Keeping the End in Mind

I recently flipped through an old copy of the book with the understated title, “Successful Large Account Management,” by Miller, Heiman with Tuleja.  The opening to the chapter on setting strategic goals is so good and relevant to creating value for customers, I wanted to reprint it here verbatim.

“MIT mathematician Norbett Wiener, whose writings on feedback were the foundations of modern systems analysis, used to distinguish between “know-how” and “know-what.” It was a lot easier, he said, to develop the former than the latter – yet without “know-what,” “know-how” didn’t count. To achieve anything of substance, Wiener said, you had to keep the purpose of your activity in mind. Knowing how to run a machine, a political campaign, or a business enterprise was important, sure. But all the technical or management expertise in the world wouldn’t help you if you forgot what you were running it for.

In a less esoteric arena, Vince Lombardi once made the same point. John Madden has asked the great Green Bay Packers general to define the difference between a good and a bad coach. Lombardi’s response: “It’s knowing what the end result looks like. The poor coaches don’t have a clear picture of the end. The good coaches do.”

What is true in systems theory and football is also true in business. You can have the latest Star Trek production system and the most gut-busting sales force in the world. Neither one will mean anything strategically unless everybody on your account team clearly see the “end result” he or she is working for – other words, unless everyone see where the strategy is going.”  – Page 99, Successful Large Account Management; Miller, Heiman with Tuleja, Warner Books, 1991.

The 1^st habit of highly effective innovators is to understand their customers end in mind and help them to accomplish it better than the competition.