The headline of a campaign by Audemars Piguet, a luxury watchmaking took my attention. It struck me as a truth. But then again: In a world of disruptive change: is it really true?

The question is: Do you need the know your existing business to be able to change it?

To actually change it: Yes! You cannot go from A > B without knowing the A.

But typically, the more you know your business, the more you are conditioned to come up with the ‘existing answers’, so your definition of the outcome, your point B will be mediocre at best. It takes real visionary leadership, a lot of listening, open-mindedness and guts to define a truly disruptive B.

So to go from A to B in a successful way, don’t be afraid of blending your knowledgeable (but open-minded) experts with people from ‘the outside’ and some true leadership to make it a great cocktail.