‘Snowmobiling’ is a term created by Col. John Boyd, USAF to describe the process of pulling down a set of existing items, drivers, or perceptions, and putting them back together in an entirely different way, simply not seen by anyone else, just because it is different, and outside the expectations.
Existing views generate a confirmation bias that ensures that information that confirms those existing beliefs is used as confirmation that the current situation is all there is. Contrary information is either not seen, or dismissed as irrelevant, unreliable, or ‘fake’
The Snowmobile is the result of such a process of disrupting existing perceptions and barriers that made quick, convenient low-cost movement around snowfields a tough problem.
It is the result of breaking down the mechanics of a motor bike, a sled, a jet ski, and a tracked vehicle for rough terrain, and putting them back together in a different form that gives you mobility on the snow.
One of the great outcomes of Covid, which will change forever many of the pre-existing business models, is that is has become the catalyst for widespread Snowmobiling.
I live in Sydney’s inner west. There is Snowmobiling everywhere I look.
For example, the closure of restaurants and cafes was terminal for many, but increasingly, they started delivery via a number of means. Then, a few went a few steps further, breaking down the restaurant experience into its component parts, and putting them back together in a variety of ways.
You can now have your favourite restaurants deliver a pack with all the ingredients for a menu pre-cut, and ready for the pot, along with a USB stick with the specific cooking instructions for that recipe. You want some matched wine, easy. Others have one of the apprentices come to your home, and do all the cooking and service for you, providing everything bar the atmosphere of the restaurant. Then they clean up and take it all away.
Snowmobiling.
Are you doing it, or are you allowing the confirmation bias of the way it was dictate the manner in which you conduct your business?
One of the classic strategy questions is: “What business am I in?”
At a time like this as business models of all types are being not just disrupted, but thrown against the wall, and reassembled in entirely different ways, it is time to ask yourself the question again.
“What business am I in?”
Header photo courtesy DevilDucMike via Flikr
Often called ingenuity.
Colin, Yes, perhaps also creativity, lateral thinking, design thinking, and a few others. I am just taken with the metaphor of putting all these disparate parts together and coming up with something that solved a problem in an entirely new way: the snowmobile.