Pegs and holes.

Square pegs, round holes, round pegs, square holes, universal analogies for not fitting in, individualism, mentioned frequently in business in good and bad situations. Depending on the requirements of a job, the above analogy can provide a world of opportunities or a world of pain, for the employee and the employer. The square peg has always been the idiomatic expression of individuality and in the past, companies have always needed to carefully assess consequences, culturally and economic when hiring such individuals, especially in top management roles.

Companies often looked externally for CEOs with a proven track record of success and achievement but this did not always translate, especially if the ingrained culture of a company was detrimentally affected by the new arrival. Past examples abound, of CEOs coming into companies and trying to change things but finding, in the end, that culture trumps strategy every time. Robert Nardelli was a GE genius when he arrived at Home Depot in 2000, using his past experience and the Six Sigma management strategy, he replaced the entrepreneurial culture of the company and turned off the public which eventually saw him sacked in 2007, when he went on to lead Chrysler with similar bad experiences to be again ousted in 2009. Ten years ago, Booz Allen Hamilton studies found nearly 50% of CEOs hired from external companies failed, while 75% promoted from within succeeded. Like all business situations, there are always two sides and it behoves the company and the individual to consider ramifications of their actions in cases like the above.

Today there is a trend towards individualistic entrepreneurism that companies are looking to embrace and CEO or floor worker, it's likely everyone has felt like a square peg at one time or a other. Not fitting in, brings with it a raft of emotions and decisions to be made, decisions to change dramatically or even just a little to fit in or continue to search for a better fit elsewhere. A favourite square peg example comes from a common business phrase, "thinking outside the box" and the implications of those pegs shackled by legacy thinking. Xerox in 1970 invested research into the "Alto", the first personal computer with a full suite of icons, pages and a mouse all used via a graphical interface. They were years ahead of the competition but Xerox had issues with their square peg computer guys because the company made copiers, great copiers, fantastic copiers, in fact the world's best copiers so Xerox had difficulties seeing the future beyond the reems of paper stacked against the copy machines. The "Box" guys as they were known, could think outside of it but the rest of the company couldn't "think outside the box" and eventually saw their square pegs disperse to HP, Apple and Microsoft success, leaving Xerox to rue their lost opportunity.

If companies have the capacity to allow individuals to do what they are good at, while still being able to fit culturally, the strengths gained from this process will almost guarantee success. Allowing for this individuality requires forward thinking management, willing to accept business unusual versus the way things have always been done. The world's leading companies today see the advantage of the square peg and embrace the individual, providing them with comfortable and safe environments from which to flourish and succeed. You need look no further than the burgeoning IT sector, where outcasts and displaced specialists are courted for their individual flair, their unique insights and their esoteric thinking.

The success of companies from Apple, through Google, to Amazon and Zappos are directly attributable to the individuals who lead them and the individuals they hire. They understand a factory mindset will produce a widget but catching lightning in a bottle to produce the iPod, the Kindle and Google Maps requires differentiation, non conformity and and uniqueness that only a square peg can provide. Here's to the square pegs of the world, thank you for being different.