Beep! Beep! An Interview with Management Guru Oren Harari

Never has there been a greater need for a business to be agile. The business environment, the economy, the competitive landscape, the regulatory conditions all are changing faster than ever before.
In their book "Beep! Beep! Competing in the Age of the Roadrunner", authors Chip R. Bell and Oren Harari lay out the solution. Using the cartoon characters Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner as their examples, Bell and Harari lay out the problem and its solution - businesses, and the individuals who lead them, have to be more like the agile, adaptive Roadrunner and less like the tradition-bound coyote. Their seven "New Rules of the Road" tell you everything you need to know to succeed. The challenge is whether or not you're good enough to pull it off.

I had the opportunity to interview co-author Oren Harari. Oren Harari, Ph. D., is a Professor of Management at the University of San Francisco. A prolific writer, Oren has written seven books (working on his eighth) and has been featured in all the major management journals. One of the leading future-thinkers of our profession, he is also a charming man with a keen understanding of the importance of good leadership. Here is what Oren had to say about his book:

Q: Why this book?

OH: Now more than ever, companies must be fast, agile, and innovative, and their leaders must be curious, inspiring and joyful—just like the Roadrunner!
Q: Why now?

OH: The nature of today's marketplace—buffeted by accelerating deregulation, fragmentation, commoditization, globalization, and technological advance-- demands companies and leaders who can differentiate themselves from the pack in a fast, efficient and creative manner.
Q: Your book was written during the dot.com bubble. Is it still relevant?

OH: Especially relevant today. The bubble has burst. A lot of companies are struggling with same-old-same-old hyper-cautious risk-averse approaches. This book offers them a much better and very do-able alternative.
Q: Did you hope to accomplish anything other than helping people answer the key question "How can I help my organization become a roadrunner?"

OH: We wanted leaders to become like roadrunners too: passionate, experimental, resourceful, wise, and forward-looking. We also wanted the reader to be aware that the business terrain in the new millennium is quite different than it used to be. As we discuss, the "terrain of the future" includes no more secrets, no more security, no more allegiance, no more 'time', no more 'place', no more 'order', no more 'organization', and no more supremacy. In that terrain, roadrunner organizations and leaders always beat coyotes.
Q: So if I practice the New Rules of the Road, will I become a roadrunner? What more do I have to do? How do I make those around me into roadrunners too?

OH: The answer is yes, but practicing the themes of chapters 4-10, where we discuss everything from the power of market breakthroughs to the power of virtual enterprise to the power of character to the power of mastery to the power of laughter (etc.)—is not easy! We're all a mixture of Wile E. and Roadrunner, but making further transformation as described in our blueprint demands a lot of commitment. And yes, leaders have to walk the talk and reward roadrunner employees if they want to create a roadrunner environment.
Q: Which of the New Rules of the Road is the most important/critical?

OH: I wish I could say, but as I review them, they're all important!!
Q: Coyote companies talk about employee empowerment. You call such things "masquerading as a roadrunner." I understand we're talking about 'transformation not imitation', 'metamorphosis not mimicry'; that 'hops of faith' or 'jumps of faith' aren't enough, so how does a mid-level coyote begin the transformation to roadrunner if not by starting small?

OH: You can start small (it's hard to make an instantaneous transformation). The trick is to relentlessly and conscientiously continue the process, even when it's difficult, even when you enter unfamiliar territory.
Q: How can one identify a roadrunner company to go to work at?

OH: A company that "smells" of excitement, vitality, personal initiative, speed, accountability, joy, and collaboration in pursuit of extraordinary goals. It sounds very daunting, but we know it when we see it, if we take the trouble to listen and investigate.
Q: You write, "Today businesses operate within a certain set of rules... (that) reflect what we call professional management." I write for an audience of mostly professional managers. Are they going to be immaterial in the roadrunner world?

OH: Not at all. There will always be a need for professional roadrunner managers. Our point is that what is that what is often described as conventional wisdom "professional management" is often right out of Wile E. Coyote's playbook: secrecy, grimness, analytical detachment, and a mental model that emphasizes the very opposite of the New Terrain and the New Rules of the Road. We'll always need great leaders and managers, but to be great they'll have to be doing something quite different than what they're doing today. Your website is helping them do just that!
Q: You write that Glen Tullman was able to "capitalize on IT to change an entire business process" at CCC, but earlier you wrote only coyotes worry about process? What am I missing here?

OH: Coyotes worry about internal process to the exclusion of whether the process makes sense strategically, or whether it enhances customer care and speed and creativity. Tullman focused on business process to boost speed, innovation, and customer care. He wasn't obsessed on process per se, he was obsessed on creating some extraordinary value for customers, which meant he had to make some radical changes in his IT process.
Q: In one of my favorite passages, you say Sir Francis Drake, et al., used maps and premises based on the realities of the time, which were wrong 90% of the time. Yet they did some amazing things. Is this the lesson of the New Rules of the Road?

OH: The lesson is that we can't count on the realities of today, or on what made us successful in the past, to predict what we ought to do to be successful tomorrow. A lot of strategic planning premises are based on today's conventional wisdom. But tomorrow will look a lot different than today. Roadrunners understand this; they adapt quickly, they turn on a dime, they shed old habits, and they capitalize on (rather than resist) new technologies and new market opportunities.
Q: Your "No more supremacy" means the successful executive in the roadrunner world will have to be a leader, not just a manager, right?

OH: That's true, and it also means that in today's world, there is no one company that will ever continue to dominate any industry. More than half the 1980 Fortune 500 are no longer on that list, many don't even exist any more. The best market leaders in their industries (Microsoft, Dell, Nike, Wal-Mart, Southwest Airlines, etc.) are deadly afraid of complacency, and exhibit a healthy paranoia.