While surfing a random* blog, I came across a quotation that captures exactly what I want Sun to be. Jonathan, are you listening?
But there’s no reason why you can’t create a service organisation of people who all just “Get it.” Virgin do this brilliantly. I recently had to travel to Mumbai. I called Virgin and asked if they flew there. “No,” said the booking woman, “but God, we’d love to!”
In those few words you realise that this person (who can supposedly be replaced by a few lines of online shopping code) was actually party to the kind of decisions happen in Virgin boardrooms. Of course Mumbai fits their brand perfectly – a hip, glamorous town with the world’s biggest movie industry. She understood that as well as anybody on their board.
I’m not saying we should get all reactive, chase off in all directions and become defocussed. But there are many challenging and exciting problems out there, and we should WANT to try to solve them even if we pragmatically choose not to go there. Like the Elephant’s Child in Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, I want us to have “satiable curtiosity”.
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* Well, not exactly random. This is the blog of Brian Millar, the guy who created the brilliant Powerpoint Hamlet, as well as other masterpieces such as the ultimate Father’s Day card.