Lessons

There were many things we set out to do when we decided to write this book. Front and center are the business lessons to be learned, and there are countless lessons to be learned from the story of Scarlett, Victoria, Lindsay, and all the characters in this book.

There are many lessons to be learned from the book: lessons on leadership, organizations and organizational design, governance and governance structure, company culture, and the alignment of various constituents, both internal and external. There are also many lessons to be learned from the book on people and their motivations, as well as the emotional things that lead us to action or inaction, something particularly relevant to Human Resources groups.   Additionally, there are many lessons that we can take away on strategy in multiple dimensions: how to gain insight into your market, innovation, developing, maintaining, and using competitive advantage, and the importance of concepts like scale, strategic control, vertical incentive, alignment, and reinforcing business models.

Accordingly, we have divided our lessons into three categories:

1. Leadership / Organization / Culture / Alignment
2. People / Motivation / Emotional Motivation / HR
3. Strategy: Insights / Innovation / Competitive Advantage / Scale / Strategic Control / Vertical Incentive Alignment / Reinforcing Business Models

Not every chapter addresses all three. Some are dominated by leadership, some by people and motivation, and others by strategy. We encourage you to discuss, debate, and add your own take-aways.

For all of them, as you read what we have written here, ask yourself how they apply to your experiences, your life, your company, your position, and your life experiences. What are your individual key takeaways?

There are also many lessons to be taken from the brilliance of Scarlett’s business model, ones that you should be able to connect to your business and utilize. Importantly, in our strategy discussions, we lay out what we see as a “recipe” or “playbook” on how to Disrupt (Scarlett) or Defend (Victoria) a market. Consequently, you will see the strategy lessons below divided into “Lessons for Disrupting a Market” and “Lessons for Defending a Market (and What Not to Do).”

To this end, there is a really good, somewhat older Harvard Business Review article by the title “The Innovator’s DNA.” In the article, the authors examine the traits of truly innovative business leaders, and they find that the number one trait of innovative thinking in business is what they call associating. Associating is finding a concept or idea in another industry or domain, taking it back to your particular business and industry and employing it to your advantage. As you read our takeaways on strategy, we would suggest you try to do this: For each example, think about how you might take the concepts back to your own industry and use them for strategic advantage.