BOSTON-What can CUs learn from over 2,000-year-old Chinese warfare tactics? It's all about finding the "Fourth Option."
That advice came from bestselling author Kaihan Krippendorff, who reminded the audience at NAFCU's Annual Convention here that when Chinese armies were outmatched in battle and separated by a river, rather than going home, waiting for the opposing army to leave or attacking, they created a fourth option-sandbaging the river to create a dam and provide a pathway to battle.
"Great innovators look beyond the obvious fundamentals of a strategy and create something that's different," Krippendorff said.
The fourth option gives institutions and organizations a competitive edge, allowing them to utilize a strategy that others don't see, won't consider and won't respond to effectively.
But the fourth option isn't limited to ancient Chinese warfare-Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg are modern-day examples of the fourth option in action-and Krippendorff said that kind of thinking is increasingly critical for competing in a world where once-major companies like Blockbuster, Kodak, Borders and others are failing because they couldn't adapt to the competition.
Krippendorff also reminded that successful institutions today don't define themselves exclusively by their industry, but rather by giving themselves the strategic flexibility to move into seemingly unrelated industries. For example, Amazon doesn't see itself exclusively as a retailer; the online giant is now moving into the cloud services business alongside book and DVD sales.
Crazy & Impossible
He also recommended that CUs focus on how they can change their environment solely by adding or removing various elements. He offered the example that rather than get into the soft drink business, Gatorade created a new beverage category with sports drinks.
"Pick the idea that seems the most crazy, the most impossible, but would have the most impact-the go-to-the-moon ideas before we know how to go to the moon," he said. While great ideas and fourth options almost always at first look impossible, "If you just sit down with that idea for a little bit longer and think it through, often that impossible idea becomes possible."
He concluded by offering the strategy of finding three reasons why an impossible idea wouldn't work, and then brainstorming how to remove those hurdles.
