the early 1970s, for example, led to the development of the “expe-
rience curve” concept, which says that cumulative manufacturing
volume leads to predictable decreases in unit cost. This then led to
the famous “Growth/Share” matrix, which BCG used to strategi-
cally position different businesses, depending on their competitive
prospects and investment needs. A division that has a small market
share of a slow-growing market, for example, is a “dog” and should
be divested; a high-market-share business in a low-growth market is
a “cash cow,” which should be harvested for cash; and so on.
Despite the effectiveness of this type of broad-based strategic
research, it’s typically the preserve of a few high-end consulting or
investment banking firms. Manufacturers often focus more specifi-
cally on technology research and development, and few services
firms make these corporate-level investments in new ideas about
industry evolution.
Make “Home Visits” and Observe
My father, Raymond Sobel, is a retired psychiatrist who chaired the
department of child psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School. A
highly successful therapist, he used to have a packed schedule of
patients nearly every day. He routinely did something very unusual,
however, that set him apart from all of his peers: early in his rela-
tionship with each patient, he visited the patient in his or her
home or family environment. He describes his unique approach
this way:
I almost got kicked out of the psychoanalytic society for doing home
visits. They had this crazy notion that you had to be unseen and
ambiguous, a nonperson, in your treatment of patients. I wanted to
see what was going on in patients’ homes, however. I learned a
tremendous amount that helped me be a better therapist. When you
walk into the house of a patient and you almost fall through a hole
in the hallway floorboards that’s been there for two years, what
does it say? Or you get there and an enormous German shepherd is222 LEADINGORGANIZATIONALLEARNING