Page 133 - Free the Idea Monkey

Believe in yourself, and if you need inspiration to stay the course,
borrow from the best. Warren Buffett made his fortune by following
an adage he came up with a long time ago: “Be fear-
ful when others are greedy—be greedy when others
are fearful.”

ANTICIPATE PROBLEMS: WAR GAMES
“What if I am missing something that is going to

put me out of business?”
That question always ranks near the top when

we ask CEOs to list their greatest fears. CEOs are
increasingly asking us for the fastest way to cre-
ate revolutionary change within their companies.
Typically the request is rooted in their fear of being
blindsided. The rapid pace of new technology has
made leaders painfully aware that it is now pos-
sible for an upstart to change the rules of the game
virtually overnight. Think Orbitz. Think Dyson.
Think Craigslist. Think eBay. (If you believe that
Sears was worried about eBay 20 years ago, you’re
forgetting that there was no such thing as eBay 20
years ago.)

Growing out of this worry of being made obso-
lete is a new trend in innovation: the use of war
games. In the past, war games have been an inter-
nal exercise, usually a modification of the popu-
lar SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
threats) analysis.

118 T H E U P S I D E O F P R O B L E M S