The key for a company looking to take advantage of these kinds of opportunities is to pursue your goals with a sense of purpose, understanding that it may change significantly along the way.
“You don’t necessarily have to show exactly how you’re going to get from here to the entire vision step by step,” Gustafsson says. “But if you have the vision as the goal, pick the right direction and then help show people how to get to the first milestone, it probably makes the organization feel more comfortable that they can deal with the ambiguity that might otherwise be overwhelming.”
Within your planning, it’s often a good idea to compartmentalize and separate the new projects from the work that is not being changed.
“We have created separate organizations for some of those things that are outside of our traditional, main core business so they get a little more freedom and space,” he says. “They don’t get crushed under the weight of the core business.”
Zebra continues to expand its reach into different segments through acquisition. In December, the company acquired Hart Systems, a leading provider of cloud-based physical inventory management solutions.
That was followed by the purchase announced in April of Motorola Solutions’ enterprise business for $3.45 billion in an all-cash transaction. This deal is expected to close by the end of 2014.
“We pursue acquisitions where we feel the company will help us realize our strategy,” he says. “We’re not starting with, ‘This looks like a nice company. Let’s buy them and see if there is a fit.’ We look at the fit upfront. It’s more of a continuous process to think about what types of acquisitions would be a good fit for what we’re trying to do.”
Zebra is a long way from being done with finding new ways to change the way people live, work and play.
“To use a baseball analogy, we’re probably in the second inning,” Gustafsson says. “It’s still early in the game for us. We have made good progress in a lot of areas, but I would like to see more proof points that we really have been able to succeed in a lot of these areas before feeling that we’re really in a groove.”
Takeaways:
- Know what you want to do before you do it.
- Get excited about the opportunities that are before you.
- Find ways to streamline your projects.
