Even earlier than embarking on my turnaround of Jamba Juice, I used to be already a “future-back thinker” who knew the worth of dreaming massive. Utilizing this mindset I envision the tip level I’d like to achieve after which work my approach again from that future.
Placing this future-back pondering into observe, I’ve operated this technique at Nestlé Purina, then at Gillette, Safeway and Jamba Juice. The objective was all the time to obviously outline what methods would benefit the corporate, division, or perform. Whether or not you consider it as a basis, pillar, or enabler, tradition all the time ties again to technique. Let’s take a look at Jamba Juice for instance.
My imaginative and prescient—of Jamba as a number one wholesome way of life model with sturdy monetary development—didn’t align with the present state. Mates noticed a flagging firm, with a restricted menu that hadn’t tailored to seasonality, in the course of a monetary disaster, and stated “James, why would you’re taking that job?” But it surely was my future-back mindset that allowed me to design an progressive, cross-functional tradition and obtain my long-term imaginative and prescient.
At Jamba Juice, my staff additionally used artistic, out-of-the-box strategies to rigorously hone their desired future state. This included receiving collective enter from the management staff to create an illustrated plan, which they compiled right into a booklet. Artistic instruments like hiring a stay sketch or graphic recording artist (or enlisting an inventive member of your staff) might help unlock your pondering.
For Jamba Juice, this groundwork opened the chance for a tradition of creativity, innovation and cross-functional and cross-level collaboration. Because the staff was inspired to dream massive and commenced working collectively extra successfully, they have been in a position to create and execute in opposition to my iterative turnaround plan. The primary half, referred to as Mix 1.0, included decreasing prices, reinvigorating the franchise system, increasing the menu and leveraging shopper packaged items (CPG) licensing. The subsequent half, Mix 2.0: Strategic Turnaround, continued to refine Jamba’s CPG technique, started worldwide enlargement, and launched JambaGo, smaller format self-serve smoothie stations. By the tip of 2012, Jamba Juice broke even and turned a revenue for the primary time in six years. The belief of this long-term imaginative and prescient wouldn’t have been attainable with out intentional tradition design, and the tradition design was likewise formed by the technique. They work in lockstep.
At its core, a tradition transformation can also be a change of your corporation. Designing your tradition means designing your future enterprise outcomes. To transform your imaginative and prescient into a method, determine on three to 4 areas to spend money on and stroll again your milestones from there in two-to three-year increments, as with the iterative Mix plans at Jamba.
The longer term-back methodology will not be dissimilar to Amazon’s press launch methodology for product growth, which I’ve additionally used with my groups. With this method, product groups start by writing a mock press launch saying the long run product to the goal buyer. This helps them middle who they’re creating for all through the product growth course of. It is usually a fast intestine examine for the product’s viability. At Amazon, these press releases usually embody: the product’s title; the meant buyer; the issue the product solves; the advantages to the client; a quote from somebody on the firm explaining in an inspirational approach why they developed the product and what they hope it’ll do to your buyer; a name to motion telling the client find out how to reap the benefits of the product immediately; and an non-compulsory FAQ answering the enterprise or tactical questions on constructing the product.
To use this methodology to your tradition design, you may retool this define to look one thing like:
- The product’s title. Is there a phrase, set of phrases, or a phrase that describes your imaginative and prescient to your tradition?
- The meant buyer. The workers, suppliers, shoppers and different stakeholders affected by your tradition plan
- The issue the product solves. What gaps have you ever recognized in your tradition?
- The advantages to the client. How will your office and enterprise outcomes enhance?
- A quote from somebody on the firm explaining in an inspirational approach why you developed the product and what you hope it’ll do to your buyer. Contemplate together with a press release out of your CEO outlining why this transformation is necessary
- A name to motion telling the client find out how to reap the benefits of the product immediately. What can your workers do at present to participate within the transformation?
- Non-compulsory: FAQ answering the enterprise or tactical questions on constructing the product. What doubts or questions are you able to foresee?
After creating the press launch, the following steps that Amazon takes are evaluating the chance, discovering options and getting stakeholder approval and creating the backlog and assigning duties. These steps will look the identical in your tradition design course of, which after defining the fact and creating your motion plan will comply with the development of implementation, iteration, and bringing tradition to life with stakeholder buy-in.
These processes all the time require a long-term funding within the success of the venture with confidence in a imaginative and prescient, which could be realized with future-back pondering.
Reprinted by permission of Harvard Enterprise Evaluation Press. Excerpted from Tradition Design: Tips on how to Construct a Excessive-Performing, Resilient Group with Objective. Copyright 2025 James D. White and Krista White. All rights reserved.
