Two reasons companies fail -- and how to avoid them | Knut Haanaes

Prevoditelj: Mladen Barešić Recezent: Ivan Stamenković

Here are two reasons companies fail:

Dva su razloga zbog kojih tvrtke propadaju:

they only do more of the same,

ili neprestano rade jedno te isto,

or they only do what's new.

ili rade uvijek i iznova nešto novo.

To me the real, real solution to quality growth

Smatram da je jedino pravo rješenje pitanja rasta kvalitete

is figuring out the balance between two activities:

naći pravu mjeru između dviju aktivnosti:

exploration and exploitation.

Istraživanja i iskorištavanja.

Both are necessary,

Obje su nužne,

but it can be too much of a good thing.

ali je s objema moguće i pretjerati.

Consider Facit.

Razmotrimo Facit.

I'm actually old enough to remember them.

Ja sam dovoljno star da ga se i sjećam.

Facit was a fantastic company.

Facit je bila izvanredna tvrtka.

They were born deep in the Swedish forest,

Osnovana je duboko u švedskim šumama,

and they made the best mechanical calculators in the world.

i izrađivala je najbolje mehaničke digitrone na svijetu.

Everybody used them.

Svi su ih upotrebljavali.

And what did Facit do when the electronic calculator came along?

A što je Facit učinio pošto su se pojavili elektronski digitroni?

They continued doing exactly the same.

Nastavili su činiti isto što i dotad.

In six months, they went from maximum revenue ...

U šest mjeseci, prešli su put od maksimalnih prihoda...

and they were gone.

... do propasti.

Gone.

Propali su.

To me, the irony about the Facit story

Priča o Facitu ironična je zato

is hearing about the Facit engineers,

što su Facitovi inženjeri

who had bought cheap, small electronic calculators in Japan

kupovali jeftine, male elektronske digitrone u Japanu,

that they used to double-check their calculators.

kojima su provjeravali učinkovitost svojih digitrona.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

Facit did too much exploitation.

Facit je pretjerao s iskorištavanjem.

But exploration can go wild, too.

Ali, pretjerati se može i s istraživanjem.

A few years back,

Prije nekoliko godina

I worked closely alongside a European biotech company.

blisko sam surađivao s jednom europskom biotehnološkom tvrtkom.

Let's call them OncoSearch.

Nazovimo je OncoSearch.

The company was brilliant.

Bila je to izvrsna tvrtka.

They had applications that promised to diagnose, even cure,

Svojim su aplikacijama obećavali dijagnosticirati, čak i liječiti,

certain forms of blood cancer.

izvjesne oblike leukemije.

Every day was about creating something new.

Svakog su dana stvarali nešto novo.

They were extremely innovative,

Bili su krajnje inovativni,

and the mantra was, "When we only get it right,"

a mantra im je bila: "Kad napravimo to kako treba...",

or even, "We want it perfect."

ili čak: "Težimo savršenstvu."

The sad thing is,

Nažalost,

before they became perfect --

prije no što su postali savršeni,

even good enough --

čak i dovoljno dobri --

they became obsolete.

pregazilo ih je vrijeme.

OncoSearch did too much exploration.

OncoSearch je pretjerao s istraživanjem.

I first heard about exploration and exploitation about 15 years ago,

Prvi sam put o istraživanju i o iskorištavanju čuo prije 15-ak godina,

when I worked as a visiting scholar at Stanford University.

kad sam bio gostujući predavač na Stanfordskom Sveučilištu.

The founder of the idea is Jim March.

Začetnik ideje je Jim March.

And to me the power of the idea is its practicality.

Snaga te ideje je u njenoj praktičnosti.

Exploration.

Istraživanje.

Exploration is about coming up with what's new.

Istražuje se da bi se došlo do nečega novog.

It's about search,

Suština je u traganju,

it's about discovery,

u otkrivanju,

it's about new products,

u novim proizvodima,

it's about new innovations.

u inovacijama.

It's about changing our frontiers.

U pomicanju naših granica.

Our heroes are people who have done exploration:

Naši su heroji ljudi koji su se bavili istraživanjem:

Madame Curie,

Madame Curie,

Picasso,

Picasso,

Neil Armstrong,

Neil Armstrong,

Sir Edmund Hillary, etc.

Sir Edmund Hillary, i drugi.

I come from Norway;

Ja dolazim iz Norveške:

all our heroes are explorers, and they deserve to be.

svi su naši heroji istraživači; i zaslužuju biti herojima.

We all know that exploration is risky.

Svi znamo da je rizično istraživati.

We don't know the answers,

Ne znamo odgovore;

we don't know if we're going to find them,

ne znamo niti hoćemo li ih naći;

and we know that the risks are high.

ali znamo da su rizici veliki.

Exploitation is the opposite.

Iskorištavanje je upravo oprečno.

Exploitation is taking the knowledge we have

Iskorištavati znači koristiti se znanjima kojima raspolažemo

and making good, better.

i činiti dobro boljim.

Exploitation is about making our trains run on time.

Iskorištavamo kad postižemo da nam vlakovi stižu na vrijeme;

It's about making good products faster and cheaper.

kad dobre proizvode činimo bržima i jeftinijima.

Exploitation is not risky --

Iskorištavanje nije rizično --

in the short term.

gledamo li kratkoročno.

But if we only exploit,

Međutim, ako samo iskorištavamo,

it's very risky in the long term.

to je dugoročno vrlo rizično.

And I think we all have memories of the famous pop groups

Vjerujem da se svi sjećamo poznatih pop-grupa

who keep singing the same songs again and again,

koje neprestano izvode jedne te iste pjesme,

until they become obsolete or even pathetic.

sve dok ne postanu staromodne ili patetične.

That's the risk of exploitation.

U tome je rizik iskorištavanja.

So if we take a long-term perspective, we explore.

Dakle, gledamo li dugoročno, istraživat ćemo.

If we take a short-term perspective, we exploit.

Gledamo li kratkoročno, iskorištavat ćemo.

Small children, they explore all day.

Mala djeca, ona svakoga dana istražuju.

All day it's about exploration.

Po čitave dane.

As we grow older,

Kako odrastamo,

we explore less because we have more knowledge to exploit on.

istražujemo manje jer sve više znanja možemo iskorištavati.

The same goes for companies.

Isto vrijedi i za tvrtke.

Companies become, by nature, less innovative

Po svojoj prirodi, tvrtke postaju sve manje inovativne

as they become more competent.

kako postaju kompetentnije.

And this is, of course, a big worry to CEOs.

To je vrlo zabrinjavajuće za njihove vodeće direktore.

And I hear very often questions phrased in different ways.

Vrlo često čujem pitanja

For example,

poput, primjerice:

"How can I both effectively run and reinvent my company?"

"Kako da istodobno i vodim i transformiram svoju tvrtku?"

Or, "How can I make sure

Ili: "Kako da osiguram

that our company changes before we become obsolete

da se naša tvrtka promijeni prije no što nas vrijeme pregazi

or are hit by a crisis?"

ili nas pogodi kriza?"

So, doing one well is difficult.

Dakle, činiti dobro jedno od ovoga, teško je.

Doing both well as the same time is art --

Činiti oboje dobro, istodobno umjetnost je.

pushing both exploration and exploitation.

I istraživati i iskorištavati.

So one thing we've found

Otkrili smo da je svega

is only about two percent of companies are able to effectively explore

oko 2% tvrtki kadro učinkovito istraživati

and exploit at the same time, in parallel.

i iskorištavati, istodobno.

But when they do,

Onima koji uspijevaju

the payoffs are huge.

to se silno isplati.

So we have lots of great examples.

Pregršt je sjajnih primjera:

We have Nestlé creating Nespresso,

Nestle koji je stvorio Nespresso;

we have Lego going into animated films,

Lego koji se upustio u animirane filmove;

Toyota creating the hybrids,

Toyota i njihovi hibridni automobili;

Unilever pushing into sustainability --

Unilever i održivost --

there are lots of examples, and the benefits are huge.

mnoštvo je primjera i koristi su velike.

Why is balancing so difficult?

Zašto je ravnoteža toliko zahtjevna?

I think it's difficult because there are so many traps

Mislim da je zahtjevna zbog brojnih zamki

that keep us where we are.

koje nas koče.

So I'll talk about two, but there are many.

Iako ih je mnogo, govorit ću o dvjema.

So let's talk about the perpetual search trap.

"Zamka vječitog traganja", primjerice.

We discover something,

Otkrijemo nešto,

but we don't have the patience or the persistence

ali onda nismo strpljivi niti ustrajni

to get at it and make it work.

da se tome posvetimo i to razradimo.

So instead of staying with it, we create something new.

Dakle, umjesto da stanemo, mi idemo dalje i stvaramo novo.

But the same goes for that,

Isto činimo i s tim novim,

then we're in the vicious circle

i to je začaran krug

of actually coming up with ideas but being frustrated.

stalne proizvodnje ideja, ali istodobno i frustracija.

OncoSearch was a good example.

OncoSearch je bio dobar primjer.

A famous example is, of course, Xerox.

Čuven primjer je, naravno, Xerox.

But we don't only see this in companies.

Ali ne susrećemo to samo u tvrtkama.

We see this in the public sector as well.

Vidljivo je to i u javnom sektoru.

We all know that any kind of effective reform of education,

Znamo da bilo kakva učinkovita reforma obrazovanja,

research, health care, even defense,

znanosti, zdravstva, čak i obrane,

takes 10, 15, maybe 20 years to work.

iziskuje 10, 15, pa možda i 20 godina rada.

But still, we change much more often.

Svejedno, puno češće provodimo razne reforme.

We really don't give them the chance.

Zapravo, ne dajemo im nikakve šanse.

Another trap is the success trap.

Druga zamka je "zamka uspjeha".

Facit fell into the success trap.

Facit je upao u nju.

They literally held the future in their hands,

Oni su, doslovno, držali budućnost u svojim rukama,

but they couldn't see it.

ali nisu toga bili svjesni.

They were simply so good at making what they loved doing,

Bili su toliko dobri u onome što su voljeli raditi

that they wouldn't change.

da se nisu željeli mijenjati.

We are like that, too.

I mi smo takvi.

When we know something well, it's difficult to change.

Kad smo u nečemu dobri, teško nam se mijenjati.

Bill Gates has said:

Bill Gates je rekao:

"Success is a lousy teacher.

"Uspjeh je loš učitelj.

It seduces us into thinking we cannot fail."

Zavodi nas da pomišljamo kako ne možemo pogriješiti."

That's the challenge with success.

U tome je izazovnost uspjeha.

So I think there are some lessons, and I think they apply to us.

Mislim da imamo iz čega učiti.

And they apply to our companies.

Kao i tvrtke.

The first lesson is: get ahead of the crisis.

Prva je pouka: preduhitrite krizu.

And any company that's able to innovate

Svaka tvrtka koja je u stanju inovirati

is actually able to also buy an insurance in the future.

sposobna je osigurati vlastitu budućnost.

Netflix -- they could so easily have been content

Netflix -- lako su se mogli zadovoljiti

with earlier generations of distribution,

svojim dotadašnjim pristupima distribuciji,

but they always -- and I think they will always --

ali su se uvijek, i mislim da uvijek i hoće,

keep pushing for the next battle.

pripremali za sljedeću bitku.

I see other companies that say,

Druge tvrtke govore:

"I'll win the next innovation cycle, whatever it takes."

"U sljedećem inovacijskom ciklusu pobijedit ćemo, pošto-poto."

Second one: think in multiple time scales.

Druga pouka: Mislite dugoročnije.

I'll share a chart with you,

Prikazat ću vam jedan grafikon,

and I think it's a wonderful one.

jedan čudesan grafikon.

Any company we look at,

Pogledamo li bilo koju tvrtku

taking a one-year perspective

u jednogodišnjoj perspektivi

and looking at the valuation of the company,

i njihovu tržišnu vrijednost, vidjet ćemo

innovation typically accounts for only about 30 percent.

da inovacije obično čine oko 30% vrijednosti.

So when we think one year,

Razmišljamo li godinu dana unaprijed,

innovation isn't really that important.

inovacije nisu toliko važne.

Move ahead, take a 10-year perspective on the same company --

Korak dalje, sagledamo li istu tvrtku u 10-godišnjem razdoblju,

suddenly, innovation and ability to renew account for 70 percent.

iznenada, inovacije i sposobnost obnavljanja čine 70% vrijednosti.

But companies can't choose.

Tvrtke, međutim, ne mogu birati.

They need to fund the journey and lead the long term.

Treba im novac za ulaganja i za dugoročno upravljanje.

Third:

Treća pouka:

invite talent.

Prihvatite izazov.

I don't think it's possible for any of us

Vjerujem da nitko od nas ne može sam

to be able to balance exploration and exploitation by ourselves.

istodobno i istraživati i iskorištavati.

I think it's a team sport.

Vjerujem da je to timski sport.

I think we need to allow challenging.

Vjerujem da se moramo međusobno izazivati.

I think the mark of a great company is being open to be challenged,

Vjerujem da je otvorenost izazovima obilježje sjajne tvrtke,

and the mark of a good corporate board is to constructively challenge.

a konstruktivno izazivanje značajka dobrog korporativnog odbora.

I think that's also what good parenting is about.

Vjerujem da je u tome bit i dobrog roditeljstva.

Last one: be skeptical of success.

Posljednja pouka: Budite sumnjičavi prema uspjehu.

Maybe it's useful to think back at the old triumph marches in Rome,

Možda se vrijedi prisjetiti starih trijumfalnih marševa u Rimu,

when the generals, after a big victory,

kad su generali, nakon velikih pobjeda,

were given their celebration.

bivali slavljeni i veličani.

Riding into Rome on the carriage,

Dok su zapregom ulazili u Rim,

they always had a companion whispering in their ear,

generali su uza sebe uvijek imali pratitelja koji bi im šaptao:

"Remember, you're only human."

"Upamti, ti si samo čovjek."

So I hope I made the point:

Nadam se da sam bio jasan:

balancing exploration and exploitation

kombiniranje istraživanja i iskorištavanja

has a huge payoff.

jako se isplati.

But it's difficult, and we need to be conscious.

Ali, teško je i moramo biti pažljivi.

I want to just point out two questions that I think are useful.

Želio bih istaknuti još dva, mislim, korisna pitanja.

First question is, looking at your own company:

Gledate li svoju tvrtku, prvo je pitanje:

In which areas do you see that the company is at the risk

U kojim područjima vidite rizik da bi tvrtka

of falling into success traps,

mogla upasti u zamku uspjeha,

of just going on autopilot?

ili funkcionirati "na autopilotu"?

And what can you do to challenge?

I što možete učiniti da biste izazvali reakciju?

Second question is:

Drugo pitanje je:

When did I explore something new last,

Kad sam posljednji put nešto istraživao

and what kind of effect did it have on me?

i kako je to na mene utjecalo?

Is that something I should do more of?

Je li to nešto što bih češće trebao činiti?

In my case, yes.

U mome slučaju, jest.

So let me leave you with this.

Na kraju, reći ću vam sljedeće:

Whether you're an explorer by nature

Ako ste po prirodi istraživač,

or whether you tend to exploit what you already know,

ili ste skloni iskorištavati ono što već znate,

don't forget: the beauty is in the balance.

nemojte zaboraviti da je ljepota u ravnoteži.

Thank you.

Hvala vam.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)