The essential characteristics of a challenger mindset
Do you know what ‘robotic process automation’ is?
Nor did I until my son announced that he had a job in RPA. It represents the next ‘industrial revolution’. It uses a mix of machine learning and artificial intelligence tools to automate mundane processes like credit checks, notionally ‘freeing’ people to do more valuable things with their time (but perhaps ‘freeing’ them from their jobs). It is the sound of the baby steps that signal the inevitable march of the robots. So, they’re coming, but until Judgement Day I’m going to cling to the belief that there are a few things they cannot do.
“People build brands not processes…or robots.”
The concept of ‘challenger brands’ celebrates its 21st birthday this year. Something that is as true today as it was in 1999 is that ‘Being a challenger is a mindset, not a state of market’. Simply being smaller doesn’t make you a challenger. It’s about a team having ambitions that are bigger than their marketing resources, and challenging the codes of the category or the cultural context to create a criteria for choice that favours them, rather than the establishment.
Much of our work at eatbigfish over the years has focused on the modus operandi of challengers – how they approach strategy, positioning, innovation and how they go to market, but perhaps the real ghost in the machine of challenger success lies in other definitions of ‘mindset’. Notions of culture, leadership, and the personal qualities of challenger teams and individuals. It feels like now is the time to reach beyond how challengers operate and remind ourselves of who they are as people, and leaders. Tapping into these aspects of the challenger ‘mindset’ offers us valuable insights for how to thrive in this business unusual environment.
Across our 21 years of studying challengers there are many transferable lessons. We can learn from unique company cultures like South West Airlines in the first edition of Eating the Big Fish who continue to flourish today, to Zappos – ‘a service company that happens to sell shoes’ - who reward weirdness at work and customer service staff for the longest call. Once a little fish, now a global behemoth, Netflix puts a huge focus on culture, and in our interview with Monica Pool at KFC she calls out the importance of mindset.
And then there are brilliant challenger leaders we can learn from, from the ‘old school’ challengers – Jobs, Branson, Musk – to the next generation of leaders like Emily Weiss at Glossier, James Watt at BrewDog, Kris Hallenga of Coppafeel, Jennifer Fleiss and Jennifer Hyman at Rent-the-Runway, David Hieatt of Hiut Jeans. They offer us clues as to the essential traits of a challenger mindset.
“Now is the time to reach beyond how challengers operate and remind ourselves of who they are as people.”
When you work closely with these leaders or hear them talk about their journeys to success, you notice a number of commonalities.
These are people with a strong sense of self – able to draw on their passions and authenticity to bring great energy to what they do.
They’re ambitious and purposeful – with a strong sense of direction, concerned not only with what they do for work but why they do it.
They question things – not simply to agitate but to drive improvement and progress.
They’re good at inspiring others – bringing colleagues with them through the vision they articulate.
They find inventive ways to access additional resources – helping them achieve more from less.
And they sustain their tenacity with an optimistic outlook which helps them battle through setbacks, and rejection.
These challengers – people and business — inspire today’s workforce. It is these character traits that they need to demonstrate to thrive in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world to become leaders of the future.
While the Terminator may be coming, we still have time to develop our challenger mindset – and with the pace of change only accelerating, it has never been more vital that we do.
