NC State of Business

I had the privilege of recently seeing one of the great guitarists of my generation, Robin Trower, at a small venue in Charlotte. Although Robin is about 65 years old, (and looks every bit of it) he performs with the talent he has always had and demonstrates a passion for the guitar. You can see the passion in his face, and feel it through his music.

You see this same passion in the faces of other great musicians (from my generation) such as Bruce Springsteen, Robbie Robertson and Eric Clapton. And their talent and success shines through this passion.

I believe a similar passion inspired many of us to pursue a career in manufacturing. Transforming raw materials into a product that a customer really wants, adding value and continuously finding ways to do it better, faster and cheaper can be inspiring activities. I still see the passion in the faces of managers and production operators in many of the plants I visit.

There is a somewhat dated best selling publication from 2001 titled “Good to Great” by Jim Collins (Harper Collins Publishers) that still holds some excellent core concepts about passion and success. Jim describes 3 intersecting circles to help determine your business and personal passions that take you from good to great. He names it the Hedgehog Concept and describes the 3 concept circles towards a personal analogy as:

1. You are doing work that you have a genetic or God given talent and perhaps you can become best in the world in applying that talent (I feel I was born to be doing this)

2. You are well paid for what you do (I get paid to do this, am I dreaming?)

3. You are doing work that you are passionate about and absolutely love to do, enjoying the actual process for its own sake (I look forward to getting up and throwing myself into my daily work and really believe in what I am doing)

Jim indicates that if you can drive toward the intersection of these 3 concept circles and translate that intersection into a simple crystalline concept that guided your life choices then you’d have a Hedgehog concept for yourself. But you need all three concept circles to be successful.

So, maybe by evaluating ourselves personally or in our business we can see how we stand within this Hedgehog concept. Focus of our personal talent and passion will drive our business success. It may be in manufacturing or it may be in music.