A funny thing happened on the way to class one day. 

Preparing to teach an executive education course, I passed through the Kellogg School of Management’s conference center, pulling a prop to use for class. It was the classic Little Red Wagon designed and manufactured by the Radio Flyer Company. As I made my way through the halls, multiple people approached me and the Wagon, all of whom had big smiles on their faces. The clusters of Wagon fans consisted of members of the cleaning crew, faculty members, and members of the Northwestern University Board of Trustees who were having lunch at the conference center that day. 

Everyone Loves the Little Red Wagon

Individuals shared stories of their experiences with the Wagon. Some told stories of it being the first toy they purchased, for their kids, when they came to the United States. Others talked about their own childhoods and using the Wagon to haul essentials for their lemonade stands. Others talked about their kids pulling their friends and toys around the neighborhood.

For a few brief moments, this eclectic group of individuals engaged with me, and with each other, in a fascinating, unified way, induced by Radio Flyer’s most famous product. I knew I was experiencing a phenomenon, one that makes the story of Radio Flyer’s turnaround even more amazing. And it all hinges on the Way of Seeing.

The Power of Framing Questions

The story, in a nutshell, is that Radio Flyer, a third-generation family business, founded in 1917 by Antonio Pasin, had become so good at how they did their work of manufacturing metal objects on wheels. However, they had lost sight of what business they were really in and what value it created for the world and for their family.

The consequence? Robert and Paul Pasin, third generation heirs to the business heard the banker raising his voice to their dad, saying, “You have no cash! You have no cash!” The brothers had to decide if and how to stick with business to not only help it survive but thrive. 

They didn’t react by simply trying to pump up sales or reduce costs and stick with what they were already doing. They did address sales and costs, but not out of fearful reaction. Rather, they developed and executed strategies in thoughtful response to the answer to the Framing Question they asked: “What value are we really creating for our consumers, employees, and ourselves?”

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Uncovering Real Value with NEWCO™

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The Way of Seeing begins with Constructing Framing Questions to Open Possibilities. The Framing Question used to assess the company holistically and make changes, often emerges after asking a series of smaller questions and examining all aspects of the business with an open aperture.

The aperture gets opened wide to explore multiple possibilities in the company’s economy by using a proven tool and process to Make the NEWCO™ Explicit.  NEWCO™ stands for the Networked Economy of Working Capitals and Opportunities™. 

NEWCO Mapping™ accounts for things like revenue, costs, operational processes, sales, and other typical business elements. At the same time, it examines things like: how customers, owners and other players are defining value; components of the culture that are healthy and worthy of emphasis and other aspects of the culture that are unhealthy and need to change; relationships and trust with customers, consumers, employees, and others; and other elements that greatly impact (and are impacted by) the more typical business elements. Furthermore, the NEWCO Mapping™ process identifies links between these forms of capital, and it illuminates where there are unmet needs/demand that the company has the supply to meet, and where to find the capital of various forms to meet them. It provides the strategy and operational playbook to follow, even down to a surgical level.

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Connecting the Dots

The NEWCO Mapping™ process identifies links between these forms of capital and illuminates where there are unmet needs/demand that the company has the supply to meet, and where to find the capital of various forms to meet them. It provides the strategy and operational playbook to follow, even down to a surgical level.

Rediscovering the Core

In the case of Radio Flyer, the NEWCO™ revealed that the real value was not in the manufacturing system but in the brand of the famous Little Red Wagon, and its role as an American icon.

Engaging the Core

The Pasin brothers realized that everything the Little Red Wagon represented to American families for over a century, including their own family, was and is the Company’s Core foundation. Engaging the Core is a vital step in the Way of Seeing and serves as the foundation to keep coming back to when information is coming from many places, and forces are pulling the company and its leaders in different directions.

Staying on the Wagon

In the case of the Radio Flyer Company, re-identifying and committing to the Core of their Company was vital to everything else they did to turn the company around. In fact, the Pasins called their new strategy “Stay on the Wagon.”

Engaging Three Types of Leaders

The fourth act of the Way of Seeing is to Engage Three Types of Leaders. From over thirty years of doing this work of helping companies innovate and grow by using what they already have, I have found that there are always three types of leaders working together. Sometimes the types reside in one person, but usually they are distributed among formal and informal leaders.

Three Key Leadership Types

1. The Idea, Can-Do Person: This leader sees not only the idea but also its commercial value.
2. The Process-Driven, Methodical Leader: Sometimes skeptical, this leader is willing to take a leap of faith and is methodical in their approach.
3. The Broker and Networker: This leader excels at making connections between people, entities, ideas, and tasks.

Robert Pasin is a great, creative thinker with a positive attitude that is contagious. However, he doesn’t just generate ideas. He ties them to the business and how they will lead to value. Paul Pasin is a very thoughtful, systematic thinker who isn’t afraid to slow down the train to ask the important questions. And yet, when something needs to be operationalized, Paul gets it done and picks up apprentices and partners along the way.

Making Strategy Work in Everyday Actions

Radio Flyer also had other engineers who filled this role and who, for instance, could make any product idea into a tangible thing that worked. Robert, Paul, and others they engaged from their networks were and are great at keeping their fingers on the pulse of the external markets (e.g., how kids of today play and the implications for Radio Flyer) and the internal markets (e.g., how employees are engaged). Even the processes they designed for goal setting help connect the dots between strategy and everyday action.

Four Strategies for Thriving

The four strategies in overlapping order are:

1. Construct Framing Questions to Open Possibilities
2. Engage Your Core
3. Engage Three Types of Leaders
4. Make the NEWCO™ (Networked Economy of Working Capitals and Opportunities™) Explicit

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By using these strategies, companies can see their way clear to thrive like never before! 

Read the complete and fascinating story of Radio Flyer in my upcoming book The Power of Hidden Treasures.

Next up, let’s learn more about the Way of Weaving Method. Stay tuned.

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