By Kim Jong-nam
It is truly winter now. The temperature sometimes drops below -10 degrees Celsius and the trees are bare. However, in a sense, has it not been winter all year since April? Who has truly been able to walk free since the outbreak of the coronavirus? We have been inside as though the temperatures were much colder. This truth reminds me of the fact that, although winter is a physical phenomenon, companies can sometimes undergo metaphorical winters due to environmental or psychological elements. Recently, my mentoring some CEOs of various startups has allowed me to observe how they have endured their winters successfully.
Some CEOs have found success through solutions that turn their winters to summers. These solutions come from ideas that are sparkling and different from the rest of the pack. Companies like this usually attract a considerable amount of investment and look like they have a lot of potential to grow further. It is tempting to believe that all of their success derived from their originality. However, they actually had a hidden strength: focusing on their customers.
These CEOs left their routine mindsets behind, which allowed them to think of and implement new ideas. They focused on how to provide value-driven service rather than how to sell more, pondered over what could be done in a new fashion, endeavored to bring changes, and, furthermore, strived to resolve problems in the existing environment. In a nutshell, what they attempted to achieve was not simply the game of making money but rather the serious question of how to contribute to the world and serve their customers. What helped them forget winter was the long time they spent agonizing over these questions.
Observing these successful CEOs, I realized that they saw things differently than other people did. Some people conclude, when it's cold and snowing, when the leaves have fallen and the tree branches are bare, when the world as a whole looks barren, that it is winter, and that nothing much can be done about it. However, the successful CEOs that I found tend to go beyond just seeing ― instead, they watch to see what will happen, even in this environment. Watching helps them identify trees that actually grow well during the winter, such as aspen trees. This gives them the ability to get through the winter. It is not, in fact, true, that nothing grows during the winter, and the attention that they pay enables them to see this. Moreover, all of this watching leads to their developing their own points of view.
The hidden strength of these successful startups was these unique mindsets and points of view. They truly understood how winter should be defined, what should be done in winter, and what firewood and stoves are best to help them stay heated. To them, doing business meant figuring out how to get through winter by looking at the winter, examining the winter, and finding their own standpoints and strategies ― not about how they themselves were experiencing winter, but about how their customers experienced their own winters. These abilities were magical because these companies were able to make spring and summer in the middle of winter. As a mentor, I felt humbled by mentees, and grateful for the chance to learn from them.
Many corporations and people are going through an unprecedented and long metaphorical winter, and now it is literally, physically winter. This is a double whammy. Thus, just as many animals decide to hide and wait until the seasons change, many corporations think that winter is the time to close up business, review the year that has just passed, and plan for the next year. However, what makes winter feel like spring or even summer is not to do this, but rather to think about how to contribute to customers' lives. Never ceasing to try to resolve the problems and troubles of customers is like turning on a huge furnace. There is no winter for someone who does that.
Kim Jong-nam is the founding CEO of META (www.imeta.co.kr) and a global organizational development consultant who works both virtually and in person.
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Some CEOs have found success through solutions that turn their winters to summers. These solutions come from ideas that are sparkling and different from the rest of the pack. Companies like this usually attract a considerable amount of investment and look like they have a lot of potential to grow further. It is tempting to believe that all of their success derived from their originality. However, they actually had a hidden strength: focusing on their customers.
These CEOs left their routine mindsets behind, which allowed them to think of and implement new ideas. They focused on how to provide value-driven service rather than how to sell more, pondered over what could be done in a new fashion, endeavored to bring changes, and, furthermore, strived to resolve problems in the existing environment. In a nutshell, what they attempted to achieve was not simply the game of making money but rather the serious question of how to contribute to the world and serve their customers. What helped them forget winter was the long time they spent agonizing over these questions.
Observing these successful CEOs, I realized that they saw things differently than other people did. Some people conclude, when it's cold and snowing, when the leaves have fallen and the tree branches are bare, when the world as a whole looks barren, that it is winter, and that nothing much can be done about it. However, the successful CEOs that I found tend to go beyond just seeing ― instead, they watch to see what will happen, even in this environment. Watching helps them identify trees that actually grow well during the winter, such as aspen trees. This gives them the ability to get through the winter. It is not, in fact, true, that nothing grows during the winter, and the attention that they pay enables them to see this. Moreover, all of this watching leads to their developing their own points of view.
The hidden strength of these successful startups was these unique mindsets and points of view. They truly understood how winter should be defined, what should be done in winter, and what firewood and stoves are best to help them stay heated. To them, doing business meant figuring out how to get through winter by looking at the winter, examining the winter, and finding their own standpoints and strategies ― not about how they themselves were experiencing winter, but about how their customers experienced their own winters. These abilities were magical because these companies were able to make spring and summer in the middle of winter. As a mentor, I felt humbled by mentees, and grateful for the chance to learn from them.
Many corporations and people are going through an unprecedented and long metaphorical winter, and now it is literally, physically winter. This is a double whammy. Thus, just as many animals decide to hide and wait until the seasons change, many corporations think that winter is the time to close up business, review the year that has just passed, and plan for the next year. However, what makes winter feel like spring or even summer is not to do this, but rather to think about how to contribute to customers' lives. Never ceasing to try to resolve the problems and troubles of customers is like turning on a huge furnace. There is no winter for someone who does that.
Kim Jong-nam is the founding CEO of META (www.imeta.co.kr) and a global organizational development consultant who works both virtually and in person.
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