HRpedia: 'True North'
Not magnetic north, not grid north, but…
True North, n.
In a week that includes Twelfth Night, you’ll doubtless have heard about the three wise men. Those guys knew a thing or two about following celestial bodies. And it turns out that’s exactly the sort of attitude you should have if you really want to succeed in business.
The Star of Bethlehem was the wise men’s bag, and if you follow The Plough to Polaris you’ll be heading True North, literally. But in the business sense, True North is more of a metaphorical destination, like Neverland or your New Year’s Resolutions.
A company’s True North is its orienting objective, around which all its decisions ought to revolve. (Sadly it’s not the addition of several gruff and incomprehensible Geordie ‘true northerners’ to improve workplace morale.) In other words, True North is just another way of saying: ‘You ought to have one main objective for simplicity’s sake, and everybody you work with ought to know about it too.’
Follow your True North, and you’ll be raking in the gold, frankincense and myrrh in no time at all, even if you don’t know what the hell those last two even are.
A clear True North can have a big impact on a company. Take two different examples: the Virgin Group and General Motors. Virgin is focused on pushing boundaries, while fulfilling perceived customer desires – hence their early adoption of TV screens on long-haul flights, their investment in Virgin Galactic and super-fast broadband.
In contrast, GM was directionless for many years, seen only as a vehicle for quarterly dividends – a policy that led them perilously close to bankruptcy. In the aftermath, they developed a much clearer mission statement and overall vision.
Longtime chairman of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher, may have articulated the power of a clear direction best:
I can teach you the secret to running this airline in thirty seconds. This is it: We are THE low-cost airline. Once you understand that fact, you can make any decision about this company’s future as well as I can.
Here’s an example. Tracy from Marketing comes into your office. She says her surveys indicate that the passengers might enjoy a light entrée on the Houston to Las Vegas flight. All we offer is peanuts, and she thinks a nice chicken Caesar salad would be popular. What do you say?
You say, ‘Tracy, will adding that chicken Caesar salad make us THE low-fare airline from Houston to Las Vegas? Because if it doesn’t help us become the unchallenged low-fare airline, we’re not serving any damn chicken salad.’
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