes in What’s Luck Got to Do With It?: Twelve Entrepreneurs Reveal the Secrets Behind Their Success).
Even contemporary companies such as Google, Apple and Amazon owe something to luck. It doesn’t matter whether you are starting a new business or applying to a new job, choosing classes in college or trying out for a sports team- luck plays an immensely important role in how our lives shape up. Sometimes luck just means being in the right place at the right time. There is no doubt that Honda and Toyota did years of research and spent hours understanding all kinds of models before deciding to invest so heavily in alternative energy and fuel efficient vehicles, but even they could not have known how quickly the energy crisis would arise and how pervasively the ‘green’ movement would infiltrate our nation or the world in the past few months.
Unfortunately top management doesn’t really like luck because it is, by definition, erratic and uncontrollable. So how do we then deal with it? Well, we can, to some extent, create luck- only then it goes by a different name, and that name is opportunity. The most successful people create and take opportunities wherever and whenever they can. Whether this means turning your company’s name into an everyday action verb (Google, Sergey Brin & Eric Schmidt), taking an aggressive approach to branding and style (Apple, Steve Jobs), or revolutionizing customer interaction and satisfaction (Amazon, Jeff Bezos), successful companies and successful people are always creating unique opportunities.
As Hector Berlioz said, “The luck of having talent is not enough; one must also have a talent for luck.”
August 26th, 2008 at 12:57 am
[…] greater part than we think and yet the best managers act as if chance is irrelevant. I’ve written previously about how important luck is, although the best entrepreneurs are sometimes able to “create […]