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Six Steps that Invent the Future

Companies who succeed in today’s volatile business economy must learn to conquer obstacles like a championship basketball team in a ‘FastBreak’ overcoming the insecurities that hold them back and responding instantly to the flow of the game.

Before leaders can accomplish anything, they must first understand themselves and present reality, challenge their own thinking, communicate a well thought out and concise strategic direction and define a clear and actionable plan for execution.

A leader must make the final call. To make that call with confidence a leader must know the answer and/or know how to find the answer, and must communicate in a compelling manner that is clear, simple and concrete. Only then, will his team have the faith to follow and achieve the company’s objectives.

The following six guidelines provide a roadmap for surpassing common business hurdles to achieve success and invent a well-designed future reality for your business or life. These steps work for everything from building a porch of the front of your house, to creating a great company, or nation.

Six Steps to Inventing the Future:


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About the Author

Paul David Walker, CEO of Genius Stone Partners, was part of the first to create a leadership firm designed to align strategy, structure and culture to fortify some of the largest companies in the United States including Star-Kist Foods, Rockwell International, Conexant Systems, Chase, Anne Kline and New York Life. His own genius lies in integrating business strategy and philosophical insights, guiding the leadership of major companies with a holistic approach that allows them to grow grounded, stable and balanced – and ultimately, become much more successful leaders. Some of the most influential leaders in American business have relied on him for expert guidance since 1984. To read Paul David Walker’s complete biography, click here.

Corporate Cultures – Individual Initiated, Knowledge and Skills Controlled Environment

The Individual Initiated, Knowledge and Skills Controlled Environment is one of two anchor points on the Culture-based Work Performance Model. Subsequently, organizations aligned with this culture set represent the highest level of engagement and creativity while incurring the greatest degree of risk in work consistency and efficiency.


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Benefits of Debriefing

The Forces of global change can render professional skill sets obsolete almost overnight. Organizations that fail to continuously revise assumptions about their operating environment (i.e. market) risk obsolescence or irrelevance. It is vital to develop the capacity to learn from your environment. But how is this done? Information overload is the management crisis of the 21st century. We have so many measures, dashboards and performance indicators that acquiring information can become an end rather than a means. The answer is debriefing. In fact, debriefing isn’t just something that is helpful, in today’s environment it’s an imperative.


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About the Authors

James MurphyJames D. ‘Murph’ Murphy, the Founder & CEO of Afterburner, Inc., has a unique and powerful mix of leadership skills in both the military and business worlds. Murph joined the U.S. Air Force where he learned to fly the F-15. He logged over 1,200 hours as an instructor pilot in the F-15 and accumulated over 3,200 hours of flight time in other high-performance aircraft. As the 116th Fighter Wing’s Chief of Training for the Georgia Air National Guard, Murph’s job was to keep 42 combat-trained fighter pilots ready to deploy worldwide within 72 hours. As a flight leader, he flew missions to Central America, Asia, Central Europe and the Middle East.

Will DukeWill Duke is Afterburner’s Director of Learning and Development. His duties include coordination of the development of intellectual property, training programs, and educational materials. He also serves as a consultant to process and continuous improvement management programs. With Co-Author James ‘Murph’ Murphy, he wrote the 2010 release The Flawless Execution Field Manual.

Leadership Inspirations – Moving Forward

“The only way organizations move forward is through change; begotten from fresh perspectives and new ideas.”

Nathan Ives
Principal Contributor and
Host, StrategyDriven Podcast

Is Your Business Biased Against Innovation?

Many people do not typically think of metrics and accounting as roadblocks to innovation, yet you call these out as potential problem areas. Why?

Many conventional metrics we use to estimate value are based on faulty assumptions. Net present value [NPV] is a case in point. The logic of NPV is to project cash flows into the future and then discount those flows back into today’s dollars at a given cost of capital.

Given that money today is always worth more than money in the future, you are trying to establish what the future value of the investment will be in terms of that money’s value today. If it is positive, it’s thumbs up, if it’s negative, it’s thumbs down.

One problem is that NPV calculations tend to compare today with some future state. What they should be used for is to compare today with two different future states: one in which we do nothing and one in which we do something. Doing otherwise biases the business against innovation because what you are projecting may look unattractive relative to your business today.


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About the Author

Rita McGrath, a Professor at Columbia Business School in New York, is one of the world’s leading experts on strategy in highly uncertain and volatile environments. She works with both Global 1,000 icons and smaller, but fast-growing organizations. Some current clients include F-Secure, Nokia, Microsoft, (and its CEO Summit), AXA Equitable, General Electric, Novartis, PPG Industries, the Stena Group and the World Economic Forum. She is a popular speaker and consults to senior leadership teams. In 2009, she was inducted as a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society, an honor accorded to those who have had a significant impact on the field. To read Rita’s complete biography, click here.