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... eyes of a retail storeowner and a pizza restaurant operator. Most business l....' (Sam Walton) 'What if I delivered pizzas to peoples’ houses or let t...

... in advance of, or in spite of, a due diligence study. For us ordinary folks, let's study tomorrow through the lens of mere mortals — not intimidate ourselves by benchmarking against legends about two of the world's greatest achievements. Few businesspeople would ever attempt to mirror a president or a world-class explorer. However, we should be quite comfortable staring into the eyes of a retail storeowner and a pizza restaurant operator. Most business leaders I know have read Good to Great. They're publicly confident in their leadership skills and the future of their companies. At first blush, they'd be offended by the suggestion that they seek a lesson in leadership and vision from Columbus or JFK. If you talk to these leaders in private or carefully view their organizations from the inside, you'd see very little new ... happening. Many might even tell you about the difficulty or risk involved in change. But suppose we use Dale Dauten's ideas on innovation and do it anyway. I'm guessing that Sam Walton in his Arkansas five and dime store and Tom Monaghan in his Michigan pizza place probably did just do it anyway. The results: WalMart/Sam's Club and Dominos. I'd bet that they said: What if I buy goods in greater volume, pass the savings onto my customers, and treat them in a friendly fashion? I bet I can do better than the other folks in this business. (Sam Walton) What if I delivered pizzas to peoples' houses or let them pick them up here on the way home from work? I bet they'd like that. (Tom Monaghan) My guess is that these guys ...