This time last year we were in conversation with Geoffrey Moore, best-selling author of the popular business books Crossing the Chasm and Zone to Win, and founder of Chasm Group. What an honour it was to be able to speak to Geoffrey and discuss some industry hot topics.
The title of this podcast was inspired from a previous talk Geoff made on Zone to Win. He said that it is only natural that tech organisations do not want to put all their eggs in one basket, but that they need to remember a chicken only lays one egg at a time. We dig into this some more and also learn about Geoffrey’s new book, The Infinite Staircase.
Listen to the podcast here
Speaking to Geoffrey was great timing as we had just released our Tech Leaders Survey Report which identified the tech industry’s biggest challenge – Competing Priorities. This is a topic which Geoffrey is very passionate about.
The No.1 Issue Affecting Tech Organisations – Competing Priorities
Vic highlights from our report that 75% of leaders are struggling around prioritisation which leads Geoffrey sharing his Zones to Win framework.
Geoffrey explains that there is still a crisis of prioritisation. There are genuine conflicting interests within global enterprises at this time which are caused by organisations trying to manage all the interests in one pot and by using one system to manage them all together.
The book, Zone to Win, addresses that approach will not work. What organisations have to do, is create different pots, or zones, to manage the different business interests.
The Four Zones
Geoffrey takes us on a whistle stop tour of the four zones.
- Performance zone – this is where you run your current business, it’s how you deliver value, it’s what your investors look at etc.
- Productivity zone – This consists of all the cost centre functions to support the performance zone i.e.. HR, finance, marketing, customer success etc.
- Incubation zone – Geoffrey points out that every industry experiences transformations. To address a transformation, you need an incubation zone.
- Transformation zone – this is where you go ‘all in’ on the new thing. This zone is very demanding of resources but is not yet efficient or effective. It takes resources out of your core business and pores them into a business that is ineffective. It is challenging and without the clarity it needs to support it, creates the crisis of prioritisation.
Rules of the Transformation Zone
We learn the three rules in this zone are:
- If you start a transformation, you need to finish it.
- You have to be relentlessly focused on getting this through.
- Every day in the transformation zone is a bad day, so the faster you get through it, the better.
Respect each Zone
According to Geoffrey, we have to honour each zone.
“We need the productivity zone to set up the processes, and the performance zone to pay for everything.”
To address the huge impact of competing priorities, Geoffrey explains the importance of zoning the business. Once you have zoned the business, the next step is to sort the priorities within each zone. Geoffrey provides some great advice around this area.
To listen to the full conversation, click here.
The Infinite Staircase
Time to get comfy and make a cuppa. Geoffrey introduces us to his new book, The Infinite Staircase, which delves into an end to end exploration into human existence.
