The road to reinvention Book Summary continued from a few posts earlier

One of the reasons that Polaroid tumbled down to bankruptcy was that its leaders were resisting change especially after a historic success against rival Kodak. Instead of opening up new possibilities of innovation, the company seemed to narrow its tunnel vision. Each suggestion was stonewalled with the objection “We can’t do that. We can’t cannibalize our core business!” 

In their version of the world, survival is the only goal; forget about growing and thriving. Regardless of our industries and no matter how powerful our organizations may be, we can’t prevent disruption. Instead of sprinting towards cannibalization, it left the opportunity on the table to be seized by a newcomer Instagram that ironically was popular to make digital photos resemble like old polaroids. 

A good litmus test to ensure you H.O.S.E the competition by delivering a new product or service is  

1. High Value : Unless it solves a real problem in a meaningful way, forget about it. 

2. Original: Keep your offering uniquely so it always stands out 

3. Significant:  Go big by breaking the mold of the past and launching something that truly matters. 

4. Emotionally Charged: If your product evokes passion, customers will line up to buy. 

Contrast the example above with that of Quicken loans which at the peak of its success wanted to make a successful reinvention for a far bigger impact. And it did. Quicken loans grew the business from an  already record high 30 billion in loans to 70 billion in loans by applying to technology to serve customers better and no product innovation. 

Operational Innovation, coined by Michael Hammer, is the concept of overhauling the way a company does business in an effort to create a significant competitive advantage. In essence, it rewrites the rules of the game. To kick off operational change, do the following: 1) make the case for a change 2)set an audacious goal, 3) do a friction audit, 4) bypass who for what and 5) borrow ideas from other industries. 

Create vivid experiences says the author of this book. And he gives the example of running a karate studio by connecting the customers sense to with the details of the whole company. He calls it the Five Senses test. One thing he notes from how the customers feel, hear, see, taste or smell in your business is to keep it consistent because even if you do 99 % of things perfectly. It’s the 1 percent mismatch that people will most remember. 

Nick Morgan is a master storyteller who has written memorable and inspiring speeches for elected officials. There are five kinds of stories that can help you drive your audience to act. These are: 

Quests:  These begin with ordinary people in an ordinary situation and takes them to a goal which may not be logical but it is believable and that’s why its powerful 

A strange land: The heroes suddenly find themselves in a new landscape, one with an unknown terrain, language or rules. A master then helps us to not only survive but thrive. 

Love Stories : Two people fall in love, fall out and find love again. This is the right story for people to get along better. 

Rags to riches stories: These help us believe that ordinary people still have a chance to succeed in a society that seems stacked against us 

Revenge stories: These stories reassert the order that society all too often fails to provide 

By applying these basic patterns, you can use storytelling effectively. 

Stories are only good only when they are delivered. 

1. Keep it simple : Make your communications dead simple for anyone who reads it. 

2. Make it clear : Expunge vagueness, ambiguity and imprecision 

3. Speak to your audience, not yourself: Expunge vagueness, ambiguity and imprecision 

4. Keep it brief : “be bold, be brief, be gone” 

5. Make it memorable : People will remember stories and feelings far more than details and figures. 

6. Activate with action: Start with the end goal in mind, and make sure your communications all lead to the desired outcome. 

#codingexercise
Double 

GetProductNthEveryFifthPower (Double [] A, Double  p)

{

If ( A== null) return 0;

Return A.GetProductNthEveryFifthPower(p);

}




1 / 1

This is a continuation of the interview question and answers on binary trees:

1) Question: Given a binary tree, create its mirror image:

Solution:

Void Mirror (Node root)

{

 if root == null return;

 var temp = root.left;

 root.left = root.right;

 root.right = temp;

 Mirror (root.left);

 Mirror(root.right);

}

2) Determine if a binary tree is symmetrical?

Bool isSymmetrical(Node root)

{

 Node clone = MakeCopy(root);

 Mirror(clone);

 isSymmetrical(root, clone);

}

IsSymmetrical (Node root, Node mirror)

{

 if (root == NULL && mirror == NULL) return true;

 if (root == NULL || mirror == NULL) return false;

 if (root.data != mirror.data) return false;

 return IsSymmetrical(root.left, mirror.right) && IsSymmetrical(root.right, mirror.left);

}