The Challenge Culture
Why The Most Successful Organisations Run on Pushback
Nigel Travis
Hachette India
271 pages
Rs 499
Whether you are a small business employing 50 people or a multinational of hundreds, asking the right questions at the right time is the key to success. It is this culture — that encourages employees to ask questions and makes challenge the pivot of growth — that distinguishes a good corporation from a great one.
Not much new in that thought, but that is the fundamental premise of Nigel Travis' book The Challenge Culture: Why The Most Successful Organisations Run on Pushback. Travis says the important role that corporate culture plays in its success is something he had learnt from his senior-level executive experiences at Grand Metropolitan, Blockbuster, Papa John's Pizza, and especially from Dunkin' Brands (comprising both Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins).
At first sight, the book looks ominous — too much text, no graphics, and no break points. And some of the things you would read have been said before. If not said before, you would have known them instinctively.
Even if the central thought is nothing new, the good thing is The Challenge Culture has a storytelling tone and is an easy read. And it has many recent examples one can related to. It is also smartly written and insightful in patches — maybe Travis had a good editor — and unlike a large majority of recent books, it not preachy at all. Travis is able to pull that off because he offers… to use an overused term… an insider's account of what make some brands globally successful. In that sense, The Challenge Culture has a been-there-done-that feel to it. Better still, many of the lessons he offers in the book can be applied to any industry. So don't go by the cover or the look and feel of the book.
Now come to the examples Travis has discussed in the book. Two of the cases come across very strongly as antithetical and help establish the point he wants to make. Take Travis' early experiences heading Blockbuster Inc. He was with the firm from 1994 to 2004, and served in the capacity of president and chief operating officer. During his stint, the global sales of Blockbuster increased over 50 per cent and the international business grew to encompass 26 countries with revenues of $1.8 billion. He also built a network of 300 franchisees in 15 countries with revenues of close to $1 billion, and led the transition of the company from being a plain vanilla video rental store chain to a complete movie and game source.
So how and when did it flounder? Travis says the video giant struggled and ultimately failed because it could not respond effectively to competitors such as Netflix and Redbox. It wasn't probably asking the right questions: What did the consumer want? Which way was the market headed? Where did the future lie?
Then consider Dunkin' Donuts. The key to Dunkin' Donuts' recent success, Travis says, has been its ability to respond to change by becoming more agile and its willingness to face up to challenges thrown by competition and consumers rather than bury its heads in the sand.
And how was Dunkin' Donuts able to achieve that? Its leaders would have cultivated a "challenge culture" which allows its people to defy standard operating procedures, where the CEO is not constrained by the founder's influence and has the right to question long-held assumptions without fear of reprisal.
Travis is clearly against what many call the "razzle-dazzle" variety of management. Most would-be corporate types are trained to make statements, to deliver information in a manner that they overwhelm those sitting across the table. And the preferred tools are massive power point presentations and spreadsheets that simply blow the opponent's mind. That's impressive, but may not necessarily be result-oriented. Results emanate from collaboration that "challenge culture" fosters. Things like informal chats with employees across the corporate hierarchy can help offer new ideas and demonstrate the level of trust that pervades the organisation, he says.
"Collaboration", Travis says, "is the ability to work productively with other people. This skill is fundamental to the challenge culture. It is the ability to listen to different viewpoints and to work in group settings for the benefit of the goal of the group, even if you have some reservations about the agreed plan of action."
Simple, but how many leaders actually follow it?
Now the more fundamental question: How does the leader cultivate a culture of fearlessness? "Challenge cultures are not created overnight or by executive decree," Travis says. "They have to be modelled, shaped, and refined over time."
"The sad truth is that too many organisations in virtually every arena of endeavour operate with authorities that discourage challenge and questioning." That's complacency and when corporates accept complacency, growth and performance stagnate.
People, in general, tend to seek the path of least resistance. The problem is that the path of least resistance may not be the best. So who will do the job of pushing people out of their comfort zones? You guessed it… the onus finally lies with the corporation's leader.
