The European Business Review - July-August 2019

52 The European Business Review July - August 2019

learn and adjust, then you’re not going to be

very effective in terms of strategy execution”,

explains Dina Matta, Head of the Global

Transformation Office at ING.

2

Buildfailureintotheculture

Accounting software company Intuit

givesa specialawardfortheBestFailure

andholds“failureparties”.“AtIntuitwecele-

bratefailure”, saysthecompany’s co-founder

Scott Cook, “because every failure teaches

somethingimportantthatcanbetheseedfor

thenextgreatidea.”

Takingpositivelessonsfromfailureandencour-

agingpeopletoseize theinitiativeand takerisks

hastobeanintegralpartof a company’sculture.

It hasto bethewaythingsaredonearoundhere.

Manyleadersandorganisationssaythatthey

areopentofailure.Mostpaylip-servicetothis

inpractice.Veryfewexplicitlytalkof failurein

their corporate communications beyond plati-

tudes.Enshrininganopennesstofailureenables

peopletotaketherisksnecessarytosucceed.

Leadersmustbetherolemodels.“Youshould

havemorethingsthatdon’tworkout,youhaveto

get more aggressive,”said Netflix chairmanand

CEO Reed Hastings when it cancelled a series.

“Thedrivetowardconformityas yougrowis more

substantial.Asa leader,youwanttodrivepeople

totakemorerisks.”Hehasalso lamented,“Our

hitratiois waytoohighrightnow....I’malways

pushingthecontentteam.Wehavetotakemore

risk...Youhavetotrymorecrazythings,because

weshouldhavea highercancelrateoverall.”^7

In 2014, when Nadella Satya became

Microsoft'snew CEO,hedeclaredthatthenew

gamewastobea Day1 Company.Fora Day 1

Companyeverydayis a new daywhereexperi-

menting,innovatinganditeratingis thenorm.For

Nadellathismeansaskingthreequestions:

• How successful are we at creating new prod-
  ucts,servicesorbusinessmodels?


• How effective are we at adapting to new
  changesordisruptions?


• Doesourculturerewardriskandfailure?

Rolemodellingfailurestartsat thetopofany

organisation, division,teamorsmall company.

“If we’re not making mistakes we’re not

trying hardenough,” observed James Quincey

whenhebecameCEOof Coca-Colain2017.^8

Amazon’sJeffBezoshasbeensimilarlyvocalin

makingit clearthatfailingis anintegralpartof

succeeding.“If you’regoingto take boldbets,

they’regoingtobeexperiments.Andif they’re

experiments, you don’t know ahead of time

if they’re going to work. Experiments are by

theirverynaturepronetofailure.Buta fewbig

successescompensatefordozensanddozensof

thingsthatdidn’twork.”

3

Failfast,adaptandlearn

Failfast,failoftenandfailproductively.For

entrepreneurs, being willing and able to

pursuemultipleinexpensive,quickexperimentsis

partoftheircompetitiveadvantage.Experiments

andfailurehavea symbioticrelationship.But,it is

notonlya willingnesstotryoutthingstoseeif

theyworkwhichis important.Thebestleaders

and organisations regard failure as an oppor-

tunity. Chiefly,they regard it as an opportunity

tolearn aswellasa motivationaltooltoguide

futureefforts.Theyadaptandlearn.

The failfast mantraisnow commonplace.

Failurehasbeenchampionedbytheadherents

Failurehasbeen

championedbythe

adherentsoforganisational

agility.Thistakesasits

inspirationtheworkof

softwaredevelopersin

workingasteamsto

identifybugsandto

sortthemout.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings at the company's Australian launch.

(Claire Reilly/CNET)

The challenge for leaders is to better understand

their own relationship with failure and to use that

knowledge to understand the failures of others.

Only then will failure really be put to work.

Transformation