1. In the chapter from It's Not the Big that Eat the Small, It's the Fast that Eat the Slow, author Jason Jennings suggests guiding principles could be a more actionable substitute for formal strategic plans. Do you agree or not and why?

2. What is Bob Farrell's "Chief Guiding Principle" and incident in his business led him to adopt it?

3. How did his business change as a result?

ITS NOT THE BIG THATEAT THE SMALL... A QUICK HISTORY LESSON RULES FOR FAST DECISIONS Remember mission statements? A single-page document filled with more platitudes than you'd find in a prayer book spelling out the business's mission. No one remembered the darn things, it was business as usual, and the document didn't have the profound impact on the fortunes of the business its creators had hoped for. The mjssion statement exercise was quickly for- Then came the 1990 s and ... every company needed a vision. A new name.... the same old silly exercise. troops, the rect A new name. ... the same old silly exercise. Aemember your last business decision? Maybe it was adding a new menu item or product line. Perhaps it was about pressing, the go hutton on a new technology project or accepting a piece of busi- ness for fewer dollars than you'd hoped. In the process of wrestling with your need to make a fast deci- sion, did you reach for a list of guiding principles? Is that a smirk? The fastest decision makers in the world use a formal set of guiding principles to make all their decisions. The reason slow thinkers are unable to make quick decisions is that each represents a move into uncharted waters. . without ben- efit of a tide map. In order to understand the role that guiding prin- ciples play for the fastest decision makers, a history lesson is required. All the worker hees exchanged winks and knowing glances. The suits would have to be indulged one more time. In 99 percent n ITS NOT THE BIG THATEAT THE SMALL... m For a while, Schwab had their cake and ate it too, as they 2000, Schwab - We are willing to risk short-term revenue to do the right offered two scparate products: the new e.schwab online product dling one of fo where customers paid a flat $29.95 per trade and regular online accounts where customers were charged 20 percent less than if a 80 millit - Will it create and nurture a spirit of innovation? At Schwab, by the time a question has been framed and asked, the answer becomes evident simply by asking one question: Does what we're proposing to do fit the firm's guiding principles? Schwab, and Chuck Schwab, the firm's founder and chairperson, believed that online trading was going to become huge and a project code named Project Hawk was created. Because the firm owned the technology (remember: one of their guiding principles is to always own the technology), within months the technology group was ready to present a product to the brass. Schwab says that when he saw the demonstration of someone Schwab says that when he saw the demonstration of someone sophisticated mainframes, executing a trade, and e-mailing back a confirmation, he fell off his chair. Schwab and Pottruck didn'r require lengthy discussion and hand-wringing about when to introduce their new product. Two of their guiding principles-reinventing the busi- ness and constantly improving what they do-answered for them. Acting with lightning speed, the firm debuted e.schwab in May 1996 and all hell broke loose. The company signed up 25,000 cus- tomers within two weeks - their target for the full year. - Terroinate those people who consistently violate the guid- 2. 3. 4. Blowing out the bur should be a law! Anys bureaucracies should t tice, found guilty, and We've never foun 7. 8. that was able to make top of the organizatior slower the decisions w DON'T B.S. YOURSELF One of our mentors w the Bank of California during our early year? gle most important pi