In his classic book Accidental Empires, Robert X. Cringely wrote that if you think of a market as an invasion beach you can think of three kinds of employees : commandos, infantry, and police.
Commandos establish a beachhead,
Infantry execute on the business plan,
and Police monitor the organization once it scales.
Both invasion and market penetration involve strategy, tactics, supply lines, communication, alliances, and manpower.
Commandos are the first wave of troops establishing an organization before the competition is even aware that they exist
They work hard, fast, and cheap. Commandos do whatever it takes to make early progress turning creativity into a destructive act. A new company’s biggest advantage is speed – an aspect the commandos live for. They establish contact with potential customers and view the process as an adventure. Their work-products often have major failings as detail is beneath the notice of commando types. They have a low-level of professionalism, but at a young company, professionalism is often prohibitively expensive.
Commandos are critical to progress but get bored easily.
Infantry are the second-wave of troops and execute on the business plan
Delivering the product and ideally seeking profit, infantry take the beachhead established by the commandos and widen it into a big enough space to sustain the company indefinitely. Most people are infantry focusing on getting things done yet require an infrastructure of rules and procedures to do so.
While the commandos make success possible, it’s the infantry that makes success happen.
Police are the third wave and maintain order
More risk-averse than infantry, police see their job less as expanding the market than making sure it doesn’t fall apart. They want to fuel growth not by planning more invasions but by adding people and building economies and empires of scale. They work on just part of a product, viewing their work as a job rather than an adventure, and usually have no customer contact.
Police maintain a large organization well but hate change.
The danger lies in the transitions and interactions between various types of troops
Founders tend to be commandos, and they often can’t imagine running mature, “boring” companies. The best leaders tend to be second-wave infantry who know how to gather and motivate commandos while still relating to the police. Trying to pair commandos and police simply doesn’t work.
Infantry know enough to gather together a group of commandos and keep them inspired for the short time they are actually needed.
Commanders are often not trusted by infantry or police, though the commandos don’t even notice this fact, since by this time commandos are bored and already looking for the door.
Commandos and Infantry fight to win; police fight to not lose. Each worker-type is important to an organization though their usefulness evolves as a company develops.
- Commandos establish
- Infantry execute
- Police monitor
Pioneers, Settlers and Town Planners