Gartner’s Magic Quadrant
Vision is fundamental to any organization. It defines the enduring purpose and intent that inspires, unites, and creates identity. Products, Operations and KPIs emanate from Vision. The combined effect of these strategic elements is ultimately judged in terms of market performance.
Gartner, a trusted, independent source of performance appraisal in technology, defines market position in terms of ‘ability to execute’ and ‘completeness of vision’. Their ‘Magic Quadrant’ (upper right) demands excelling at both.
Companies use Gartner’s feedback to focus their Mission and strategic initiatives for improving Products, Operations, and perhaps even Vision. Feedback is essential for identifying what’s needed to shift market position – as depicted by the green dotted lines in the diagram below:
The Magic Culture
What’s not obvious is the role a company’s culture plays in moving the needle. Company culture DIRECTLY impacts market performance. Sustained status in the ‘Magic Quadrant’ requires a ‘Magic Culture.’ Magic Cultures are where the ‘Victors’ are found - possessing high resilience and adaptability from maintaining well-aligned, synergistic connections throughout the organization and ecosystem. These connections allow Victors to anticipate how the future will unfold and seize opportunity. This is what allows them to stay on top.
On a comparative basis, cultures lacking in resilience or adaptability fall into one of the other three Culture States shown below:
Tribal cultures exhibit strong ties within clustered sub-organizations but are siloed; they suffer from a lack of connectivity between clusters that would enhance Vision, Products, Operations and the alignment between them. Their KPIs tend to be biased toward their own objectives. Pioneer cultures have the necessary internal and external ties for adapting the Vision in tune with ecosystem dynamics but lack the strength of ties needed for executing the Products and Operations that align to the new Vision. Mercenary cultures lack the kind of Vision that unites and inspires people. They are characteristically ‘transactional’ in nature – generally collections of small, piecemeal units of work.
Stirring the Magic
When culture is taken into consideration, the Strategic Framework shown in figure 2 becomes more robust, as depicted in Figure 4. The blue arrows depict the dynamics of organizational alignment that result in one of four ‘Culture States.’ The green arrows depict the recurrence of product development and operations that ultimately results in being identified in one of the Gartner Quadrants, when judged against market segment competitors.
Style and Mood, mostly unobserved, have a critical, catalytic effect on organizational alignment. Leadership teams armed with a vibrant Vision, a Style and Mood that resonate strongly - will create virtuous cycles that accelerate and cohere Product development and Operations. Conflicting Styles and Moods will have the opposite effect, spawning vicious cycles that produce friction, delay, and disengagement.
Ready for some magic?
Business Ingenuity’s Cultural Alignment survey is designed to help companies achieve or maintain Magic Quadrant status through establishing a ‘Victor’ Culture State. The analysis we provide will identify where alignment is missing for leveraging Gartner recommendations.
Explore further by taking this survey to get a measure of your current Culture State. Or simply get in touch; we’d be happy to explain all this in more detail.
Excellent advice and commentary. Thank you.