Blue Dots Partners

There’s a beginning to everything, and this post is the beginning of our Blue Dots blog. Welcome. 

When John Orcutt and I founded Blue Dots, this photo of a Patek Philippe watch became the metaphorical representation of our core belief. What you’re looking at here is a piece of precise engineering known as the ‘29-535 movement.’ Unless mistreated, this timepiece will work flawlessly for several decades.

You may ask yourselves, as John and I did: how can such a masterpiece continue to work and be accurate, even after ticking for over a billion seconds? The answer? Rigorous design and production — and a unique use of jewel bearings.

Indulge me here while I get a little timepiece-technical.

The design and precision that Patek Philippe  employs is truly remarkable. It is based on a unique silicium movement that maintains stability — despite environmental fluctuations — and it uses no lubrication. Recently the company launched what has to be their ultimate masterpiece — the 5175R Grandmaster Chime Watch. It is truly exceptional. A total of 100,000 hours of design work went into the timepiece, which is completely assembled by hand. The price? $2.6M.

Anyone interested in acquiring one must apply and justify their passion, deep knowledge and unconditional love for the brand. Of course, the prospective buyer must also meet Thierry Stern, the CEO of Patek Philippe in Geneva to substantiate their craving. Only seven of these timepieces have ever been produced, and Patek Philippe is holding onto one of them in the company’s private collection in Geneva.

One of the ways that the Patek Philippe can guarantee such a high level of precision — and robustness — is the timepiece’s extensive usage of jewel bearings, typically made of sapphire or rubies — which is unique in a world today where these components are usually synthetically manufactured. The jewel bearings guarantee a perfect vertical alignment of the gears in the timepiece. And their friction coefficient degrades very slowly over time, which explains why the watch can work for decades.

There are only a few companies that have this level of deep and abiding passion for their products and their mission. Apple is, of course, one of them. When I worked there, I used to think we offered insanely difficult products to design, refine and manufacture. But now, I know Patek Phillipe makes Apple products look easy. And if you want to know why I think that, just take a look at this video.

John and I were so inspired by the story of Patek Philippe’s timepieces that we chose to use this image, and the idea of the blue sapphire jewel bearing alignment, as the genesis of our company name: Blue Dots Partners.

We believe at a very fundamental level that, just as a Patek Philippe watch cannot work without alignment, a company can’t sustainably grow its revenue without alignment either.

What does alignment mean? It means matching delivery and expectations. And it means components working together in perfect precision, relative to one another.

At Blue Dots Partners, our unique A4 Methodology is all about prescribing both external alignment across four independent axes and internal alignment, and it lies at the heart of how we help companies succeed.

How familiar does this story appear to you: you’re sitting in a board meeting — or a meeting of senior executives — and the company CEO complains that the company has missed quarterly numbers. The head of Sales is called upon to give a reason. The head of Sales points to the head of Marketing, blaming their failure on a lack of good leads. The head of Marketing points to the head of Product, blaming their failure on the product not being a customer fit.

It happens. All the time. It’s de-moralizing. And it wastes time and resources.

Our A4 Methodology speaks precisely to this problem. It aims to align teams and functions, both externally and internally, and encourages those teams and functions to cooperate on a shared aligned goal. It works.

We compare it to solving a multi-variable equation in mathematics. One can separate the variables, and in so doing, offer an elegant, simple and magical solution to a complex problem.

So, again, welcome to Blue Dots. And please connect with us to learn more about how to align, focus and grow your business.

Aligning for Success™