Category Archives for "Marko Rillo"

Right Strategy for Strategy

Does your strategy have the right strategy? Boston Consulting Group (BCG) consultants Martin Reeves, Claire Love, and Philipp Tillmanns asked this in their Harvard Business Review article “Your Strategy Needs a Strategy.” Later, Reeves, together with BCG colleagues Knut Haanaes and Janmejaya Sinha, presented the comprehensive framework below in another HBR article: https://hbr.org/2015/06/navigating-the-dozens-of-different-strategy-options

The message is simple: adapt your approach to strategy to the circumstances you’re in.

To decide which approach to strategy is best for you, you need to look at three conditions in your market, displayed on the scheme above as three dimensions:
1. Predictability: if your market is stable and predictable, you can rely on analysis and planning.
2. Malleability: if your market can be influenced, you can rely on your ability to change it.
3. Harshness: if your market is too tough to survive for you, it is time to reboot.

Combining these conditions leads to five approaches to strategy from which you can choose:
1. Classical: analyze, predict and plan. Aim at growing your company to become big.
2. Adaptive: experiment, learn and adapt to circumstances, and do so as quickly as possible.
3. Visionary: envision, build, and persist in creating your company as you see it. Be the first to do so.
4. Shaping: collaborate, orchestrate, and develop a shared new ecosystem, market, or industry.
5. Renewal: decisively change course, reinvent yourself to revitalize your business. 

Ideological Currency – A New Level at Maslow Pyramid?

Amur Leopard Cubs - © Maaja Kitsing at Tallinn Zoo

Amur Leopard Cubs - © Maaja Kitsing at Tallinn Zoo

During past couple of days the favourite pastime of our little daughter has been looking at newborn leopard cubs at Tallinn Zoo live webcam. Her enthusiasm about these cute animals reminded me of couple of papers that management professors Jeffery A Thompson and J. Stuart Bunderson have published about the motivation of zookeepers. Their work strikes as an interesting reminder to all managers about what is really important at work.

Abraham Maslow told us already nearly 70 years ago that we first satisfy needs of physiology, safety, belonging and esteem before  thinking about self-actualization. We might not agree with the model having seen artists or scientists who are pleased to actualize themselves leaving their social or physiological needs completely neglected. Still, Maslow pyramid provides a charmingly simple behavioral theory that makes an useful discussion starter for the MBAs. Its basic principles have been put into good use as a cornerstone to many motivation systems.

Although Maslow model appears comprehensive – it leaves one corporate practice clearly uncovered. Namely – formulation of vision statements. You might have heard the leaders talking on how their corporate vision increases enthusiasm or commitment of their employees. One might agree that a clear vision might contribute to self-actualization possibilities, but in practice there appears to be a discrepancy. Look at some of the vision statements of the global firms. Core essence of the most of them is simply alfa-male driven “Becoming global leaders in this-or-that”.

Having not stumbled across any of the in-depth studies on this subject, I dare to doubt if any of the employees really care if their multi-million corporation would become multi-billion or quite the opposite. Is the connection between vision statements and motivation a complete nonsense? But then again – perhaps I should not be so ironic. It could be that the connection still exists, but it is down to the actual contents of the vision.

I had a chat with a friend who recently resigned from his well-paid corporate position and restarted in a non-profit organization. None of the Maslow pyramid elements drove him to his decision. The key driver behind his choice was the noble vision of his new organization. Not surprisingly, we have also heard about principled programmers who spend vast amounts of their time on working on open source software because of their shared (utopian) vision that software should be free.

Returing to zoo – Thompson and Bunderson spent lots of time studying zookeepers, their personal calling and nobility of cause as key motivating factors for their work. Zookeepers, too, tend to work at minimum wage. Apart from communicating with their furry companions, the work tends to be solitary. No patting on their back from their bosses. No smiles from customers. And lets even forget about career progress or self-fulfilment opportunities.

“People will work hard for money; they will work harder for others. But hardest of all work those who are dedicated to a cause.” – Harry Emerson Fosdick

Thompson and Bunderson have written about “psychological contract” – a tacit agreement between employer and employee, which shapes the behaviour of both parties. Traditionally the currency of psychological contract has been either monetary (paycheck) or emotional (pat on the back). Thompson and Bunderson suggest that based on the zookeepers’ example – the strongest currency of all is the ideology of the organization. If the organization is out for a good cause what the employees really believe in then the managers have the opportunity to win the hearts and minds of their employees more easily leaving aside the other currencies or levels of Maslow pyramid. Should we add this as an additional component to existing 5 levels of Maslow pyramid?

Indeed. People at Skype have told that some employees have agreed to join their team with modest salary requests – just to help people phone each other for free. You might also want to reflect upon your company vision: “What is your noble cause that would help your employees to find their true calling in your organization and worry less about the other Maslow levels?”

PS. Thompson and Bunderson have added a kind disclaimer to their 1993 paper – should your company breach the noble vision then the most committed employees will react fiercely. So use this advice with caution and only if you really mean it! 🙂


References:

Bunderson & Thompson (2003) Violations of Principle: Ideological Currency in the Psychological Contract. Academy of Management Review. Vol. 28, No. 4, 571–586.

Bunderson & Thompson (2009) The Call of the Wild: Zookeepers, Callings, and the Double-edged Sword of Deeply Meaningful Work. Administrative Science Quarterly. Vol. 54, 32–57.

Maslow, A. (1943) A Theory of Human Motivation, Psychological Review 50(4), 370-96.

Consultant of the Year 2012

Estonian Consultants' Association logo
I was surprised to receive Consultant of the Year 2012 award from Estonian Consultants’ Association. The reason had been my work in internationalization of Estonian consultancy market – active work on both service export and information dissemination on international consultancy business opportunities.

Welcome to Markorillo.com

I first started blogging more than 10 years ago. My Estonian language website at rillo.ee has experienced already 3 face-lifts during its lifetime since it was made public in 1998. The website was first drafted with my students at the Tallinn University of Technology in mind – keeping them informed about the lectures, posting presentations and giving them the opportunity to discuss various topics on its internet forums. However, recently I came to realize that for several past years more than 50 per cent of my customers and more than 90 per cent of my income comes from international consulting clients. Hence I decided to finally economize and switch my information delivery to English only. Hence – the new international domain name and the new layout. Comments welcome!