We all see people rise up to become leaders. All of us have
heard of those self-made men and women who climbed the ladders of power. These
individuals, at least to me, often seem almost unreal, not plagued by the trials and tribulations of us
ordinary folk. Last Monday I was lucky enough to interview such a person, the
esteemed Australian doctor and biotech entrepreneur: Hugo Stephenson.
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| Hugo Stephenson, Executive Chairmen of DrugDev Image courtesy of Eyeforpharma © 2015 http://social.eyeforpharma.com |
My interview with
Hugo was long and detailed; we talked over a light lunch at Giorgois café in
Armadale. I asked him about his journey, his motivation, and what he felt about
the science-entrepreneurial course I am currently a part of. From all the points he
shared, one story in particular resonated very strongly with me.
I asked Hugo specifically how he created all of these
businesses. How he got these great projects off the ground without much capital
at all. For Hugo, the answers lay in his tale of two cafés:
Café number one says, “I’m going to get this place on
High St because there is a lot of foot traffic. But I’m not very confident in
myself, so I’d really like it to look really good so I can capture the interest
of people who come past. In that situation what am I doing? I’m taking on a
high rent and I’m asking for a lot of capital up front, bank loans, friends or
family, to fit out the restaurant. So I sit inside all day and I polish the
tables waiting for people to come in. The people will come in eventually, but
it will take a lot longer than you ever think, for real revenue to come in,
regardless of what business you are.” So you’re in an environment where you’ve
started from behind.
In the second café, the guy turns around and says,
“You know what, I’m going to get a much cheaper rent café, off the main strip.
I may get one which has some pre-existing materials in there, may not even look
that good. I’ll spend a bit of time putting a lick of pain on it but I’m not
going to get a commercial fit out, absolute bare minimum. But every single day
in the morning when its not busy, I’m going to walk to every business, knock on
every door, stand at the train station with some flyers, offering free coffee
to anyone who comes in. Coffee doesn’t cost much, it’s just your time. And I’m
going to learn the name and record everybody that comes in, what their phone
number is, start a loyalty card for them, if I haven’t seen them for a week
I’ll text them.” The second café doesn’t need as much time becoming cash
positive because this guy’s basically said, “What I lack in terms of location
and in terms of set up, I’m going to make up for in terms of my time, and my
energy. You know what, I’ll offer a dinner service, I’ll do whatever, I’ll just
do everything but I’ll trade my time for something.”
I found
this story extremely profound. It had a moral applying not only to
business but also to leadership theory and problem solving in general.
Problems
exist in two main forms: Technical problems can be resolved through the
application of authoritative expertise, through an organization’s current
structures, and ways of doing things. Whereas adaptive challenges can only be
addressed through changes in people’s priorities, beliefs, habits and loyalties
(Heifetz et al. 2009). To put it simply, a technical solution would be to change
the product, but an adaptive solution would be to change the buyer.
Café one,
in Hugo’s story, attempted to solve the problem of too few people entering
their café, using technical means. Better location, a higher quality interior,
and a more attractive exterior. This problem, however, is not really about the
product, but more about the people buying it.
Café two
attempted to solve this problem through adaptive means. By sacrificing time and
effort, the café owner connected with people, encouraged them, and changed
their habits. By offering loyalty cards, and becoming more human in the face of
potential buyers, the owner of the second café was able to change how the people felt about the cafe, change their loyalties and excel.
There is
also another aspect to this story, the difference in confidence. Confidence is
one of the keys to effective leadership. Having confidence sets up the active
side of your self-esteem, providing you with energy, inner strength and power
(Avolio & Luthans 2006). A lack of drive and energy from self-confidence
can cause time to so easily be wasted on trivial things, such as monotonously
polishing the tables in a café, waiting for people to come in. With real
confidence and drive, businessmen, entrepreneurs and leader can engage better
with their audiences, buyers and team members and eventually lead to
accelerated success as they tackle problems in a more adaptive way.
This
concept was just one of many touched upon by Hugo in the wonderful interview I
had with him. This experience has taken me to a new place on my journey, as
I’ve come to realize that in the hands of those who wish to lead, time and
human interaction are priceless gifts, more powerful than gold.
Find out more about Hugo Stephenson here:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Stephenson
DrugDev executive team leaders page: http://www.drugdev.com/about-us/leadership/#hugo-stephenson
References:
Avolio, B
Luthans, F 2006, The high impact leader, New
York Publishing, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Heifetz,
R Grashow, A Linsky, M 2009, The practice
of adaptive leadership, Cambridge Leadership Associates, Boston, Massachusetts.
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