One Step Ahead

Joann Lublin, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, responded to our January Food for Thought mailing with a pointer to an interview she did of Ram Charan, the renowned management consultant. Ram Charan's comments prompted us to write this piece.

We first start by revealing the secrets of a genre of magic tricks that we like to call "One Step Ahead."

One such trick in this genre involves a pack of cards. The effect is to spread the cards face down on a table until they appear to be randomly distributed. The magician then points to a random card, declares its value and draws the card; and does this three times over, pointing to three different cards. The magician proves his magical powers by revealing the three cards. Viola! They are precisely the cards the magician had claimed!

The trick:

Before spreading the cards on the table, the magician notes one card in the deck, say 2♠, and tracks its movement as he spreads the deck on the table. Pointing to some other random card, the magician declares it to be 2♠, picks it up and looks at it. Noting its value, say 7♦, he points to another random card, declares it to be 7♦, and picks that card up. Noting its value, say Q♥, the magician points to the card he knows to be 2♠, declares it to be Q♥ and picks it up. Lo and behold the three cards he holds in his hands are precisely the three values he announced. The magician was just one step ahead of the audience the whole time.

What does this have to do with business, management and leadership?

Are you one step ahead of your market all the time? In some sense, this is the point Ram Charan is making in his interview with Joann Lublin. He argues that this is the time to be aggressive in the market place for key talent - both retaining your talent and hiring new talent. Business leaders need to recognize that even though the economic conditions have been fragile over the past few years, you should recognize and compensate your key employees based on what the next year is likely to bring, not what last year looked like. You need to become aggressive in hiring and retaining good talent six months before the market becomes aggressive.

For example, in the energy industry around Calgary, Alberta, a year ago you would have been able to pick up high-quality engineering talent quite easily. Yet, try getting good engineering talent now! Everybody is scrambling for more engineers.

To protect yourself from downturns in the economy, like the magic trick, you need to identify a 2♠ that you keep on stand-by.

If you identify a business need - a cost reduction or process improvement project, some long desired feature enhancements in your products, organizational development efforts, etc. - that isn't urgent, but worthy of pursuit then you can do exactly what the magic trick does. You can be aggressive in the market, constantly taking a step in anticipation of the market and when the market slows down use your resources for the stand-by project. Of course, resources are not always interchangeable. But this concept of "One Step Ahead" makes you think differently.

Food for Thought is our way of sharing interesting concepts on corporate leadership and management with others who might find it useful. The thoughts offered are intended to be controversial and thought provoking. They are intended to help our readers intentionally realize their potential, what we call Potentionality.