Speed: How Leaders Accelerate Successful Execution

CHAPTER 15

BRINGING EXTERNAL FOCUS

We see our customers as invited guests toa party, and we are the hosts. It’s our jobevery day to make every important aspect ofthe customer experience a little bit better.

—JEFF BEZOS

In 1895 Auguste and Louis Lumière created a 50-second silent black-and-white film called Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station (Figure 15.1). The film shows one real-time shot of a train pulling straight into the station. The locomotive appears to come directly toward the center of the screen, then passes and stops at the station. To a modern-day viewer this film is not spectacular or unique in any way. However, an urban legend regarding the first showing of the film is an excellent example of external perspective. The story ...