Augustín stepped into his role with some very promising ideas. He saw that the old ways of the company were not working well, tried to figure out what was causing the issues, and then proposed solutions that would take the company in a different more profitable direction. The fundamental issue here however is that Augustín had only a series of assumptions and not facts on which to base his plan. He should have taken a different approach however. Initially, he should have written down everything he thought he knew about his customers and the current business model’s weaknesses. Then he should have proceeded to design experiments with his customers to see if his intuition was correct. Only with those results in hand and hypotheses confirmed should he have formulated plans. He should also have focused on getting to the goal through a series of small and flexible steps rather than one long term four year plan. That would have allowed him to revise the plan along the way. We have seen things like this happen at other companies. Facebook is a recent example. Its ad business model work wonders up to now but is now coming to an end. Mark has an idea of where Meta could go long term but has taken a long term gamble resting a lots of assumptions. It is a dangerous game to play.
If I were consulting for Augustín then I would recommend he keep his current vision. I think it is a powerful message for customers and could help him set the company apart from the competition. He should modify his approach however. First off he should go out and confirm his assumptions as mentioned previously. Once and if those are confirmed he can then proceed to the action plan. That plan should have small iterative steps which focus on adding maximum value to customers for minimum cost to the company. He should focus on positive user perception more than anything. If the clients fell respected and that the company cares for them then they will most likely be loyal customers over the years. He should also hedge his bets. Considering multiple alternatives can be a wise strategy. Augustín might be against online shopping but there is a good chance it is the way of the future. To ignore this aspect could be costly. Instead he should run experiments and building MVPs in that space as well. Looking at key metrics can help guide his decisions objectively as he reaches for his vision.
