Zone To Win summary

If you’re dating in your 30s, you probably know it’s not easy to compete with 20-somethings in the “dating market.” Doing so requires fundamental changes to your dating strategy.

In the same vein, while established companies certainly can compete with lean, disruptive start-ups, they first have to restructure their business models.

As the adage goes, sometimes you have to take a step backward to move forward. Companies eager to grow and succeed need to accept the minor setbacks that may eventually lead to innovative solutions.

In fact, a company’s revenue-generating activities – located in the performance zone – are often put under stress by the firm’s efforts at innovation.

Imagine you’re a talented home baker who wants to start a cake business. How do you go from baking one cake per day to baking and selling thousands of cakes per month?

The productivity zone is where these ideas are born. This area focuses on driving efficiency and effectiveness to grow your business for success. Here’s how it works.

The first rule of incubation is to ensure a future product meets certain standards that will guarantee a successful market disruption.

First off, your innovative product should represent a new product or business opportunity for your company. Enhancing or building on an existing product isn’t enough to qualify it for incubation.

Military generals need to maintain constant discipline over troops, a control that is put to the test on the battlefield. Your company’s transformation zone is only activated in similarly militant situations, such as when a competitor disrupts your market position with a new product or service.

Your transformation zone is your tool as a leader to deal with a crisis. After all, a market disruption is the true test of a company CEO.

Are you the type of person who sorts documents, makes lists and generally keeps things under control? If so, as a CEO you’ll excel at this next step, in which you put all you’ve learned in these blinks into action.  

First, divide your company into four zones. Every organization, initiative and company employee should be assigned to a specific zone and function, according to the rules of each zone.

The experience of Microsoft is one poignant example of how a disruption can hobble even a technology giant. The company’s Windows operating system has experienced serious headwinds in the face of competition from mobile technology.

The boom in smartphones has benefited Microsoft’s biggest competitors, Apple and Google, both of which have developed mobile operating systems that together dominate most handheld devices on the market today.