The Power of Operating State

Companies gravitate to one of four ‘Operating States,’ based on their degree of Resilience and Ingenuity. Resilience correlates with ability to reliably deliver products and services. Ingenuity reflects ability to pivot and initiate timely changes based on how the ecosystem that defines your market is changing. Both depend on having a robust vision – as we pointed out in our blog “It Starts and Ends with Vision”.

OPERATING STATE DEFINITIONS

Synergistic: organizations that strike the right balance between resilience and ingenuity. They tend to sustain superior performance because they are both stable and innovative, reliable yet adaptive. Their vision, strategy, and culture (VSC) are tightly aligned, creating an environment where teams operate with autonomy while remaining connected to a shared purpose.

Pluralistic: organizations that demonstrate high ingenuity but lack the resilience to sustain their innovations. They are dynamic and creative, often generating breakthrough ideas. However, without cohesion and robust systems, they risk fragility. Their ability to adapt to change relies on limited, localized fixes rather than on system-wide coordinated responses that build long-term resilience.

Insular: organizations exhibiting high resilience but low ingenuity. They are stable and reliable, often excelling in operational efficiency and consistency by prioritizing cohesion over autonomy. However, they are inward-focused and resistant to change, which restricts their ability to reach for new sources of innovation and value creation.

Tumultuous: organizations where resilience is too weak to absorb disruptions, and innovation efforts are unsustainable. Change initiatives are chaotic, reactive, and unstable, often competing for resources or undermining each other. Decision making is inconsistent, often focused on crisis management or fragmented across competing silos, leading to confusion and unpredictability.  

Take Amazon for example. They started out delivering books and did it so well they soon became a logistics company. With each new market they launched into, they aligned operations to deliver reliably and profitably. Witness how Whole Foods continues to deliver and adapt, now using AI to help with marketing, purchasing, and stocking decisions.

Aston Martin, on the other hand, had great success as an ‘elite car company’ but faltered badly when attempting to expand newfound success as an ‘elite brand.’ Women’s accessories, speed boats, and high-end condos – all required very different kinds of operations Aston Martin was ill equipped to manage. Fortunately, they retreated to their core market before their mistakes forced another round of bankruptcy.

What is your Operating State? What degree of resilience and ingenuity exists in your organization? Contact us to help you identify what is missing to get to a higher state.