Technology Accelerators as a Concept
In Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … And Others Don’t” By Jim Collins, Collins closes out his thoughts on Disciplined Action by providing thoughts on technology uses in an organization.
A great organization avoid fads or the hot new thing. Instead, it only adopts a technology which serves as an accelerator for the momentum already started to promote the firm’s Hedgehog Concept. None of the Good to Great companies Jim Collins studied began their transformations by pioneering a bleeding edge technology without a proven application. They became pioneers in the application of technology once they identified how it fit for their Hedgehog Concept.
“Greatness" is defined by Collins as a company that achieves financial performance several multiples better than the market average, over a sustained period”
Technology Accelerators
Attributes and Observations
Collins characterizes the ideal approach to a technology with the following flow and reminds us that at any point, it’s perfectly fine to abort the idea if signs emerge the technology will not accelerate the efforts to promote the hedgehog concept.
Pause —> Think —> Crawl —> Walk — >Run
PAUSE - A Level 5 Leader hears of a new technology and learns about its capabilities
THINK - The L5 leader converses and gets feedback from the disciplined people in his organization on the new technology’s potential use cases
CRAWL - A pilot program or test group is deployed to determine how the new tech holds up in the real world
WALK - Once the technology proves itself as an accelerant of the hedgehog concept, it’s deployed swiftly across all use cases
RUN - The technology is maximized and optimized to the fullest extent possible toward achieving the hedgehog concept of the organization
Technology Accelerators as a Dad
Attributes and Observations
Collins approach to technology accelerators can be applied for parenting in the digital age. Modern Dads are tasked with many more “milestone” moments with technology beyond the traditional right of passage of getting a driver’s license and watching your kid ride off into the scary world of freeways and fender benders.
When should kids get a phone?
What social media and websites are acceptable?
Do the kids need to be tracked 24/7 with an Air Tag or GPS?
Let’s use getting a phone as the example. Keep in mind, your specific answer or even you specific question to ask may be different but the model can apply.
Pause —> Think —> Crawl —> Walk —> Run.”
PAUSE - Ask what types of phones are available for kids. What do they need it for? What are the concerns of them having one?
THINK - Will having a phone help or hurt in the effort to keep your kids aligned to your hedgehog concept
CRAWL - You give them a stripped down phone with limited features to prevent online bullying or accidently buying $800 in toys on AMAZON.
WALK - Once they have proven responsible, you can look to unlock features that coincide with how you believe it best for your kid
RUN - Your child is now operating the phone better than you and you have to ask them how to use features like the latest video chat or app
Check out the other Good to Great Series here
Level 5 Dads
Put Simply: Business Management principles can work great in the home if you apply them in tune with your family needs and a bit of common sense. Beware though, your family members are not your employees. Level 5 Leadership as a Concept In the classic business and management volume “
The Hedgehog Concept
Thanks for reading Trader Dads! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. The Hedgehog Concept In Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … And Others Don’t” By Jim Collins, Collins announces his vote in the age long debate between the
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