A former British tech CEO turned researcher, Simon Wardley, set out to determine whether successful companies had some common ways of operating (principles). His hypothesis was that, if all successful companies had some common operating principles, then other companies could become more successful by adopting these as a baseline.
Wardley’s research started well over a decade ago in Silicon Valley, as this was where the most successful companies in the world were at the time. Yet it finished, some years later, in Shenzhen, (China) as this is where the next generations of successful companies were coming from. What Wardley found was surprising.
Although every organisation is different Wardley found over 90 ways of operating that were common to all of the most successful Silicon Valley firms. But 40 of these were actually the same (despite being called by different names). The question was — had Wardley uncovered a secret recipe for success that other organisations could learn?
To make that these principles weren’t just relevant to Silicon Valley firms Wardley looked outside the tech industry (and the US) to see if these ways of operating were in play elsewhere. And they were. In other industries, as well as in Shenzhen, the most successful companies were all operating with the same 40 principles, which suggests these are universally-useful to every firm.
Being universally-useful means that any organisation, in any industry, anywhere can benefit from adopting these principles. So let’s have a look at these principles in a bit more detail. Firstly, they’re organised into six categories:
Communication — 4 principles for helping teams in organisations communicate effectively
Development — 9 principles for developing critical skills in teams
Operational — 8 principles for improving effectiveness as well as efficiency
Learning — 4 principles for becoming forward-looking and being quick to act
Leading — 9 principles for becoming genuinely strategic (rather than just tactical)
Structure — 7 principles for organising yourself so you can adapt to change in real-time.
Furthermore, Wardley identified an optimal order to implement these principles. There are four phases, with each building on the previous phase:
“Stop Self-harm”
“Get Fit for Purpose”
“Do Better with Less”
“Constant Adaptation”
All 40 principles in the six categories, across the four phases are in the image attached to this blog. And if you want to see how organisations are using these principles for business success today, look out for the next blog in this series.