-: The human brain uses failure
as a way to build new neural pathways.
So if you take the sense of biology
and move it into business,
it should tell companies that after failure
is a perfect time to learn and to grow.
(orchestral music)
Through our purpose work at BrightHouse,
we have learned that a bad time
in a company's history can be both a blessing and a curse.
A curse in that it can bring about pain,
but a blessing in that it offers an opportunity
to make change and to create new ways of working.
-: I think the natural response of a system when
it's stressed is to defend and to mitigate damage,
and of course that's entirely appropriate.
But a crisis isn't just a temporary thing.
A crisis normally changes the world
so there must be an element of recreation and rebirth.
-: That's right!
And this sense of reinvention often lies within the DNA
of great companies.
-: Well it's interesting, Kodak,
which of course isn't around anymore,
and Fujifilm were in the same business
at the same time facing the same challenge,
namely the birth of
and the rise of digital photography.
One succeeded, one didn't.
And the difference is on this creative dimension,
the embracing of new ways of doing things
and the investment in new pillars of growth
to iterate towards a better future.
-: Yes, they were able to find that reinvention
that lied within their DNA.
But over time, it can be hard to maintain the energy
to continue to pull it out of the system.
-: Yes, I think it's harder and harder
for a large company to maintain this capacity
for reinvention over time.
I think it's also hard
for successful companies to walk away
from the historical recipe for success
and embrace something untried.
And also it's especially hard to do that
during the crisis when one's natural instinct
is to look inwards and stick to the knitting.
(bright music)