“Creativity is about connecting things into something new.” Steve Jobs
Creative people do not see the current and ever-changing environment as a negative disruptive force, but rather as an opportunity to gain competitive advantage. Enter the ODDA circuit of trained fighter pilots.
The OODA (to Observe – Orient – Decide – Act) loop was developed in the early 1950s by Air Force pilot John Boyd, who noted that American F-86s during the Korean War were disrupting the tactics of their opponents (despite the superiority of the MIG-15s) due to better information and faster execution.
Boyd’s perception of the need to change speed and direction faster than the opponent is now considered equally applicable to today’s competitive and increasingly globalized environment. A disciplined and mindful application of the OODA cycle can give a company an edge over its competitors by anticipating market changes, understanding the strategic impact of those changes, taking the right actions, and implementing them, all faster than the competition.
“Observed” It is introspective and refers to the understanding of what is happening in a company while “East” it looks outward and relates to monitoring its external environment. Both require deciding what information is relevant and what data to look for, how to collect it, and how often to monitor it. The data is then analyzed to determine its business implications. “Watch” would typically look at a company’s sales, customers (for example, renewal rates, level of returns, frequency and severity of customer complaints), or inventory. “Orient” would look at the activity of competitors, key trends in the industry (for example, alternative substitutes to the product being offered, suppliers, etc.) or other key trends (for example, regulatory changes in legislation; social developments, behavioral and technological that could affect the industry). Carefully selected KPIs for both should help the company develop awareness and identify what strategic moves it needs to consider to address both challenges and opportunities.
“He decided” uses the data that has been collected and analyzed to select a course of action that can then be “Act” U.S. As a business implements its plans, it continues to gather new information and make new decisions as the situation unfolds, hence the cycle.
The Boyd loop can be used as a framework to accelerate strategy development and implementation. It does not require companies to observe, guide, decide and act, in that order, all the time, but it encourages companies to get constant feedback from the orientation step (which then helps interpret a situation, based on experience or culture ) in your decision-making processes and then act quickly and decisively.
Success is not always driven by being the fastest on the market, but by being the most agile – that is, being the first to decode rapidly changing conditions and respond decisively. More fundamentally, this involves establishing a culture or environment within which people will solve technical and operational problems and invent ways to improve, develop, test, adjust, and produce new products or services faster than competitors.
In essence, a company shapes itself and the market to improve its ability to survive on its terms, usually at the expense of competitors; for example, this is the centerpiece of Apple’s strategy process.
Apple has grown almost entirely through repeatable and sustainable organic growth using a combination of product innovation (for example, iPod, iPad, iTunes, and iPhone) including sleek design and user-friendly interfaces and model innovation. (for example, a viable business model for downloading music) to create entirely new markets.
By anticipating and exploiting market trends like the convergence of technology, media, and entertainment before anyone else, Apple appears to have the ability to create customer needs and change its own understanding of product capabilities. This is embodied in new customer-centric designs and products with exceptional ease of use, constantly evolving towards new iterations with new and attractive features. The iPod did what was expected – play music – but also what was not expected – it is intuitively easy to operate (unlike MP3 players). The iPhone was not the first mobile phone, but it fundamentally changed what a mobile phone could be by gaining easy access to email and mobile browsing. The iPad reshaped centuries-old paper-reading traditions and redefined the way information is accessed via a touch screen rather than a mouse. In addition, each iteration has resulted in better technology: for example, thinner, lighter and faster than its predecessor, etc.
Internally, Apple believes it has no competition as its strategic focus is meeting the needs of its customers and expanding its ecosystem. However, their strategy is still based on the OODA loop concept of discovering and changing the situation before the competitors to outperform, innovate and execute them. Apple sold more than 800 million digital devices in the past seven years and had amassed $ 194 billion in cash by the end of 2014. Let’s see how Apple takes advantage of the major trends in the new digital economy.