360 Creativity
This is a cautionary tale. Electronic Data Systems (EDS), the world's second-largest computer services company, made the decision to win a U.S. Navy and Marine Corps contract in 2000. EDS slashed it's original bid of $8.6 billion by $1.7 and agreed to stiff conditions -- like deferring and payments for equipment and salaries until performance standards and targets were met. Only then would EDS get paid. EDS won the deal -- making it the largest multibilliondollar computer outsourcing of it's kind. The contract was designed to merge 400,000 of the Navy's and Marine Corps decades-old computers in more than 1,000 disparate networks into one Web-based internet.
Once EDS started work, it found 100,000 different software applications on the computers -- not the thousands the company had anticipated and hundreds of old applications that could not be moved to the new system. Two and half years later, EDS found itself well behind schedule. After almost three years, EDS had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in this contract and had yet to receive a dime from the Navy.
I have worked with many companies over the years and I find that a majority of them compartmentalize creativity. You will find the creative in R&D and Marketing. Creatives are always asking questions. In the EDS case, the 8.6 billion dollar questions could have been -- how many different applications are there on the computers? Don't we need a forensic software audit before we bid? Or more simply, how are we going to make money if we don't know what we don't know?
I call it 360 creativity. It's de (compartmentalizing) the creative function. It's putting a creative mind in strategic sessions. One insight. One good question could have dramatic consequences. For example, I asked one question to a major pharmaceutical company that changed the way they were going to market their bread and butter product. Make a sign, make a pledge that the symbol 360 will be in every meeting. What are doing that could be done (more) creatively.
I want to thank Michael Benoliel for his insights in Done Deal, Insights from Interviews with the World's Best Negotiators.
Creativity Central
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