Don’t Be Process Driven

The technology sector has its own sacred cows feeding on its potential success. For the most part, technology companies are in love with the technology and believe that the technology can and should drive all preference and purchase decisions. At Stealing Share we call this attitude “process driven” meaning that it is in love with the process and it eventually becomes more important to the company than the purpose it serves or the precepts that rule both purpose and process. It is precisely this fault that gave rise to a couple of the great fables in the brand business.

One is about man in 1900 that had an idea. He noticed carpenters and builders struggling with hand drills. He thought it would be an amazing invention to connect an electric motor to a hand drill and create the world’s first electric drill. He set about to do just that and in 5 years he had a rather compact (by the day’s standards) working model.

New technology in tow, he went to market. It is easy to imagine that his invention changed the world of construction. If you were told his name was Mr. Black or Mr. Decker, you would not be surprised. However, his name is lost in history and he died a poor man. He was never able to sell his invention to any satisfaction because he thought he was selling drills (a process) when in fact all he was ever selling was holes (purpose).

Another story, even more telling takes place in a railroad office at about the same time. A young kid, after seeing an airplane flying overhead (an unusual site in those days), burst into his boss’s office, pointed through the window to the airplane and exclaimed…”Boss, Boss… we need to get some of those!” His boss puts down his cigar and replies “get out of here kid. We’re a railroad” (process). Had he recognized that his business was in fact a fulfiller of PURPOSE (transportation) we might by flying internationally today with the B&O Airlines.