Winning by Keeping It Real (10-18-2004)

Price To Win (PTW) practitioners and educators are sometimes accused of harboring opinions concerning the competition's ability to compete and/or price bids that reflect negatively on the customer's decision to bid. I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, when I read the following excerpt from an article in the 10/16/04 edition of Investors Business Daily, recounting lessons that Larry Bossidy, former Chairman and CEO of Honeywell, learned during a long and successful career.

The excerpt, entitled 'Have Realists Around You' follows:

A key reason leaders don't see changes coming is they get filtered information from direct reports.

Another reason is they surround themselves with people who think the same way they do -- often with conventional and sometimes obsolete logic. Bossidy said, "Eventually this spreads companywide, tends to suppress reality, and contrarian views become synonymous with poor attitude."

Also, leaders can be blinded to reality by "emotional involvements in a goal, technology, or strategy. You have to be able to look up and see the big picture objectively," he said.

His advice: "Surround yourself with realists who do the hard assessments, who challenge you with tough questions and then help come up with realistic plans to anticipate and solve problems."