The Leader's Ship

 Organizational Leadership
July 1, 2013

I have seen so many articles describing the enumerated habits of effective leaders, from what they eat, to how they phrase an email, and while intriguing and a good idea to study, this subject has been written to the point there is very few surprises. Most seem to paint a picture of a leader as the captain of a ship ordering his crew so that one boat reaches a safe port. While I imagine leaders who are admirals of a fleet of ships, or maybe a flotilla.

This also leads to other interesting questions such as why some groups of people are more effective at providing leadership throughout the world, throughout their nation or throughout their industry.  Not just one individual motivating people, but an organization motivating their entire ecosystem to follow.

Since July 4th almost here, I am reminded as always of The Declaration of Independence which I think is one of the best examples of a group of people coming together and declaring not just that the citizens of one country were free, but that “all men are created equal”. While one man slaved and wrote the document, the adoption was by a group, and the US was birthed. The United States revolution inspired the French revolution, Haiti’s revolution and independence in other Latin American countries.

Mercedes Benz’s innovations starting with the automobile itself, continued with the modern car design by lowering the chassis, four wheel brakes, crumple zones, airbags and an exterior body line that most car companies still strive to copy. Their automobiles continue to vary the exterior design, and remain one of the top luxury brands. Mercedes Benz has lead the automobile industry from the very beginning and they still produce innovations that are coveted and copied by other car manufacturers.

The sixties produced large anti-war demonstrations, which while having many leadership figures they were mainly composed of smaller groups of college aged men and women who challenged the past US actions and were able to dictate US foreign policy, along with other social changes.

Many people in the precursor to the Internet had shareware and provided free and donation software, but Netscape is the first company I know of that released fully functional free products alongside a similar premium software product, for which they charged money. This now seems to be the industry standard for most small to medium software companies.

In the same time frame other revolutions have failed, car company innovations such as push button transmissions and front wheel drive have either disappeared completely tor failed to gain traction for decades. Demonstrations such as the 99%, while having some victories have not dictated the US financial policies.

Here is why I think the above examples succeed, not only in accomplishing their goal, but inspiring a generation, or generations to follow.

The United States’s Declaration of Independence while stating lofty almost unattainable goals, had a direct purpose, a single villain not overly broad, not impossible. This piece of parchment stated what every American knew in their heart of hearts. From this example I believe the lessons are clear.  And they signed their names, providing not only lip service to their objective, but putting a target on their back which they wore proudly.

Mercedes Benz’s innovations are many, but most involve safety. These are almost unnoticeable improvements. Perhaps Mercedes Benz was the first automobile manufacturer to realize that if your customers don’t die, they will come back and buy again. Also, with many of the safety innovations Mercedes Benz choose not to defend their patents, which helped spread adoption.

The sixties protests had primarily one goal, to stop the war on Vietnam. With this as the primary objective eventually they succeeded.

While Netscape may not be around anymore their influence is still felt on every desktop, laptop and mobile device.

These nations, companies, students made their trail easy to follow, not just for the members of their own group but for everyone in their ecosystem. They lowered the bar for entry, such as Mercedes Benz not defending some of their safety patents and The United States with the Monroe Doctrine. Finally they had a laser focus on the end goal a single definable destination.

Apple and Google follow these practices religiously, Apple never has too many versions of the iPhone products supported and Google regularly takes an axe to products such as wave and google reader to make room for their next innovation.

While leaders do deserve a large amount of credit, its is the group mindset, mythology and doctrine which will determine whether they are successful in leading others in the industry to follow their path.

wdnii

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