The Genius or the Fool?
Reportedly, of all the many quotes from his father, the favorite of T. Boone Pickens is: “A fool with a plan can outsmart a genius with no plan.”
Now, a guy like me has to like a quote like that – it is helps give my job some credibility (my official title with my employer is Chief Strategy Officer after all, and that does involve a bit of planning here and there). There are actually a number of “fool” quotes that I have collected over the years, but this is probably my favorite.
Mr. Pickens is a pretty successful dude, but he is very much not satisfied with that success. Making billions from oil has not satiated his desire for achievement. But it is what he has set his sights on next that has really caught my attention. His desire is to help our country become independent from foreign oil (which means becoming independent from petroleum products in general). Most importantly he has a plan. His vision is huge and the challenge is daunting, and he is somewhat going it alone. Yet, he is doing it nevertheless.
When he demonstrates some success others will jump on his bandwagon and the greater initiative will prevail. We will have wind farms and hydrogen cell technology, and we will burn a lot less fossil fuels. At the moment his plan is a bit out there and there is the question of fool or genius?
I quite like it and I encourage you to consider this as a model for your CRM program planning. There are a number of elements to T’s situation that I think are worth emulating. First, he is not resting on his laurels. Many of you have run successful CRM programs and could stop now and declare victory. Don’t. No matter how successful you have been with your program, there is more to get back and you should go after it.
Second, he is taking on a big challenge. So what? Automating a salesforce is a big challenge as well. You don’t have to do it all at once, but you have to do it. We need to wean ourselves from hydrocarbons, but we will have to do it with a bunch of smaller connected initiatives, not just one big one.
Third, and most importantly, and this may be where the fool part may seem to appear – he is offering up his plan and going after it, even though he does not have a backing from the government or the oil industry or any other significant body. He is doing it anyway, but I believe others will join him eventually. Over the last quarter of a century I have worked with many divisions and business units of larger organizations who were paralyzed with the absence of a higher level corporate strategy. The more successful organizations finally break free of those perceptual chains and plow forward with their plan. This has been done not in defiance of corporate direction, but rather, in order to support it the best it can in the absence of a clear direction.
It is a common occurrence to be in a situation to build a plan when the direction is otherwise unclear. I suggest going forward, but I also encourage that you involve folks to provide input on that direction. Having consensus on what you are attempting to achieve is the number one predictor of program success – even if that consensus does not involve the highest levels of the corporation. Work toward a clear vision, demonstrate success, and you will achieve what I have seen happen many times. The folks from the corporate office will want to learn what you have that is working so they can import it back to the home office.
The one risk in all this is that you may have to spend a period of time appearing as the fool.
