Obliquity and the Branson Effect
“The most profitable companies are not the most aggressive in chasing profits. The wealthiest men and women are not the most materialistic. And the most pleased people do not set out to pursue happiness.”
I was speaking at a conference in London recently and stayed at the Hilton in Islington. I had nothing to do the evening before, so popped out to a nearby bookshop and found a copy of John Kay’s latest book: Obliquity.
I’ve liked Kay’s writing for a while -from his articles in the FT to his brilliant book Foundations of Corporate Success which I though was one of the classics in the strategy field in the 90s.
Obliquity challenges a lot of the seemingly common-sense notions we have about achievement – and uses real-world data and examples to do so.
It’s nearly a core tenet of the business coaching industry that to succeed you need to set crystal apparent goals and objectives and to then break them down into lots of sub goals and milestones.
But Kay shows that that’s rarely how truly successful businesses or individuals do things. Business and life is just too damn complex for a simple approach like this to work.
In fact, he gives some very sobering examples of how when companies like ICI (whose first mission was focused on excellence in chemistry) and Boeing (who focused on aeronautical engineering) switched their focus to maximising shareholder value, they really ruined tons of it.
He also shows how people who set out with an objective of being pleased rarely achieve this. While people who set goals like climbing a mountain or contributing to a charity end up very pleased as a result.
There are lots of excellent things in the book and I throughly recommend it as a light-ish read that will get you thinking.
But for me the standout “finding” is that in order to succeed in making money as a business or individual, you need to have a higher goal. That might be excellence in engineering, or to help your clients retire wealthy, or help companies increase their impact on the environment.
Focus on that goal, and the wealth will follow.
Focus only on building your wealth and you’ll struggle.
In the Authority Marketing interviews I’ve been doing with chief consultants who’ve become recognised as the authority in their field, this same finding keeps coming up. They didn’t enter their field because a cold, hard calculation told them it would be profitable. They developed a passion for it. And then they followed that passion.
Agreed my focus on authority, I was more than interested recently to learn Greg Habstritt and a new course he’s putting out called the Authority Formula.
At first I thought “damn, a competitor”. But I’ve been impressed so far.
He’s releasing a run of free training videos, intelligence and even some free online software related to the course. The first video is on the “Branson Effect” and the core is the exact same point: you need to focus on a passion, not just making money.
I recommend you take a look at the Branson Effect video (you’ll have to sign up to get access) and especially to use the Success DNA Detector software. I used it myself and found it very insightful at helping my prioritise what really made me tick.
You can get access to the video, PDF and software by clicking here.
PS – apparently there’s a free iPad 2 for the best comment received on the video!
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*** Please note – I’ve been so impressed so far I’ve signed up as an “affiliate” for the training course. As this is the launch of a training product, eventually Greg is going to suggest you might want to buy it. And I suspect it’ll be expensive too! If you do buy after clicking my link, I’ll get a commission for “introducing” you.
Now I really like the free videos, PDF and software so far – and Greg’s blog posts. But I haven’t taken the training course or even seen it yet – so I can’t give a recommendation based on my own experience. So please make sure that if you do buy it you’ve fully researched and done your own due diligence.
Similar Posts:
- The Authority Formula – A Marketing Case Study
- Authority Marketing
- In Praise of Passion
- Book Review: How to Win a Pitch
- Authority Marketing: The Essentials
Obliquity and the Branson Effect is a post from: Get More Clients in Less Time: Practical Strategies, Proven Results