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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 Fox or the Hedgehog.
By defining his Hedgehog Concept explicitly, Collins fully defines his broader argument for Disciplined Thought in the pursuit of Greatness.
“Greatness" is defined by Collins as a company that achieves financial performance several multiples better than the market average, over a sustained period”
The Hedgehog Concept
Attributes and Observations
The Hedgehog Concept is discovering the product or service at the intersection of three specific circles:
1) what you are deeply passionate about,
2) what you can be the best in the world at
3) what best drives your economic engine (What makes money/profit)
It is an understanding of what you can be the best at that matters here. The precision of intent is absolutely crucial to understanding the principle and applying it for greatness.
The actual “thing” at the center of the Venn Diagram is almost irrelevant. It could be a goal, a process, an idea, a gadget, a whatever. As long as it fits the 3 criteria, then that is the purpose of your business.
The 1% Rule
A lot of people know the 1% rule as essentially “you become 37x better at something in 1 year, if you improve 1% each day”.
It’s a neat graph. (Love me some Econ-graphs!) but it’s much more about theoretical process improvement when applied properly, rather than raw cumulative growth. It only works when you already know the hedgehog concept you’re trying to improve on by 1%. So it does not quite apply here the way you might intuit.
The Hedgehog Concept As A Dad
Attributes and Observations
When applying the Hedgehog concept as a Dad, it immediately becomes a very personal question.
1) what are you deeply passionate about?
2) what can you be the best in the world at for them?
3) what best drives your economic engine (What gets you outta that fuckin’ bed in the morning?)
These are tough questions and tough answers to find.
I really searched my heart for the answers and I could not put it into words. I hope below helps articulate my objectives as a Dad towards my daughters.
