Jedi Wisdom – May the Focus Be With You!

Submitted by Bob Herbold on April 13, 2012 - 9:52pm.

In Star Wars, Episode I, Qui-Gon said to Anakin:

“Always remember, your focus determines your reality.”

In business, what is important is getting things done. In pursuing that simply notion, too often we are not clear about the real goal, or even worse, we have several. Lots of things are going on and everyone complains about being busy but in the end, the status quo remains.

Strong leaders know how to focus; they make it vividly clear what the goal is and what final achievement of that goal looks like. One of my favorite stories in this area is about Canon. When Fugio Matarai was named CEO over a decade ago, Canon was a mess. Debt was over $7 billion and most of the ten or so product divisions were losing money, and there was no sense of direction.

Mitarai was the master of focus. He shut down six money losing divisions and reorganized the company into three divisions; printers, copiers, and cameras. Each was told their focus was to be number one in their industry, and then with each division he nailed down what the result of that focus would look like. For example, the camera division had this simple statement as their focus: Have no weaknesses versus comparable Sony and Nikon models and be superior on one or more important features.

Mitarai is still the CEO and today Canon is number one globally in printers, copiers and cameras. He is the epitome of Jedi focus! The lesson for all of us is clear. Decide on THE key priority (not two or four; ONE), and apply laser-like focus until it is accomplished!

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Jedi focus

By Chris Channer on April 15, 2012 - 8:48pm

Bob, like this post and the Canon example, of course you are right, focus is vital. I don't think focus is the whole story, I know some very focused leaders who have the ability to create a vision but just can't communicate that vision to others as clearly as they see it themselves.

When I have worked with these people in a coaching capacity I find that I have to extract their vision and thinking from them, they can't explain it in simple easy to understand terms and this is a huge barrier to success.

So focus and communication need to be developed together, if you can't share that vision it isn't going to happen.

@ChrisChanner1