Cars.com’s Transformation Experience
In 2010 and 2011, Clay Johnson (@clyjhnsn), Jacque Harper, Jim Sanders, John Manganaro, Jonathan Yenkin, Len Lagestee (@lagestee), Mahi Inampudi (@minampudi), and Nick Hummer partnered with Bill Swislow (@bswislow), Mitch Golub, Kayne Grau (@kaynegrau), Kevin Steele, Brian Neale, Nathan Spoonts, Sharon Knitter, Michael Page, and Joe Oliveri among others in an enterprise-scale business and technology transformation of Cars.com, who is affiliated with Classified Ventures.
The transformation focused on greater organizational health and business outcomes — improved performance through greater creativity & innovativeness with efficiency & effectiveness, improved human well-being through less dysfunction, and greater internal integration and external adaptation.
This is their story . . . shared in their own words . . . See here for more.
- Who is Cars.com?
- Why?
- The Journey/Approach (Overall, Phase-I, Phase-II, and Phase-III)
- The Journey: Energize
- The Journey: Experience
- The Journey: Embody
- Recommendations on Transformation
- General Q&A
This transformation experience pioneered many techniques captured in The Antifragility Edge: Antifragility in Practice.
Embracing a natural perspective (appreciating human nature), an essential perspective (evolving from a minimal and holistic viewpoint), and a real perspective (focusing on business results) towards transformation was foundational in leveraging the power of stress and discomfort to transform and confront unhealthy DNA.
It is worth noting that the organization achieved . . .
- “Communicating success . . . 18 months of work done in 4 weeks”
- “Turnover . . . [from] about 25 percent . . . [to] . . . under 5 percent”
- “The time it takes to develop new applications has fallen 42 percent”
An interview with the lead transformation coach can be found here.
All thoughts are welcome . . .
