“Get Tiny Tim on the phone” Edward Scrooge repeated to a stunned Cratchit.

Tiny Tim was sitting in his office. He was thinking being the CEO was not living up to its billing. He was looking at the TransformationDNA report on e-Bookazon and grimaced at the challenges ahead. There was a clear vision and a bright future with a well defined strategy but the report clearly identified issues around culture and climate within the organization. This in turn was damaging the enablement of the strategy and the need for new paradigms to deal with emerging markets. There were questions and suggestions around the leadership team, and as he mused, he wished he had some of the steel and experience in the team around him that he used to have in Ebenezer. He looked at his phone with relief when it rang “Ah, Cratchit at last, are you ready to join us?”

What happened next was extraordinary in the folklore of both companies, Ebenezer and e-Bookazon. The transformation of Scrooge was often recited as pivotal, though completely unpredictable and made such sense on reflection.

Going home that evening, Cratchit remained bewildered at what he had just witnessed. To hear Scrooge, the epitome of command and control, ranting about connecting and collaborating with Tiny Tim, both companies merging their complementary strengths and going through the Isthmus together. Tiny Tim arguing excitedly about emerging markets, quoting his old mentor Clayton “markets that do not exist cannot be analyzed; suppliers and customers must discover them together. In these markets disruptive technologies are not only unknown but unknowable”. Scrooge, not to be outdone, countering “Up in Stanford we used to say culture eats strategy for breakfast”. Then the magical handshake, when the landmark deal merging both companies was complete, Scrooge produced the bottle of whiskey. Cratchit knew it was time to exit when Tiny Tim and Scrooge were toasting predictive methodologies, untapped potential and emerging from the Isthmus to follow their destiny.

It was after all, Christmas Eve. Cratchit felt happy. He was uplifted. “Ebenezer and e-Bookazon, now there’s a proposition” he thought. He looked into the river but there was no sign of the blackswan. He wasn’t to know that black swans are highly unpredictable and that they can be good or bad depending on your perspective. He more likely thought the goose was cooked.

Cratchit looked up as it started to snow and the Christmas bells started to ring. If he had learned one thing over the last 5 days it was that even well managed companies, who listen astutely to their customers and invest in new technologies, can still lose their market dominance. If he had been asked a week before if there was the ghost of a chance of a seismic transformation in Ebenezer he would have laughed at the very idea.

As he entered the front door of his cottage he chuckled “ideas come and go but stories last forever!”

Read the previous blogs

The Christmas Isthmus - A Transformational Tale (Day 4 of 5)

The Christmas Isthmus - A Transformational Tale (Day 3 of 5)

The Christmas Isthmus - A Transformational Tale (Day 2 of 5)

The Christmas Isthmus - A Transformational Tale (Day 1 of 5)