Let’s face it most companies are dead boring and they are certainly not curious.
Because they are boring and not curious, their products and services (and probably people) are, by extension, boring and their customers know it. They don’t need to be. It is the curious people who force progress and make companies endure and prosper (not the auditors J). The curious people are the ones aged 6 or 66 who are always getting into trouble – who want to know what happens if I stick a fork into a light socket (please don’t try this) or if I can manufacture a camera that doesn’t use film.
The rise of Japan’s Nintendo, a company imbued with the spirit of adventure and absolutely curious about all things is an interesting study. It’s philosophy is summed up by a conversation between its game designer, Gunpei Yokoi, and his boss (the CEO). Gunpei asked his boss “what should I make?”; the reply was “something great”. That was in the 1990s. To this day they have been making “great” stuff.
How curious is your business? Are you afraid of failure? Great businesses relentlessly pursue failure (sounds crazy, doesn’t it) because they know within the failures some major successes will emerge.
If you don’t make utter fools of yourselves every so often, then you’ll grow smug – that is, you won’t grow at all. And by the way, we all know that failure teaches us the best lessons (as long as you don’t repeat the mistakes). So get interesting, damn it (and distance yourself from your competition)! Have a great week!
from The Bull
(For those new to uncluttered white spaces. The Bull is a guest writer from Melbourne remains anonymous. He writes for uws every Monday)
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