IDEAS- Latest Issue (Feb. 2007)

Monthly newsletter dedicated to organisational innovation, creativity and change.

Dare to Fail!

What's one of the most painful failures of your career so far? Can you recall an incident when things went wrong unexpectedly, perhaps so badly wrong that you can't ever forget about it? I will tell you about mine, but later.

Who likes to fail? No one! The word "failure" has a certain stigma to it. Right from the school days we are conditioned to believe that failing is unacceptable. And that, to fail means being left behind in the race called life. No wonder, we grow up believing failures, whether in academics, sports, art or work, must be avoided at any cost.

Interestingly, and this is really unfortunate, no one reveals to us that failing has another side to it. To fail is not always a useless, hopeless act. Not in all situations, but in certain situations, unless you fail, you can't succeed. And this is especially true when you set out to explore, experiment, discover and create something original, something really new.

Some of the world's most powerful and successful companies have tasted bitter failures, not just once but many times, yet they still make deliberate efforts to create a culture where people can feel comfortable about failing. These companies are not nuts. They know the path of innovation is laden with risks and failures. If you want to lead, you need to innovate, and if you want to innovate, you need to accept failures as an inseparable part of the game. If you don't fail, you fail to innovate!

Take a company that you would think must be all too smart to fail: Coca Cola. In 1985, after market research and taste tests, Coca-Cola launched New Coke in an attempt to energise its original cola brand. But to everyone's surprise, the new product backfired so badly that it had to be withdrawn from the market within 79 days of its launch. Besides New Coke, Coke's graveyard of failed products includes Choglit, a chocolate flavoured drink (2002), OK Soda (1994) and Surge.

Apple Computers, now riding high on the back of its blockbuster product, iPOD, has had long trail of flops: The Lisa, a personal computer launched (and flopped miserably) in 1983 at a price of US$10,000; Macintosh Portable, a US$6,500, 15.5-pound portable (?) computer launched in 1989; The Newton, a bulky, pricey PDA launched in 1993, when people couldn't understand what to do with it. Says Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, "Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations." Only an innovative and creative person like him can be so cool about failing.

Indeed, other CEOs, too, are also trying to send different signals about failures. In an article published in the BusinessWeek magazine (July 10, 2006), Jeffrey R. Immelt, GE's current CEO, recalls his own biggest mistake: In 1992, while running the commercial operations for the plastics business, he failed to see the problems in a new plastic product, known as Nuvel, which flopped miserably in the market, leaving a dent of US$20 million in GE's kitty. Jack Welch, the CEO before Immelt, is credited with blowing up a pilot plastic plant in his very first year at GE.

In you are the owner of a business, what would you say if an employee comes to you and admits committing an error worth millions of dollars? According to an article in Fortune (Oct. 2006), Larry Page, co-founder of Google, had this to say to Sheryl Sandberg, a VP, when she admitted committing a million-dollar mistake: "I'm glad that you made this mistake because I want to run a company where we are moving too quickly and doing too much, not being too cautious and doing too little. If you don't have any of these mistakes, we're just not taking enough risks."

These examples may sound like exotic, fairly tales in contrast to the typical corporate culture pervading most organisations where the emphasis is on trying to be right every time, anytime and everywhere--and covering up your mistakes, if any. Organisations that despise failures certainly avoid failures, but at a cost: They fail in unleashing the creativity of their people and innovate.

>>IDEA: The final word about failing must come from Thomas Edison, the man credited with 1093 patents and many breakthrough inventions, who once said: "Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward...."

We may not aim to be like Edison, but if we have any slightest desire to explore, experiment and do something new, something really original, let us not fail to see that failures are not always bad. Sometimes, only when you dare to fail, you get to learn and break new grounds.

Well, we have come to the end, and let me not fail in telling you about my own grand failure. One of my recent failures is not being able to write this newsletter since Oct' 06. But that's nothing in front of what happened about six years back. That time, I was just starting out with a dream to be a professional speaker. So, I decided to organise a seminar. I prepared the training material, booked a seminar room and advertised my seminar by personally distributing flyers to people at the bus and metro train stations. On the day of the seminar, I got dressed nicely and also bought some snacks for the participants. But when the time of the seminar came, to my utter disappointment, not a single soul turned up! Unforgettable experience it was...standing there alone in front of empty seats! That day I realised this business of speaking is not that simple. A lot of factors count and one of the most important ones is your own credibility. I have been, since then, trying to build up my credibility...still work-in-progress!

Atul Mathur

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***Copyright 2007 Atul Mathur***

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