How followers lead and leaders follow

Wisdom is not always about following wise men but in making wise men follow you; wisdom would have had a low shelf life otherwise, this way new wisdom is created.

Great leaders have followed others, but up to a point; they carved out a niche for themselves. They differentiated themselves and that is how they transformed themselves from a mere follower.

Think of Bill Gates and his first mentor Ed Roberts who was the father of PC. Paul and Bill got attracted to PC because of Ed, but Ed’s original PC would have been of little use if the software was not developed by the duo. That the software was the missing link to the success of the PC was only realized by Bill and Paul; Ed never influenced the duo to think this way, but played the role of an influencer to make them attracted to the potential of the personal computer and how it could transform human lives.

Bill Gates as a developer of software is one story, but the business acumen to carve out a very unique architecture that would later stand out the test of time for decades came from Bill’s unique business sense. Here we are talking of a wisdom that has transcended the boundaries that followers of existing ideas and principles get straddled by. Bill in this sphere derived more from Warren Buffet, but that was when he was already a savvy businessman. His intuitions in business were developed by himself, where he was the leader and follower both at the same time, finding for himself the best path forward.

Take Warren Buffet and he was influenced so much by Ben Graham. But Buffet moved beyond the basic principles of Graham and value investing; it is no small wonder that Warren never followed what others were doing and even if others followed him, he chose to gain. This was a unique approach that he carved out for himself, learning and sharpening his wisdom that took each failure at a time that must be improved upon.

Warren was always ahead of the curve, which by the way is more than value investing alone; it is about taking calls that others were far less informed to take. Thus Warren remains the best example of a follower who led other wise men.

Jack Ma is one other example of followership of existing ideas that got transformed into a new way of business for online retail- creating trust among the customers by creating an escrow account that held the money before the merchandise got actually received by the customers. This generated a feeling of trust that still is the main differentiating factor for Alibaba.

The trio of Brazilians famous now for 3G Capital, Jeorg Lemann, Hermann Telles & Sicupura never knew anything about the beer making business. They started a small brewery and kept on learning and copying others till they could carve out a difference in their business- the unique approach to frugality. Today with InBev & Anheuser Busch combine they are the biggest beer company in the world.

They did not stop at that, they acquired Heinz, that had acquired Kraft (which in turn had the Berger King brand); no Ansoff models taught in business schools would venture to suggest these acquisitions as related or unrelated diversifications. These days finding value in expensive acquisitions have become increasingly difficult as the upfront money that has to be paid to the existing shareholders of the acquired companies leave very little for the future share holders of the joint entity.

But the trio found value through frugality; if there is a way to do things in a leaner way, no one can do better than them. While following great companies, the trio mustered the art of copying the best things and putting it all together through a simple management system that is built on ownership.

One of the simple statements of these CEOs stand out, “If you want to build a great restaurant, it is not good enough to have good waiters; they must act like owners”. This remains their best distinguishing feature in running of their companies.

Today they are indeed followed by wise men.