Farmer: When we are
talking about instinct, we are talking about something which cannot be
analyzed. So if we are talking about balance between instinct and analysis, its
ridiculous.
Nature is a great
strategist. When we need good strategy in this new era, then in some ways we can
change the model of nature and apply to business. We should be able to.
Strategy is the key for business. And may be nature is a good point to start with. Now we know
that the main spring of nature is instinct. So really, a class in strategy
should be a class in instinct.
Student: Can’t we second
instinct by analysis?
Farmer: You cant really
second your instinct by analysis. They are done by different ways. The
processing you will do in analysis comes no way close to the way you would do
in instinct. They go by very different rules. Often, many managers use a good consultant to
tell them things that they want to say to the board. You know how
they do this. They decide what they are going to do this. They get a consultant
who would tell the exact thing. Now they have paid for a smart guy who
is telling what they should be doing which they wanted to do anyway.
Student: Let’s say a manager
instinctively realizes that if he packages a product in a specific manner, it
would be far more profitable. Now he has to analyze his instinct and present it
to the production department to work it out so that processes could be designed
in such a way that in the end, it would come close to his instinct. In such a
situation, don’t you think analysis is required for the instinct to take shape?
Farmer: There will be a
time that analysis would come into the design of a product. The point is where.
What is that really makes the product amazing? Is it the part they are manufacturing? Is that the part that is amazing or this vision
of how the product should be that really causes the difference between that product
and any other product. Finally, there would be a nut and bolt involved. But
which is really the great part? Most probably it is this part where the
manager realizes instinctively, may be we should do it this way.And then, the mechanics of
the product takes over. I am asking you why do you need analysis? Why do you
need to learn more?
Student: Probably, it’s
the fear of failure which forces you to know more
Farmer: There is no
evidence that analysis has furthered your goals. If you look at it from a
rational point of view, there is no evidence that analysis has led to a better
world. It seems like that. Analysis has messed up the world to a large extent.
The part of the world that doesn’t analyze is actually far more healthier than
the part that analyzes.
If you take this
building where we are now( referring to the B-School campus where the students
are seated), there is no evidence that the large amount of analysis that went into
the construction of this building has made life better for those living in it.