History offers rich insight for today’s enterprise.
Great companies—regardless of age, size or prominence—can learn from Leonardo Da Vinci’s legendary studio. Like the master, they can pose hard questions, born of insatiable curiosity, and relentlessly pursue elusive answers to big problems.
Are you leading—or running in place—at a large legacy company? Scan your company’s own forgotten history. Every great business was born of entrepreneurial vigor. Someone rose to purvey an idea to solve a problem at an economic return. Who had the vision, the aspiration, the cojones to turn a fragile promise into a stable an enterprise? What was their journey?
Our lesson: Mine your own history.
If you want growth, ironically, the best path is often to return to your roots. Not to go back in time. Not to revert to old ways of doing things. Those certainly fail in today’s market. What we mean is that you need to rediscover the old hunger and the risk tolerance that built your balance sheet. If you have to, you can even wield your history as a cudgel to co-opt support.
So how do you return to the hungry, ambitious, aspirational leadership that your founders once demonstrated? Do your homework. Find the stories that animated your founders. Travel back in time to learn from your own origin story, when the work was hard but the challenge was simple. Tell those stories. See what resonates.
Startups Learn Too.
By contrast, if you lead a small company or early stage startup, you need to objectively assess your position in the market. Test your connection to your customers. Find the gaps and recognize the DNA required to win at each stage of growth in a ruthless, dynamic but invigorating market.
Engineer your company to thrive in changing times.
These lessons are are easy to ask of busy executives. We understand too well how hard they are to deliver. Let us help; this is our sweet spot. See us at http://www.ampersand.vc, or contact us at info@ampersand.vc.
We’d love to help you discover your future by reinvigorating your past.
Make Better.
roger@ampersand.vc
Roger Mader 