My first book of the year is Doing What Matters: How to Get Results That Make a Difference - The Revolutionary Old-School Approach by Jim Kilts, of Gillette, Nabisco and other legendary CPG companies. I was first turned on to Kilts in a recent article in the AMA Marketing News magazine. His simple "3 focal points" for running an effective organization struck a chord with me an prompted my purchase of Doing What Matters.

Kilts says there are three focal points in turning around a business: "One, you work on growth and innovation. Two, you work on productivity and costs.  Three, you work on developing a high-performing organization,"Kilts says. "Sometimes you’re working on all three; sometimes you're working on one." Kilts is best known for turning around the troubled Gillette Co. from 2001 to 2005, and selling the company to Procter & Gamble in 2005 in an all-stock deal valued at $54 billion.
(From the Nov. issue of Marketing News)

I'm delighted and impressed with the book thus far, found Jim's story about "the red razor that could" to be 'inspirational' message for 2008 to challenge assumptions and the 'old truths' in your company and your industry.

The story is a chronicle of the Gillette Mach3 Turbo razor and it's impending competition from the new Schick Quattro. Gillette had released a new razor called the Mach 3 Cool Blue that had the breakthrough attribute of being blue. That's it. No other innovation necessary. Kilts suggested doing a red razor as another incremental innovation to boost awareness & market share and stave off the market share loss to the new Quattro. Conventional wisdom said that red is the color of blood and should never be used in a razor... The red razor (aka: Gillette Mach3 Turbo Champion Razor) was an old truth held by Gillette for no other reason than 'it's what they've always believed'....

Fast forward a year, and the 'little red razor' was Gillette's innovation that held the otherwise breakthrough (going from 3 blades to 4) Quattro to a meager 4% market share.

Next Action: Think about all of the things that you've been wanting to do with your company that you've held off on because of 'old truths' or long-held assumptions that you've never tested or proven. Growth can come from those forbidden areas that you, and your competitors, have never explored because of a nonsense mental block.