Desirability In Decades

"The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation" describes a key strategic shift that enabled Theodore Vail's celebrated turnaround of AT&T in the early 1900's, as anti-trust regulations threatened to make the innovator a relic. "In Vail's view, another key to AT&T's revival was defining it as a technological leader with legions of engineers working unceasingly to improve the system. As the business historian Louis Galambos would later point out, as Vail's strategy evolved, the company's executives began to imagine how their company might adapt its technology not only for the near term but for a future far, far away: 'Eventually it came to be assumed within the Bell System that there would never be a time when technological innovation would no longer be needed.' The Vail strategy, in short, would measure the company's progress 'in decades instead of years.'"

Which made me wonder, what should a leader measure decades into the future? ...

Bernard Arnault recently surpassed Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison as the world's third richest man. A few months back, I absentmindedly picked up a Fortune magazine in the airport, and enjoyed reading the feature article on how he built his 79-brand empire.

There was one quote that really stuck out to me, and immediately came to mind as I read the passage on AT&T above. What do you think Bernard Arnault thinks about every morning when he wakes up?

“What I have in mind every morning is that the desirability of a brand should be as strong in ten years,” he says. “It’s really the key to our success.”

When he thinks decades out, he's not thinking in terms of profitability, but desirability. He's onto something. There's often a three-circle venn diagram that gets flashed up in any innovation conversation. Innovation, of course, occurs at the intersection of the three overlapping circles, which are technological feasibility, business viability, and human desirability. We often advocate being thoughtful about when to apply -- and importantly, when to defer applying -- the various lenses.

This was a great reminder for me to keep desirability at the forefront, even in long-range planning, to achieve growth and value creation.

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