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Bold mission
Almost all great companies start as insurgents, with a bold mission to redefine their industry on behalf of underserved customers. A strong insurgent mission keeps you externally focused, helps you capture the discretionary energy of your people and demands a much higher ambition for the leadership team.
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Spikiness
Insurgent companies aren’t good at everything—they spike. They are exceptional at a couple of things and average at the rest. Competitiveness comes from sticking to what the company is great at and focusing resources ruthlessly on these few world-class capabilities.
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Limitless horizon
Companies with a limitless horizon are constantly pushing against the edges of business definition, redefining the markets in which they compete or moving beyond them. Focus brings leadership, and with leadership comes the ability to redefine industries.
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Relentless Experimentation
Companies that relentlessly experiment aim to continue to be the disruptor in their industry, rather than letting new insurgents disrupt them. They empower their employees to innovate and work with customers to devise new solutions, better service and better products.
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Frontline empowerment
Leaders empower the front line by obsessing about the key players in their organization who deliver the value to customers. They give these “heroes” the authority and resources they need to do what it takes to serve customers better.
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Customer advocacy
Companies with a high customer advocacy are constantly translating strategy and organizational decisions into frontline behaviors in order to serve customers better. The focus on the customer starts at the top but cascades immediately to the front line.
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Strong cash focus
Leaders with a Strong cash focus are obsessed with the money generated by the business, which demands that they constantly monitor its nanoeconomics. They constantly reallocate spending to areas where it will produce the greatest return, never allowing resources to be hoarded.
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Bias for action
Leaders with a bias for action welcome conflict—if quickly resolved—as a path to the best outcomes for the company and its customers. They won’t tolerate anyone using conflict as an excuse for inaction.
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Aversion to bureaucracy
As a company grows, systems, processes and procedures become increasingly necessary. But at insurgent companies, the employees who fight against institutional “ways of working” on behalf of the customer are seen as heroes, not troublemakers.
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