Team:Arizona State E/Less

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Case Study #4: The Pursuit of Less

Passion is important. Finding the right group of people is important. Then why doesn't the recipe of a batch of the right people, a vision of a common goal, and a pinch of start-up capital automatically bake the cake of success?

This is the subject of a Harvard Business Review article written by Greg McKeown's, CEO of THIS Inc., a leadership and strategy design agency.

The Clarity Paradox

There are four key phases that explain the Clarity Paradox--a new paradigm in how companies should approach business practices

Phase 1: When we really have clarity of purpose, it leads to success.


Phase 2: When we have success, it leads to more options and opportunities.

Phase 3: When we have increased options and opportunities, it leads to diffused efforts.

Phase 4:Diffused efforts undermine the very clarity that led to our success in the first place.

Wait a minute. The Clarity Paradox is trying to tell us something we might have already deduced from reading the above four statements...

"Success is a catalyst for failure".

Why? This doesn't make any sense? Shouldn't companies that become successful exponentially become more successful?

Apparently, this isn't the case. Many companies that once graced the sidewalks of Wall Street took on "too much", and fell into the trap of over stretching not only their capital, but their intellectual resources as well, as described in further detail in Jim Collin's book, How the Mighty Fall^{[http://books.google.com/books/about/How_the_Mighty_Fall.html?id=LgtE3DMl7QIC]}.

The Case of Enric Sala

insert case study info here

[http://www.ted.com/talks/enric_sala.html Hear More about Eric…]

How do companies learn from The Clarity Paradox and Enric Sala? There are three conclusions from this case study that can be applied to any company--particularly in Synthetic Biology--that can increase organizational performance and pave the road to clarity-derived success.

2. Ask "What's Essential?":

Life is like the second law of thermodynamics. It keeps getting messy. Like picking up a book, reading half of it, and moving on to another, companies often pick up multiple intrapreneurship ideas and run with them to the halfway point. Rather, by focusing on less and maximizing the potential of the best, and only the best, opportunities stated by the "extreme criteria", organizations can continue to develop stronger ideas into successful products and services. Similarly, following the strategy of either completing or eliminating an old project before beginning a new one prevents the addition of new activities that might divert focus away from more important ventures.

Apple is a great example of this strategy. Many computer companies make the same types of products--laptops, desktops, tablets, and in some cases, mobile phones. Many of these companies make multiple versions of their products, each with different features, design schemes, software, and specifications. However, Apple took just one unifying design scheme for its computer products. While the technical specifications of each product differ, the overall product design is the same. Following Simon Sinek's model of putting the WHY question first, Apple took one simple vision and transformed it into the most prosperous organization on the planet.

3. Ditch the Endowment Effect:

insert endowment effect conclusions here.

These conclusions don't necessarily mean we should say No to everything, but rather that companies should be very selective in their choices and eliminate pieces that take up time that could have been more productivity used elsewhere to progress the ultimate goal of the organization.

It seems that in order to bake a cake of success, the key is throwing in less, not more.