Every leader has experienced so much disruption to our business and ways of working recently. We have seen the demands of our customers shift, and scrambled to meet them.
But how have your internal beliefs and personal rules shifted? For me, the last few years have been entirely transformative and required a holistic view to make that happen. Let me share a recent experience that may provide a good example and insight into why even the most prominent must move with the times.
I recently led a group of Thai executives on a programme at Stanford University, where I have had the pleasure of meeting and learning with Professor Geoffrey Moore many times. He is an inspiring thinker, speaker and creator of seminal ideas like Cross the Chasm and Zone to Win. He impressed me with an update that I found mirrored my own experiences.
What stood out was how he had not let his most prominent ideas become outdated and irrelevant. He demonstrated why the best ideas, companies and leaders must adjust with the times. In this case, the Zone to Win concept.
Prof Moore’s Zone to Win concept is a strategic framework for companies to succeed and survive disruptive market changes. He introduced it in Zone to Win: Organizing to Compete in an Age of Disruption in 2015. The core idea is that in disruptive times, companies must focus on specific zones to achieve sustainable growth and maintain competitive advantage.
He identified four distinct zones: the Performance Zone, the Productivity Zone, the Incubation Zone and the Transformation Zone. I will not go into the theory, but I am sure most leaders are aware of and experienced these zones in our businesses.
Rather than rest on his laurels, he realised times had changed, so his ideas (or we could call it product or world view) needed to also. Rather than sticking to his original formula, he realised more than ever before companies cannot afford to rely on past achievements or confine themselves to a single strategic zone. Leaders must recognise the importance of investing across all four zones, which requires a rethink of our organisations and efforts.
My industry, learning, has been a clear example of this with so much change and innovation. New technologies and ideas are already out of date. Experiments have succeeded and failed, and great leaps forward made.
Like leaders in many industries, my challenge now goes beyond balancing these four zones and allocating resources accordingly. I have had to move with the times and simultaneously optimise my existing business and create future growth.
After listening to Prof Moore, I reflected that I needed to ensure all four zones were sufficiently considered and funded to meet our specific goals and the market conditions.
Prof Moore’s previous advice was to watch your market environment constantly evolve and reassess zone priorities over time. Now, he advises leaders to keep their eyes on all four zones simultaneously. In my case (like many other leaders I discussed this with at Stanford and on my return to Thailand) this meant:
Sustaining what we are good at now: The Performance Zone. The heart of your current organisation is its core products and services that generate revenue and profitability. Every organisation now has to continually optimise and raise the bar.
My team can certainly attest to how much work and resources this has demanded recently, but how staying still was not an option. This has taken a great deal of iterative and drastic innovation into what is supposed to be the most stable zone.
Efficiency and Agility: The Productivity Zone where leaders and organisations sought improvement. My teams would agree with the work we have put into creating changes here. We have used SLAM team methods — Self-organising, Lean, Autonomous and Multidisciplinary — to transform things quickly.
Every organisation of every type needs a culture of innovation, embracing technologies like AI (particularly poignant at the moment) and simplifying operations to free up resources and reallocate them strategically.
Nurturing Innovation: The Incubation Zone, key to unlocking future growth opportunities. Senior leaders to stay ahead of the curve must identify emerging trends and capitalise on new market opportunities. I can personally attest to the challenges and benefits of this and its importance, and from talking to other leaders, I also can share how difficult it is.
Embracing Change: The Transformation Zone is where companies adapt and thrive. Like many leaders, I have needed to proactively address disruptive forces, champion transformational initiatives, and embrace innovation, flexibility, and continuous reinvention. I look back and see how much time daily I have had to invest in this.
My personal experience and the advice from the creator himself show that overemphasising any single zone means stagnation, missed opportunities, or vulnerability to disruption. Staying relevant and competitive demands a comprehensive approach encompassing all four zones of the Zone to Win concept. Prof Moore’s original framework was groundbreaking, but even he recognised the need to adapt to the times.
Go beyond simply balancing resources between zones and provide the requisite attention, funding, and efforts to all four zones simultaneously. If you use insights from each zone, you can position your company ahead of the curve.
Arinya Talerngsri is Chief Capability Officer, Managing Director and Founder of SEAC — Southeast Asia’s Lifelong Learning Centre. She is fascinated by the challenge of transforming education for all to create better prospects for Thais and people everywhere. Reach her email at arinya_t@seasiacenter.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinya-talerngsri-53b81aa
