The many dimensions of diversity

25th March 2018 |   Bob Apollo

If, as many successful scale-ups are, we are on a mission to challenge the status quo and to get our prospective customers to think differently about their critical business issues, we would be wise to ensure that we are accommodating diverse perspectives and experiences within our own organisations.

I’m not talking about the demographic dimensions of diversity – of age, sex, race, religion or the like – but about encouraging diversity in the way our teams think about the issues, challenges and opportunities that our organisation is facing both now and in the future.

The world in which we compete is changing too fast for organisations to embrace a post-Taylorist “One Best Way” approach that assumes that rigid thinking or processes are capable of delivering anything close to an optimal outcome.1

Starts with hiring

It starts (or ought to) with our hiring processes. In an increasingly dynamic world, hiring primarily on the basis of experience seems to be an increasingly ineffective strategy, as evidenced by the number of sales leaders who have come to regret hiring someone who appeared to be a superstar when working for a direct competitor, only to fall far below expectations in their new role.

Bob Appollo

Founder of UK-based Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners | + posts

Bob Apollo is the founder of UK-based Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners, the B2B sales effectiveness experts. Following a successful career spanning start-ups, scale-ups and corporates, Bob now spends his time as a coach and advisor to growth-phase technology-based businesses, equipping them to adopt the principles of Outcome-Centric Selling.