The Hedgehog and the Fox

Question: I saw a fascinating show on PBS the other night. But I can't remember what it was called. The guy was talking about hedgehogs and foxes in business.

It was the story behind companies like Starbucks, how they became successful, and evolved into great cultural icons. Do you know which show I'm talking about? I'd love to know more about it.

Answer: Yes, I saw it to. The show was called "From Good to Great" or something like that.

The hedgehog and the fox, is actually an ancient Greek aphorism by Archilochus. It simply states, "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing."

It became popular through an essay by Isaiah Berlin, where he divided the world into two types of thinkers... hedgehogs and foxes, based upon the ancient parable.

The fox is sneaky, and always trying to scheme up new ways. Their world is complex, always on the move, and they never tend to focus on a single unifying theory.

The hedgehog is simple. They organize the world into a single unifying concept. The fox, for all his cunning, is defeated by the hedgehog's one defense.

According to Isaiah Berlin's essay, "There exists a great chasm between those, on one side, who relate everything to a single central vision... and, on the other side, those who pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory... The first kind of intellectual and artistic personality belongs to the hedgehogs, the second to the foxes."

In short, hedgehogs set goals, and they have systems by which they accomplish things. Foxes, tend to go off in all directions, without a methodology, goals, or systems to success.

When applied to a business, it means "Know Your Self" and your core competencies. Have a well defined culture. A vision. Know who you are. What you are about. And what you are trying to achieve. (Learn more about planning your way to success with this article on goal setting activities.)

The concept was widely popularized by Jim Collins' #1 best seller, "Good to Great." Why some companies make the leap... and others don't.

According to Jim, "Those who built the good-to-great companies were, to one degree or another, hedgehogs. They used their hedgehog nature, to drive toward what we came to call, a Hedgehog Concept, for their companies. Those who led the comparison companies, tended to be foxes, never gaining the clarifying advantage, of a Hedgehog Concept, being instead, scattered, diffused, and inconsistent."

It's fascinating stuff. But unfortunately, the theories in this work and others like Earl Nightingale's "The Strangest Secret" are often repackaged, retold, resold and touted by many direct marketers, as if they invented them.

My advice to is save thousands of dollars, and avoid second hand knowledge. Go straight to the source. Set up your own personal library, of business books and audio recordings.

Get the Good to Great audio, and rip it to your iPod. Then let your ears feast on this wisdom, while you drive, workout, or walk in the park. And while you're at it, mix in a few classics like Earl Nightingale's "Lead the Field" and Jim Rohn's "Art of Exceptional Living."

Successful people never get tired of learning. And being in audio, you can listen as many times as you like. Slide this wisdom into your brain, and it won't be long before your little hedgehog, is leading the field, with an exceptional life.