Perry Maddox explores the hedgehog concept and explains how leaders use this concept to build great organizational strategy.
A young leader reached out to me last year.
He had just founded a community-based organization on the outskirts of Harare, fixing water sanitation problems in his community.
At once point in our exchange, he asked for strategy advice.
I told him a story about forest animals.
Clever Fox or Hedgehog Concept.
The Greek poet Archilochus wrote:
“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
Foxes use a range of approaches to hunt. Sneaking up from behind, lying quietly in wait, ambushing from the side, you name it. Foxes are highly flexible, adaptive animals.
Meanwhile the hedgehog is small, slow and simple.
You’d think foxes would eat hedgehogs easily, but our spiky friends have a devastatingly simple strategy. When threatened, they ball up and let the spikes on their backs send predators on their way.
Time after time. Over and over
A Hedgehog Concept is More than Tactics.
It’s good to be a fox sometimes.
Highly adaptive, channelling our inner fox helps us in situations full of nuance, change and when different approaches are needed at pace.
Tactics, in other words. When it comes to strategy, hedgehogs rule.
The hedgehog concept comes from the book Good to Great, by Jim Collins. Leaders are readers, and this the one of the best leadership books out there. Collins observed the difference between good and great organizational strategy to be the Hedgehog Concept: a single concept, strategy or idea that answers meets three criteria. What:
- You’re passionate about
- Drives your resource engine
- You could be the best in the world at.
At the heart of that Venn diagram lies your hedgehog concept.
Organizations who find their ‘hedgehog concept’ and relentlessly stick to it are the ones proven to outperform their competition over time. Meanwhile, organizations and leaders who constantly change strategy, chase the latest shiny ideas, and mistake strategy for tactics usually outfox themselves.
Leaders must find, craft & cast the organizational hedgehog concept.
What’s that one idea, that one thing, that one idea, that one approach that works like the hedgehog’s simple, effective response? Time after time.
Strategy reduced to simplicity and repeated with ruthless efficiency.
Cute animal, powerful idea.
To identify your hedgehog, answer these questions:
What’s Your Passion?
Everybody wants to talk about purpose these days. Tell me about your passion. What:
- Gets you out of bed in the morning?
- Lights your fire?
- Do you want to change in the world?
- Legacy do you want to leave?
Money and fame don’t count. Small wonder so many organizational strategies fail.
Now I’m not talking about your passion, leaders.
The question is what is your organization passionate about? Not just your staff, but those you serve, your partners, volunteers, community and supporters.
What brings them together? This is about our shared fire, collective purpose, values and culture.
Don’t be tempted to answer as a leader. Ask instead, and listen for the common threads through what everybody says.
What’s in Your Engine?
Engines don’t run on passion alone.
Your strategy must also attract the resources it requires.
You can have the best strategy in the world, but if it doesn’t bring you what you need to make it happen, it’s just a passion project.
Good, not great.
Your hedgehog concept must bring you the resources you need to deliver and sustain your mission:
- Talent. The people, skills & capabilities you need to power your impact
- Time. The runway you need to make good decisions, the systems to speed & improve your work, & the endurance to sustain excellence
- Money. The mix of cashflow & liquidity, investments & assets you need to make it happen
- Brand. The awareness that people have, and the goodwill, trust & passion they feel for you
- Community. The culture, volunteers and partners who make you who you are
Just remember,
It’s not a resourcing strategy that you need. It’s a strategy that attracts resources by its very nature.
The harder the questions that you ask, the sharper your strategy will be.
Just because it brings the resources now doesn’t mean it will in 10 years. Stress test your thinking. Will it work in a boom economy? In contraction? What about stability and change?
Don’t tick this box too quickly.
The Key Word in Your Hedgehog Concept.
“Could you be the best in the world?”
The key word here isn’t “best”. It’s “could.”
It’s a tall question, to be best in the world at something. We’re not asking whether you are the best now, plan to be the best, or want to be the best
The question is whether you understand what you could be best at.
Do you know where you have the potential to be the best in the world?
To answer that, you also need to ask where you not be best.
Most of us are pursuing strategies that will never make us the best in the world at what we do. Small wonder that truly great organizations are rare. Don’t simply look at what you already do and answer say, yep, our goal is to do that thing the best.
Instead, eat some humble pie.
To get to best in the world, you need rule out what you cannot do best. That means focussing, reducing the scope & targeting your hedgehog.
For example, it’s hard to make the claim that you’ll be the best digital campaign outfit in the world. But the best Latinx-owned, social justice digital partner to progressive movements in the USA, that is very possible.
Best in the world doesn’t mean global scale. For most of us, it means the opposite. Rule out, niche down and sharpen your strategy until you’ve got something you can be the best at.
Go Build your Hedgehog Concept.
Put the pieces together: passion; resourcing; and the potential to be the best.
Does your strategy answer all three questions, well, in one simple, clear concept?
If so, that’s your hedgehog, whether you’re a Greek poet or a Zimbabwean changemaker.
