The Power of: HOW?
Many articles and books have been written about how helpful, asking the “Why?” question multiple times in finding the root cause is. My recent experiences have learned me that asking the “How?” question is just as useful in finding the underlying solution and/or reasoning for a certain outcome. Just think of a situation where people in a presentation promise you great results, with nice graphs and statements. Start asking the question “How?” The ones that can continue to answer this question until he/she reaches a really convincing point, has an well underpinned story, but many will fail to convince you during the questioning.
Just imagine you are sitting in a meeting where a team presents with a lot of enthusiasm that they are going to grow your turnover with >10%. Many people in the room like the story and presentation, giving their quiet support, until somebody ask the question: “How?”. The first time the team answers this question, the answer may come very easy and already be in the presentation, e.g. sell more products to certain target group. When on this answer again the question “How?” follows, they have to go already a bit deeper and start talking about certain marketing or sales force improvement actions. If then the question “How?” is posted again at a certain point you come to the real discussion if what is underpinning is sound to reach the result presented in the end.
This does not only work for analyzing business plans and presentations. I am pretty sure that guys at e.g. Toyota are not only asking themselves the question many times on “Why?”they have this brake problem, but that there are many now also concerned about “How?” to improve the public opinion in managing this problem. Again her the first time you answer this question is might seem very obvious, e.g. by improving the communication, but with every time you continue to answer this question, you come one level deeper to concrete solutions. How do we improve the communication, e.g. by: involving media companies that are able to handle such delicate messaging, having a clear communication message & action plan, …
Each of these results you can than further break down by asking “How?”until you reach a level where you think you are concrete enough.
This all might sound very simple, but that is in the end also the power of “How”
Please let me know if you have good examples yourself of this and if you liked this blog, either here and/or if you are interested to learn and discuss more about Strategy, Marketing & Innovation, please join our Forum at http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=1899487
My Profile
Hans van 't Riet
Strategy & Business by Booz&Co- Organizing for Advantage May 20, 2013This article is based on Booz & Company's long-standing work on organizational DNA. It describes how to select the right mix of organizational design elements--both formal structures and informal aspects of organizational culture--to advance your company's strategy.
- Changing Structures and Behaviors at Walgreens May 20, 2013When your strategy shifts, you may need to redesign your organization as well. That's what this 112-year-old retail pharmacy discovered, in a story told by two of its leading executives.
- The Dollar Payoff from Social Media May 17, 2013Consumers who engage with company sites visit stores more often and spend more.
- The Digital Commerce Revolution May 13, 2013How will the new digital commerce affect your investment priorities as a marketer, technology player, e-tailer, retailer, or media company now, and in the long term? How will the leading players, faced with an imperative to build and sustain winning digital commerce capabilities, stay relevant? Will second- or third-tier players build similar capabilities to […]
- Can Best Buy Thwart the Grim Reaper? May 13, 2013As Best Buy takes a pounding in the financial markets, its leaders need to look beyond conventional solutions and reach for true strategic innovation. But is the once-dominant big box retailer up to the challenge of seeking solutions from outside its comfort zone and, indeed, from outside its own industry? Doing so may be its last hope for survival.
- Boosting Marketing's Role in New Product Development May 10, 2013Applying specialized skills tied to consumer trends is key to innovation success.
- The Gorilla of Agile Business Innovation May 6, 2013Corning Glass Chief Technology Officer David Morse explains how the company, through speed and customer-driven research, development, and engineering, has built an $8 billion enterprise in an industry that many regard as moribund. Morse is responsible for shepherding Corning's innovative R&D practice through an era of change.
- The Manager as Maker May 6, 2013Don Tapscott, who has written 15 books, most recently Radical Openness: Four Unexpected Principles for Success , introduces an excerpt that demonstrates how openness to new business practices and work settings can unleash human capital, from The Soul of Design: Harnessing the Power of Plot to Create Extraordinary Products , by Lee Devin and Robert D. Austin. […]
- The Flat World Debate Revisited May 6, 2013Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century has sold millions of copies and picked up numerous accolades. But his thesis has not gone uncontested, especially in academic circles. IESE Business School professor Pankaj Ghemawat has been a particularly vocal critic--coining the term "globaloney" to refer to th […]
- The Fiscal Fingerprints of Corporate Collusion May 3, 2013Firms that engage in bad deeds leave all sorts of clues tied to accounting and governance.
- Organizing for Advantage May 20, 2013
- Knowledge@Wharton — Leadership and Change
- Beth Comstock and GE: Imagining the Future May 8, 2013Beth Comstock, a senior vice president and chief marketing officer at General Electric, thinks everyone should embrace change, accept challenges and never fear failure. It is advice that has helped her continue to grow in her career at NBC, CBS and now GE, where, among other things, she convinced the CEO to support a new slogan for the company: "imagina […]
- Using Community Libraries to Create Social Change in Rural South Asia May 8, 2013READ Global, an international non-profit that uses community libraries as a platform for creating social change in rural villages throughout India, Bhutan and Nepal, is the winner of the second annual Barry & Marie Lipman Family Prize awarded to an organization that is creating social impact through leadership and innovation. Wharton administers the priz […]
- GE's Jeff Immelt on Leadership, Global Risk and Growth April 30, 2013GE CEO Jeff Immelt runs a $240-billion company that operates in 160 countries. He recently sat down for a candid discussion about leadership with Wharton management professor Michael Useem at the Wharton Economic Summit 2013 in New York City. Their conversation covered themes such as competitive advantage, global risk management, public policy, mentorship, g […]
- The New Philanthropists: More Sophisticated, More Demanding -- and Younger April 24, 2013Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie once said that he who dies leaving behind many millions will "pass away unwept, unhonored and unsung." That philosophy took root in much of the last century, with major philanthropists giving vast fortunes in their later years to institutions devoted to the public good. But donors today aren't taking any chances. […]
- The Cleveland Indians, Sports Agents and the Art of Negotiation April 10, 2013Mark Shapiro got plenty of lessons in negotiation while growing up in Baltimore, thanks to his father, Ron, a sports agent. During a recent Wharton Leadership Lecture, the elder Shapiro and his son, now president of the Cleveland Indians, talked about the qualities important for successful negotiations -- listening, learning, loyalty, respect and the willing […]
- Why Mindfulness and Meditation Are Good for Business March 27, 2013In a world focused on increased productivity and instant gratification, it's hard to imagine that businesspeople have much time for meditation. But huge corporations -- including Google, Monsanto, Hearst and National Grid --have discovered the benefits of meditation at work, including improved teamwork, more effective decision-making and lower levels of […]
- To Close the Gender Gap, What Needs to Change -- Women or the System? March 27, 2013The current debate over why too few women have achieved leadership positions in business and government focuses on two alleged culprits -- women who don't try hard enough to promote themselves, and organizations that don't provide workplaces supportive enough of women's needs. But the issue, say men and women alike, is not that black and white […]
- Steven Ujifusa on William Francis Gibbs and His Ships March 6, 2013Named one of The Wall Street Journal's top 10 nonfiction books of 2012, Steven Ujifusa's A Man and His Ship: America's Greatest Naval Architect and His Quest to Build the SS United States brings William Francis Gibbs' story to life. Wharton legal studies and business ethics professor G. Richard Shell recently sat down with Ujifusa to lear […]
- Talking It Out: The New Conversation-centered Leadership March 6, 2013Every year, hundreds of thousands of new graduates enter the business world, eager to climb the corporate ladder. Their progress on the early rungs of that journey will often be determined by qualities like hard work, determination, knowledge and technical proficiency. But Alan S. Berson and Richard G. Stieglitz, authors of Leadership Conversations: Challeng […]
- Book Report: Spring Reading for a Fresh Start March 6, 2013With spring and, for some, the final quarter of the fiscal year just around the corner, many of us are looking ahead to new personal and organizational growth opportunities. This book report features a mix of author interviews and book reviews that will help to reinvigorate how you approach work. In addition, we cover a series of books that offer insight int […]
- Beth Comstock and GE: Imagining the Future May 8, 2013
-
Archives
- February 2010 (1)
- November 2009 (1)
- October 2009 (1)
- June 2009 (2)
- May 2009 (4)
-
Categories
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
