Mastering Strategic Risk: A Framework for Leading and Transforming Organizations

Chapter 3 The Three Forces: Mastering Strategic Risk with Repetition, Balance, and Movement

Life marches to the cadence of a harmonious existence. This reality orders the flow of all living systems and influences their proper functioning. Performance in systems, both man-made and in nature, holds sway to three primary forces; movement, repetition, and balance. This phenomenon rules our world!

Anticipating Change: Toyota

Realizing the coming change in demographics of the U.S. population, in the late 1980s Toyota embarked on an ambitious journey to become the number one car seller to the Hispanic market. Today, as a result of its carefully orchestrated strategy, the car company is the most popular car brand among American Hispanics. If we look at the eye opening data, you can see why Toyota’s big bet paid off.

However, Toyota’s pursuit of this emerging market is more impressive when we consider that its pursuit of this burgeoning group occurred at a time when few companies saw the enormous opportunity ahead. The audacious bet Toyota made anticipated the sweeping change that would result in a major shift to our socioeconomic landscape. This shift has created an economic opportunity that companies today, across industries, are scrambling to seize. Early on, Toyota paid attention to the emerging Hispanic/Latino community’s buying potential. It paid careful attention to the data that showed strong population growth trends.

Between the years 2000 and 2009 the Hispanic community ...