Everyone’s had a ‘I should’ve known better’ moment. So, what’s essential is what you learned from it. But I’ve found that very few learn the lesson they should have learned. Which makes them vulnerable to many more such moments. Here’s an example:
In Inc Magazine, Intuit founder Scott Cook shares his “We should’ve known better” moment —
The gist
After great success with Quicken in North America, Mr. Cook rolled it out to the rest of the world. But the results were underwhelming. And they had to shut down their overseas operations.
Mr. Cook says their mistake was they assumed the formula they honed so perfectly in the U.S. could be cloned everywhere else. When they rolled out again, they hired locals and paid attention to local sensibilities — and attained great success.
Why it’s painful to watch
Intuit incurred huge costs and lost more than a decade for this mistake.
But it appears Mr. Cook doesn’t understand his
biggest mistake — because he makes no mention of it. Intuit’s biggest mistake was that considering the right questionsup front andas a way of life — rather than following ‘proven’ answers — wasn’t embedded into Intuit’s DNA. Had it been, they would have never assumed answers and formulas from one situation were transferable to other situations.
If you don’t understand the
The genesis of Painful to Watch
When Steve Jobs was asked about innovation, he responded — “We don’t think, ‘Let’s be innovative! Let’s take a class! Here are the five rules of innovation, let’s put them up all over the company!’ When told most people do just that, he retorted, “It’s
painful to watch .”
Answers
Related: ‘We Should’ve Known Better’ moments at Microsoft
Time for a whole different set of skills,
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