The Icarus Paradox – Causation & Remediation
Here’s the role leaders ought to play in preventing a condition like the Icarus Paradox…
Decades ago Michael Dell spoke about the 3 golden rules that he believes in & one of them happens to be “ALWAYS LISTEN TO THE CUSTOMER”. The importance of listening to the customer has been underlined by many cofounders of billion-dollar orgs., coaches & management institutions as a part of their academic teachings. It only makes sense to listen to the customer because one is often building for a market with a problem that resonates with a certain user group & if their expectations happen to trigger a change or two over their needs it ought to naturally convert to a few odd opportunities.
But as the world has it, in spite of all that knowledge orgs. & products could still fail. They may fail to impress, fail to stick on & stay relevant for a long term. And given a product losing sheen like that for whatever reasons, it could lead to the downfall of the org. eventually, which is what is termed ICARUS PARADOX in the books of strategic management.
Definition:
In the context of business and strategic management, the Icarus Paradox illustrates how the very attributes that contribute to a company’s success can also lead to its downfall. When businesses tend to get complacent, not being observant, not moving with time & relying heavily on strategies that worked when they perhaps started off they may hit that downward spiral.
The Backstory:
The Greek beliefs (the word “MYTHOLOGY” doesn’t quite sit with me given how beliefs are stronger & than myths could have a deep meaning, deeper association, given how they are rooted in & derived from actual historic / pre-historic events - so much more than just a mere myth) talk about the story of Icarus who was the son of a craftsman Daedalus who made those wings from feathers & wax to aid their escape from prison where they were held captive. Ignoring his father’s warnings when Icarus flew higher & inched closer to the sun his feathers melted, he fell into the sea & drowned meeting his death there.
The examples of orgs. who have fallen prey to this paradox are aplenty. And surprisingly they aren’t just a thing of the distant past as they continue to happen around us even today, at least until recent times although not current & now though thankfully.
Some examples of such orgs. here:
What can the leadership do to help orgs & teams steer clear of the Icarus Paradox?
Here are a few mandatory steps:
1) Periodic Strategic Redressal
Think of this as a board room discussion with all the leaders gathering towards revisiting, recalibrating & realigning those strategic initiatives to the goals. Yes, goals may have been drafted much earlier to strategy. But at times the goals could need some minor tweaking given how its relevance to the market is not strong enough right now. Paying heed to them users & picking up on those subtle changes in their needs & factoring them in would obviously translate to a whole lot of satisfaction. There could be no better instance where the VoC (voice of the customer) happens to be directly contributing towards an org. hitting those goals.
For ex: Brokerage firm allowing investments into Cryptocurrency post establishing how a large portion of the user base seems to be in it now
Revisiting strategy at a regular cadence towards gauging one’s market position towards helping assess those inflection points would help take full control of the situation just when it is needed, neither too early nor too late. Doing whatever it takes to get up there even if that means venturing into something new & taking control of the market share although looking diminutive in terms of magnitude then may prove to be just “THE” strategic change that was needed in hindsight.
2) Customer-centric Culture
Being a staunch advocate of the customer’s needs is obviously the first step towards building something meaningful such that it resonates with a whole bunch of users in the market. But that sadly isn’t enough for just leaders / the management to be focused on the customer for they aren’t the touchpoints who happen to interface with the markets / users on a daily basis. So, enforcing a culture that begins its thinking from the customer’s standpoint is what may be the need of the hour here.
For ex: Designers / Developers interfacing with the customers as & when needed to delve deeper into those workflows, spend some time observing them on location, asking a few follow-up questions to help understand their behaviors better
Acute empathy is the beginning of it all. Yes, your product managers might have already interfaced with the users to understand their workflow & map out the idiosyncrasies to their needs. But if there’s ever a need for a designer to know more about some bit of the workflow, customer advocacy would then dictate that they have an interface with the specific user groups to get to the bottom of the issue. Doing so would also reduce the time cycles it would take for the solutioning teams to gain nuanced feedback well within time towards helping build reliable & relevant solutions that not just resonate with the user groups but also tends to stick with them.
3) Innovation-first Mindset
Leaders ought to keep a sharp lookout for the changing trends in the market & that could happen only if one is open to change themselves. When that looks damn simple it could still appear titanic given the magnitude of work required to align all teams towards imbibing & upholding that innovation mindset at all times. Innovation can’t be a reality unless there’s a platform for teams to seamlessly exchange ideas & also do it periodically over short cadences.
For ex: A smartwatch org. designing a voice command interpreter (with globalization & localization) so that it is well & truly language independent could help smoothen the whole workflow reducing the need to pull out the mobile phone from the pocket
A mentality that doesn’t stop at anything & is ready to do what it takes to get atop there is what’s needed. That could then transform into diversifying the product line looking beyond the usual areas one already has covered which would then need proper budgets allotted towards R&D in helping uphold the competitiveness & the spirit of adaptability.
Also, one shouldn’t discount the necessity to think of innovation from the user’s standpoint. What that means is it isn’t enough if the technology just finds some loose fitment. One ought to identify & prioritize those problems employ the best of Tech towards disrupting the space, solving for it the best way possible whilst rendering the best of user experiences (UX).
Just remember this:
If one is looking for long-term growth & building a sustainable business one ought to ensure a org.-wide understanding of the Icarus paradox so that they can find ways to steer clear of it with a sense of awareness & underlining the importance of continual adaptation, evolution & improvement.
There’s really no other way to stay ahead in the race!