Kelly Johnson, the renowned design chief at Lockheed Martin, led his team to build the first U.S. military jet in just 143 days — seven days ahead of schedule. This remarkable achievement exemplifies his motto for quality work: "Be quick, be quiet, be on time." Johnson's story, celebrated in numerous books on innovation, showcases his many accomplishments beyond this singular jet fighter.
As aviation aficionado, I find Johnson's principles deeply inspiring and have adapted them for my finance team. While we were not building jet fighters, you might imagine a fast-moving company as a jet fighter, with the finance team responsible for designing and operating its instrument cockpit. In the resilience thinking it implies that finance role is focused on making sure that organization understands and most importantly accepts reality. This understanding lays a foundation for building resilient, actionable plans.
We were quick in making sure that finance tools, reports, processes were timely adjusted, providing instruments that reflect requirements of our “jet fighter pilots” (in this case, decision-makers).
We were quiet, a principle often challenged by our naturally talkative team, including myself. However, “quiet” in the context of finance is something else. Imagine instrument cockpit, where each instrument tries to get your attention all the time. It would not work; you need relevant information to be highlighted at the right time to support decisions. It requires us to manage information overload by challenging relevance of information, applying a traffic light system to focus attention on the topics that require decisions, and speaking up only when it aids in making timely, informed decisions.
This is where on time comes to the stage. It is very easy to question, recommend, challenge using past information, after decisions have been made and outcomes are fixed. Finance truly adds value when it provides timely information that can influence decisions, not just evaluate past actions. Coming back to our pilot: the best information will not help if it is brought to his attention 1 second after a jet fighter crashed.
Kelly Johnson was one the most successful aviation innovators of all times. Yet, his motto is very simple and powerful driving his actions and creating the focus necessary for rapid, impactful innovations. To me, it represents a core of his purpose and value system, intuitive and clear without the need for lengthy explanations.
For those interested in learning more about Kelly Johnson, I recommend some resources below.
Picture; Instrument panel of F-86 Sabrejet Fighter (aeroantique.com)
Sources:
Johnson C.L. , Smith M. - More Than My Share of It All, 1989.
Diamandis P.H., Kotler S. - Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World (Exponential Technology Series) (English Edition), 2015.
Comments