June 9, 2010
Using "The Rhino Principle" to Jump-Start Complex Initiatives
When it comes to harnessing the necessary momentum to attack large-scale, complex business issues, British historian and author Paul Johnson ascribes to “The Rhino Principle.” In a column for Forbes, Johnson explains that businesses can glean valuable insights from the rhino’s instinctual method of facing challenges head-on. He notes, “ … the rhino is single-minded. When it perceives an object, it makes a decision--to charge. And it puts everything it's got into that charge. When the charge is over, the object is either flattened or has gone a long way into cover, whereupon the rhino instantly resumes browsing.”
According to Johnson, the “Charge!” methodology is also crucial to the business leader’s ability to achieve an objective. He advises the executive facing down an issue to “dismiss all other considerations from his mind, abandon all other activities and charge directly at that object, continuing to charge until the object has been secured.”
Optimization of large-scale business processes, such as the supply chain, is one area in which the application of The Rhino Principle can be the most appropriate leadership tactic for driving change throughout people, process and overall company culture. Optimization typically requires management teams to confront a long list of new and in-process initiatives, mired in various stages of planning and implementation. Just the idea of accounting for, sorting through and prioritizing these initiatives can put the entire optimization plan into an extended state of purgatory, characterized by activity that doesn’t yield much forward motion. Application of The Rhino Principle, however, can help anchor the focus on a specific initiative until it is resolved, and then drive the selection of the next initiative to single-mindedly conquer, until the optimization effort’s goals are fully realized.
Ultimately, it is business leaders’ ability to holistically implement change that will ensure the necessary diverse competitive advantage within today’s “Wild Kingdom” of business.
Posted by Application Administrator at 06/09/2010 02:58:01 PM |