This or Abyss

Mental models may or may not be data driven. If they are tied strongly to some core beliefs inside the organization, they tend to promote strategic inflexibility and a culture of nonverification. They devalue alternative courses of action and raise perceptions of risk from deviating from the prescribed path. For example, when managers commit to market share–based strategies, they tend to devalue all strategic options that are unrelated to an increase in market share. The likelihood that they would give up share as a core metric of importance also goes down. Similarly, those who commit to a model advocating operational efficiency devalue alternatives that may otherwise be viable and beneficial but inconsistent with the principle of efficiency.

Similarly, other firms become closely tied to the principle of innovation and a collective belief that it is the key and only driver of long-term competitiveness and profitability. Of course, the principle of innovation also brings certain cohesiveness to a firm’s product strategy and may serve as a binding force among its employees. However, many firms that follow innovation as a mantra do not verify whether the strategy is actually as big a contributor to success as they think it is. The overarching mental model centered on innovation tends to build a culture of basing decisions on intuition rather than on verifying whether the individual and collective beliefs of the organization are true or not. The culture then closes the paths to alternative strategies, especially those that may be the polar opposite of those that the internal culture promotes. For example, the culture at innovation-driven firms does not promote imitation-driven strategies and a verification of whether innovation truly beats imitation as a product strategy.