Miracle Max On Market Breakthroughs


Successful enterprise building requires seven elements. These are:

1. People, who are the source of the creative ideas which drive the enterprise' s innovations;

2. Financial Resources, to fund the transformation of these ideas into market breakthroughs;

3. A Coherent Business Philosophy, from which the enterprise sets its course;

4. Capable Leadership, in order to properly direct and manage the enterprise;

5. Strategies and Tactics, to focus the enterprise' s strengths and minimize its weaknesses;

6. Marketplace Intelligence, allowing its people to understand the changing forces in the environment whichare producing both the windows of opportunity as well as potential dangers, and finally;

Time, for it is only with adequate time that the creative ideas, properly nurtured, directed and implemented, canfully blossom into successful innovations.

Unfortunately today, even when the first three are present, the pressure for immediate bottom-line resultsfrequently culminates in knee-jerk management reactions, that handicap the development of a creative inspirationinto a major market success.Time is indeed a precious commodity in today' s rapidly changing and evolving marketplaces. As a seniorexecutive advisor, professional speaker and business owner, I have always been an advocate of taking action, asI frequently meet well intentioned executives, who are reluctant to make decisions. Therefore, delay andprocrastination have become their nagging companions. "He who hesitates is lost", a favorite axiom of mineserves as a fitting dictum for strategic and tactical decision making. However, it is possible to misapply this tenetto the unique process of nurturing creative ideas into market breaking innovations. Although the old adage, "timewaits for no man" is true and needless delay should not be tolerated, many excellent new ideas have beencompromised or even destroyed by a short sighted quest for immediate returns.

The farmer in springtime first plows, then plants, but he does not rise early the following morning hoping to beginthe harvest, does he? Of course not. He expects to wait months for his crop, during which time he mustrepeatedly fertilize and then weed, if he expects a bountiful harvest. It is that frequent fertilizing, "nurturing andencouraging", along with the repeated weeding, "directing and guiding" which cannot be short-cut, if creativeideas are to mature into breakthrough market innovations. However, it is just this waiting which so often bedevilsus. Ten years ago the advent of the personal computer industry spawned the euphemism "vaporware". Todaymost industries sport their own versions of "vaporware", if not in form, then certainly in substance. Creative ideas,many very promising ones, are repeatedly rushed to market before ready. The consequences; unhappycustomers, damaged reputations and often diminished long term profits or worse yet, abandonment of what couldhave been a revolutionary new product or service.

There is a classic line in the movie "The Princess Bride", where Miracle Max is trying to revive the "mostly dead"hero, Wesley. Feeling the pressure from Wesley' s friends to hurry, Miracle Max responds; "You rush a miracleand maybe you get rotten miracle." Well said Max! Too many executives today are wondering why they keepending up with rotten miracles. Frequently they need look no further than their own myopic quest for instantprofits. Growing up in the 50' s and 60' s, when I heard people speaking of long term plans, they were referring todecades. When I began my career in the early 70' s, long term business plans had shrunk to five to ten years.Today, long term is anywhere from one to three years or less. No wonder senior executive focus is so severelyconstrained by monthly or quarterly results.If creative ideas are not in and of themselves small miracles, then certainly the act of transforming those flashesof insight and even genius, with their potential to suddenly propel an enterprise several years ahead of itscompetitors, undoubtedly is miracle making in the marketplace. Far too many creative ideas of great promisehave resulted in "rotten miracles," due not to the ideas themselves, but rather because they were prematurelytransformed into "vaporware" by executives, impatient for immediate results.

In order to consistently succeed at turning creative ideas into breakthrough innovations, they must be tended withdiligence and patience like choice grapes in a vineyard, until you are rewarded with a truly fine wine.

Copyright 2005 by John Di Frances

John Di Frances is an internationallyrecognized organizationallegacy expert and professionalspeaker. www.difrances.com