Do you want to listen to music or a podcast on your phone? What about your laptop, or tablet, or other devices?

For an all‐in‐one solution, turn to Spotify. Founded by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon in 2006, this Sweden‐based company has made audio accessible from anywhere. Consumers can opt for a free or paid subscription.¹ Currently, Spotify has nearly 350 million users; of those, about 155 million are premium users.²

How did this company take music, considered by many to be a basic necessity for thousands of years, and meet today's standards of connectivity? Certainly, the industry has come a long way, shifting from live music to record, from phonographs to tape cassettes and then compact discs, followed by iPods. All these innovations served a purpose. Yet Spotify leveraged technology to make it possible for anyone to access any song from anywhere.

Let's go behind the scenes of this aggressive, globally expanding firm. Clearly it fulfilled a desire among music enthusiasts, as shown how it has grown significantly during the last few years. From 2018 to 2021, the company increased in size from about 3,600 employees to more than 6,500.³

To keep up with this pace, it has recruited employees from various geographic areas with different cultural backgrounds.⁴ This is no small task. Its biggest challenge is to keep attracting the right people (occasionally bringing on hundreds of workers) while maintaining innovation, agility, and its unique culture, according to Katrina Berg, chief human resources officer at Spotify.⁵

To overcome this obstacle, and remain a leader, the company formed cross‐functional teams called squads, autonomous groups of between 6 and 12 people. They remain accountable to the firm and strive to keep the workforce both innovative and agile while staying committed to the company's core purpose.⁶

Squads are responsible for new products, including what will be built and who will make it happen.⁷ Collectively, several squads form one tribe, and each tribe is also autonomous.⁸ One of the duties of the tribe leader is to provide a suitable work environment for all squads.⁹ Simultaneously, tribe members with the same skills are grouped into a chapter. Anyone in a chapter can also join a guild, which is formed of individuals with a common interest.

To harmonize such a unique form within the organization, Spotify relies on technology to conduct virtual town hall meetings. Any team member of Spotify worldwide can get involved in these meetings.¹⁰ Technology also allows Spotify employees to work remotely from anywhere.¹¹ Clear guidelines support how Spotify tracks employee development to maintain a strong growth mindset.¹²

This organizational arrangement intends to avoid the silo phenomenon.¹³ It enables Spotify to strike that delicate balance between implementing structure and promoting creativity. It also aims to keep employees engaged, satisfied, well managed, and actively involved in innovation and growth.

Companies that want to follow suit will do well to harmonize mindsets, functions, and resources. In this chapter, we'll discuss strategies to carry out these objectives. We'll look to the omnihouse model to guide our discussion (see Figure 5.1).

We'll start by exploring how to converge different elements in the “entrepreneurship” cluster, followed by connecting those in the “professionalism” cluster. We'll study the relationship between creativity and innovation, and entrepreneurship and leadership (CI‐EL). We'll also look at the connections between productivity and improvement, and professionalism and management (PI‐PM). In Chapter 6, we'll delve into the integrations between marketing and finance, and technology and humanity.

Creativity and Innovation Mindset

Innovation and creativity are fundamental to all disciplines and educational activities, not just art. Innovation is related to novelties (ideas, methods, or products) that have value. It is the fruit of ideas, of producing, making something happen, or implementing something new. Innovation involves working hard to ensure that we can eventually realize good ideas. Creativity is an active process that needs to be involved in innovation. The creative process is at the heart of innovation.¹⁴

Creativity and innovation are two independent constructs that complement each other.¹⁵ Creativity alone does not always lead to innovation.¹⁶ Creativity requires ideas, insights, or solutions that solve problems, whereas innovation involves implementing these ideas to progress.¹⁷ In short, creativity is the root or source that determines innovation, and innovation is a concrete form or application of creativity.

A person who is rich in anticipatory and adaptive ideas is said to have a creative mindset. An individual with an innovative mindset is perceived as being able to provide solutions to customers' problems. Collectively, these capabilities enable a firm to be better positioned than its relevant competitors.

Entrepreneurship and Leadership Mindset

In general, we can say that an individual with an entrepreneurial mindset identifies and understands various problems, sees opportunities for those problems, takes calculated risks, and collaborates with multiple parties to find solutions to address those problems. These steps ultimately can create value for both customers and the company. Meanwhile, leadership is demonstrated when an individual builds and exerts influence on others based on their intellectual, emotional, and spiritual abilities.

We can see a number of examples of successful entrepreneurs in the world who demonstrate transformational leadership, which not only solves problems in their companies but also plays a role in solving the worldʼs most pressing problems. Instead of looking at what other people have done in the past to solve a problem, they are more interested in the universal truth behind it. Based on this, they come up with creative solutions.

From the older generation of entrepreneurs like Bill Gates or Ted Turner to the younger generation of entrepreneurs like Larry Page, Sergey Brin, or Adam DʼAngelo, they all challenge what humans can think and do. Their entrepreneurial and leadership skills have great potential to impact their organization and the world.

Productivity and Improvement Mindset

Productivity, in simple terms, is often associated with the comparison of input and output. We can achieve a higher productivity level using less input with greater output. This approach is especially evident in the manufacturing process, where we measure how many output units are produced from a specific input unit.

Although more complex, we can also use it in other management domains. We might measure how many sales are achieved (the output) compared to the headcount or entire company's employees (input). The greater the level of sales achieved with a smaller headcount, in general, the more productive a company is. Oftentimes productivity is directly proportional to a business's profitability.

We also frequently use the combination of efficiency and effectiveness to measure productivity. If the level of efficiency or effectiveness (or even both) decreases, the level of productivity will also decrease. Simply put, effectiveness is about doing the right things, and efficiency is doing things right. Thus, if we do something right in the right way, we start from the right point in achieving optimal productivity. Therefore, effectiveness and efficiency are two different things, but we cannot separate them if we discuss productivity.

Thus, to increase efficiency, we strive to produce more output with the same input. To be more effective, we focus on resources. We prioritize those that will provide the best results in line with the company's goals.

To achieve optimal productivity, the company must be both effective and efficient. A person with a productivity mindset can do various effective tasks, including using company resources and carrying out different value‐creation processes efficiently. Meanwhile, someone is said to have an improvement mindset if they focus on better results today over yesterday. They look to continue with even more optimal performance tomorrow.

Professionalism and Management Mindset

Professionalism is often associated with a certain standard (both written and unwritten).¹⁸ It can refer to attributes related to knowledge and competencies, along with characteristics such as integrity, honesty, and mutual respect. Professionalism frequently results from a lengthy formation process.¹⁹

Accountability―as part of professionalism―is demonstrated by following through on promises. It encompasses structure, well‐laid plans, and an avoidance of procrastination. When commitments are not kept, employee performance can dwindle. According to a study conducted by the LSE Department of Management, a world‐class center for research and education in business and management based in London, broken promises deplete employees' mental energy, resulting in unintentional harm to others.²⁰

Professionalism is vital for one's career in a company. Still, more than that, it will collectively form a strong reputation and trust from various parties in a business ecosystem. Professionalism will also have an impact on better overall company performance. Therefore, commitment to professionalism is a must, and professionalism must also refer to the values ​​or corporate culture.²¹

A study conducted in Australia underscores the importance of this professionalism to organizations. The paper emphasizes the impact of an individual's pursuit of professionalism on an organization's reputation. Not only that, but professionalism also affects the organization's strategic advantage.²²

Professionalism is a critical element in an organization because it clarifies what is generally accepted (and not) in a particular community. The foundation of this professionalism mindset leads to a harmonization that transcends throughout functions as a universal protocol. This protocol helps avoid unproductive conflicts and disputes in various interactions between individuals in the same organization and between people from two or more different organizations.

It is hard to separate professionalism from management in business organizations. Management cannot function as intended if no one with professionalism is behind it. According to a survey of 2,580 people in seven Australian hospitals, unprofessional behavior had a moderate or significant negative influence on patient care, the frequency of errors, or the quality of service. Nurses, nonclinical workers, and management and administrative staff were more likely than medical staff to report this influence.²³

In general, management covers several things that often begin with specific objectives and plans to achieve them. Therefore, planning is crucial in the management process. Strategies (and tactics) will reflect how to achieve the company's objectives. The strategy will have substantial repercussions on what resources should be available, what capabilities are needed, and what competencies the company should focus on to gain a competitive advantage.

The organization is a collection of people working together to achieve a predetermined goal. Companies realize that effective project management is critical to achieving better results. According to Bain & Company, by 2027 the majority of work will be project‐based. As a result, the need for project managers is expanding faster than the demand for qualified people in other professions. This increased emphasis on project managers reflects a greater awareness of the influence of good project management on a company's bottom line.²⁴

Management is also related to implementing predetermined plans or strategies to achieve the company's goals. Implementation or execution is often challenging because a dynamic environment can create unexpected new constraints that require adjustments to those well‐written plans and strategies. That's why people often say it is easier said than done.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) sponsored an Economist Intelligence Unit report titled “Why Good Strategies Fail: Lessons for the C‐suite,” looking at how C‐level executives participate in strategy execution. A survey of 587 senior executives worldwide was used to compile the study. Of the respondents, 61% admitted that their companies frequently struggle to bridge the gap between strategy formulation and day‐to‐day execution. Furthermore, respondents claim that just 56% of strategic initiatives at their companies have been successfully implemented in the previous three years.²⁵

In this implementation process, communication of direction and coordination plays a critical role in guaranteeing the effective and efficient use of all organizational resources and capabilities. Management in a company, for example, requires good coordination between each function, such as finance, marketing, human capital, operations, IT, and others. This coordination is crucial to ensure that a company's value‐creation process runs continuously without significant interruptions, even though they have to deal with the unpredictable dynamics of the business environment.

The final management element involves efforts to maintain standards. These are well understood and agreed on by all relevant people in an organization. It is impossible to carry out an objective evaluation without accurate and appropriate measurements.

Cargill Inc.―a Minneapolis‐based food producer and distributor―was having trouble motivating and engaging its 155,000 employees worldwide. When it debuted its “Everyday Performance Management” method in 2012, which aimed to include daily encouragement and control into on‐the‐job talks, it became a trendsetter. Cargill claims to have noticed measurable improvements after management began providing constructive, forward‐looking evaluation rather than retrospective.²⁶

Thus, a person is said to have a professional mindset if they can always build relevant competencies, have strong discipline, and uphold applicable ethics. Someone is said to apply a good management mindset if they always act appropriately and carefully in planning, organizing, implementing, and controlling processes in the company.

As we have seen, an integration of these elements, both in the entrepreneurship cluster and the professionalism cluster, can lead to optimal performance. Establishing connections and valuing the contributions of each mindset reduces the risk of conflict. It also increases cooperation, enables innovative ideas that benefit the company to be produced, and creates a synergy that propels the company forward.

Key Takeaways

• A creative mindset is able to generate ideas; an innovative spirit turns possibilities into tangible solutions that solve problems.
• Entrepreneurship enables companies to leverage the commercial value of innovations; leadership guides and influences the strategy, direction, and morale.
• A productivity‐focused individual seeks to increase effectiveness and efficiency; an improvement‐minded team member looks for ways to achieve better results than before.
• Professional individuals help make sure ethics are upheld; managers oversee processes and the implementation of protocols.
• Creating harmony among the employees' mindsets can build competitive advantages for companies, including an increase in value.