{"id":21360,"date":"2018-05-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global2020prd.wpengine.com\/insights\/think-like-a-start-up-even-if-youre-not\/"},"modified":"2020-05-11T09:32:40","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T09:32:40","slug":"think-like-a-start-up-even-if-youre-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/think-like-a-start-up-even-if-youre-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Think like a start-up (even if you\u2019re not)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Start-ups like Dollar Shave Club are upending the FMCG industry by cutting out the middle men such as Unilever, P&amp;G and retailers like Boots \u2013 and instead using the internet to sell direct to consumers. It is technology, an entrepreneurial mindset and their lazer-like focus on consumer needs that is enabling them to succeed \u2013 so much so that Unilever has now acquired Dollar Shave Club for $1 billion so that they can launch their own subscription sales arm.\u00a0 Not all of us can throw money at the problem: we can also make significant gains by starting to think more like a start-up within our teams.<\/p>\n<p>Working out how to give your team (and yourself) direct access to your internal and external customers and end consumers to test and refine new approaches is crucial.\u00a0 In this \u2018start-up\u2019 mode it\u2019s also worth remembering \u2018Gall\u2019s Law\u2019: complex systems are full of interdependencies and variations that are almost impossible to anticipate but actually play a significant role. As Gall explains, \u201ca complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system\u201d<a href=\"#_edn1\" name=\"_ednref1\">[1]<\/a><em>.<\/em> \u00a0Build a simple system first and let it grow.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Develop a culture of risk-taking and cross-silo working<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thinking like a digital start-up will require a cultural change for most traditional organizations. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/business-functions\/digital-mckinsey\/our-insights\/culture-for-a-digital-age\">recent McKinsey survey<\/a> identified three digital culture deficiencies with a significant negative correlation to economic performance:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-21047 \" src=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/GI-Digital-fig-13-risk-aversion-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"830\" height=\"382\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Those that were digital winners (achieving top-quartile rankings in revenue growth, EBIT growth, and return on digital investment) only showed siloed mindsets and behaviour 9% of the time, versus 38% of the time for the digital \u2018losers\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>What can you do to think like a start-up today? How can you get in front of your internal\/ external customers or observe how they use your product\/ service? Where can you allow and encourage your team to take risks? Where can you collaborate with other functions to simplify and join up your customers\u2019 experience? See our previous blogs on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/business-functions\/digital-mckinsey\/our-insights\/culture-for-a-digital-age\"> making people feel safe to take risks<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/blog\/constant-experimentation-not-just-for-techies\">constant experimentation<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/blog\/research-based-virtual-team-development-model\/\">effective virtual team working<\/a> for further tips.<\/p>\n<p>It might feel easier to ignore this and get on with your job the way you always have \u2013 but watch out, your own version of the \u2018Dollar shave club\u2019 may soon come knocking at your door.<\/p>\n<p>To find out more about how to rewire your culture and skills to thrive in a digital world, download our new digital white paper here.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ednref1\" name=\"_edn1\">[1]<\/a> Gall, J. (1977) Systemantics: How Systems Work &amp; Especially How They Fail, Times Books<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Start-ups like Dollar Shave Club are upending the FMCG industry by cutting out the middle men such as Unilever, P&amp;G [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":21361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","type-blog","training-agile-and-digital"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Think like a start-up (even if you\u2019re not) - Global Integration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Start-ups like Dollar Shave Club are upending the FMCG industry by cutting out the middle men such as Unilever, P&amp;G and retailers like Boots \u2013 and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/think-like-a-start-up-even-if-youre-not\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Think like a start-up (even if you\u2019re not)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Start-ups like Dollar Shave Club are upending the FMCG industry by cutting out the middle men such as Unilever, P&amp;G and retailers like Boots \u2013 and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/think-like-a-start-up-even-if-youre-not\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Global Integration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-24T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-11T09:32:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/shutterstock_369896336-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1709\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Debbie Marshall-Lee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Debbie Marshall-Lee\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/think-like-a-start-up-even-if-youre-not\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/think-like-a-start-up-even-if-youre-not\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Debbie Marshall-Lee\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1fa12bfdb63cb06a915dc1478d791465\"},\"headline\":\"Think like a start-up (even if you\u2019re not)\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-24T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-11T09:32:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/think-like-a-start-up-even-if-youre-not\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":456,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/think-like-a-start-up-even-if-youre-not\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/shutterstock_369896336-scaled.webp\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/think-like-a-start-up-even-if-youre-not\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/think-like-a-start-up-even-if-youre-not\\\/\",\"name\":\"Think like a start-up (even if you\u2019re not) - 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