ILF Scholars Network Bulletins

Cain Cooke
Founder, LEKI Electric Motorcycles
Disruptive Innovation: Strategies for a Successful Enterprise
Harvard Business School, 2023

At 21, most people are just starting to find their footing. At 21, Cain Cooke was leading a boardroom full of real estate veterans – people who had been in the game longer than he’d been alive.

Back then, the fresh-faced boy from the southern suburbs stood in shiny shoes and a gold jacket at the Glenelg office of Century 21, ready to take charge as the new State Manager…or so he thought.

“I distinctly remember making the ascent to the boardroom and freezing on the stairs,” Cain recalls. “The realisation hit – I was about to walk into a room of people with 150 years of combined experience, following a seasoned State Manager who had all the answers,” he says.

It was a pivotal moment that shaped Cain’s entire approach to leadership. Rather than pretending to have the perfect answers, he started asking the perfect questions; a mindset that has become the cornerstone of his leadership philosophy.

“Even if I know the answer, very rarely will I give it to you directly. The answer to questions 20 years ago, five years ago, last year or last week changes so rapidly. If you hold onto the answer, not the discovery through the questions, you’ll never reach the best solution.”