The pyramid of problem solving and decision making
At the top of a pyramid lies a vision. A dream for the future in which the founder deeply believes in and want to make it a reality. From this vision, there are fundamental core principles and values and are inseparable from the vision. These fundamental core principles are crucial in priming our attitude in moving towards the vision and may be an integral part of the vision itself.
Based on these core principles, we then choose the constraints we want to apply on ourself. It is through these constraints which our unique flavour of innovation occurs.
Being unique in our choice of constraints naturally give rise to the uniqueness of the solutions that we come up with. And this enables us to build a product that best serves the customers in a way to fulfils the original vision.
There is a beautiful wholesomeness to this, with the key understanding that everything leads back to the vision. Everything leads back to the dream that we want to make a reality, and sometimes, even if we are not sure what the right decision is, it we continue to be relentless in following our dreams, the process of trickling down from vision -> values -> constraints -> solutions -> product will happen naturally.
A key example is from Aravind Eye hospitals.
- Vision: Eliminate needless blindness for all
- Values: Dignity, Self-sufficiency, Efficiency
- Constraints: Must be a profitable business (economic freedom to scale and help more people), must be high quality (to properly solve needless blindness), must be low cost (so everyone can afford), must be high volume (so everyone can access)
- Solutions: Assembly-line system, frugality in each step, vertical integration of lenses, tiered pricing model
- Product: World-class healthcare at Aravind eye hospitals, Aurolab lenses