Response to Chapters 5 & 6 of Good to Great

Two management styles presented in Jim Collins’ book Good to Great are the “hedgehog” and “fox” (90). The hedgehog style of leadership is to simplify the world into an actionable or understandable concept from which you can move forward. In this case, “simplify” doesn’t mean “dumb down,” it means understanding the world clearly enough to make a single articulate thought about the impact a hedgehog leader has or the direction he or she wants to go in. Two characteristics of a hedgehog would be intelligence and focus. Hedgehogs need to be intelligent enough to see the “big picture” and focused enough to take action on those things that matter most in terms of developing their vision. The fox style of leadership is to “see the world in all its complexity” (91). This means they are able to make connections between ideas but they cannot execute on a single idea because their energy and attention are pulled in several different directions. Two characteristics of a fox leader would be intelligent but easily distracted or indecisive. Because foxes see the complexity of the world, the see a lot of choices and possibilities, which can lead to indecisiveness or being distracted.

I am in the event-planning business, specifically planning for weddings. While my business focuses on weddings, it is not the only thing we do. In this regard, the business culture has some fox tendencies, and the leaders must act as foxes sometimes. The nature of the work requires leaders to wear many hats, especially in a small business, when people must do multiple jobs or fill multiple roles, such as driving supplies to the event site and acting as a hostess. It seems difficult to really employ a good hedgehog concept when working in a multi-faceted business with few human resources. The business is gaining more of a “hedgehog” focus by trying to simplify to just wedding planning, so the longer-term vision has hedgehog elements. But the day-to-day management is more fox-like because weddings are not the only events to drive the business’ economic engine at this point. Also, there are not enough people to allow the leaders to focus on aligning the three circles of the Hedgehog Concept to be more focused.  

As someone who is self-employed and the leader of my company, I feel as if I must sometimes be a fox because of all the demands on me. One day I’m a wedding planner, the next day a bookkeeper and accountant, then a secretary, and a marketing person. In order to manage all aspects of my business, I often need to wear many hats, and when I need help, I contract people, such as servers for a wedding or hiring an accountant to help me file taxes. My management style has been fox-like because I didn’t really delegate responsibility as much as manage people simultaneously. And while I know I am in an industry I love and I know of the many things I am good at, I can do my best as a wedding planner, it has been hard to stay focused when I am constantly putting out fires and solving problems in the day-to-day business and during live events such as weddings. I feel as if I spend a lot of time strategizing on how to become more focused, but in the reading I’ve learned that strategy is not the separator of a great company from a good one.

The first circle of the Hedgehog Concept is understanding what you can be the best at as well as understanding what you cannot be the best at. This differs from wants or plans and is instead an assessment of skill and ability. Within my organization, of all the live events I plan, I am the best at planning weddings. I understand weddings and wedding culture better than most other live events. I don’t know if I can be the best in the world at wedding planning because of the difference in resources I have versus event and wedding planners with a larger staff and resources—I am often limited by my own budget and cash flow in terms of what I can provide. The second circle of the Hedgehog Concept is discovering passion and making sure passion is integrated into the business. I enjoy being self-employed because of the freedom and opportunities it brings. I also deeply enjoy event planning because I feel as if I’m responsible for giving people memories they keep forever. Being passionate about my work helps me focus and work harder, enduring more hardship than I would if I didn’t like my job. The third circle of the Hedgehog Concept is finding the thing that drives your economic engine. This means finding some part of the market that performs well for you and focusing more on that while approaching it with a healthy dose of pragmatism. As I have begun focusing on weddings over the course of my event-planning business’ life, I have realized that weddings are more profitable because people expect to spend more on them, he right clients are a little more generous in their budgets because they want something special, and you can charge higher premiums for services because people feel like the “luxury” service they are getting makes their event more prestigious. As I focus more on fine-tuning that aspect of my business, it will definitely be a stronger “denominator” for driving my “economic engine” (104).

In the book, Collins presents a matrix of “Creative Discipline” (122). The matrix assesses the “ethics of entrepreneurship” and “culture of discipline” (122). By thinking about these two concepts, it becomes possible to understand how focused and driven the organization is. Since I am self-employed, my ethic of entrepreneurship is high, practically maxed out. I understand that I am responsible for everything happening or not happening in my business, and I have to work to make them happen. By that same token, I realize how important it is to be disciplined and practice a culture of discipline. As I become less disciplined or focus, my ability to perform at the top level diminishes. As I become more disciplined and focused, my productivity and level of accomplishment increases.

Reference

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great. New York: Harper Business.