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Brodie Merrill - Growing Pains, Earning A Spot, And Being The First Person In The Drill
Today on the show I talked to Georgetown alum, and PLL star, Brodie Merrill.
Brodie and I got a chance to talk about overcoming growing pains, earning a spot after being cut, being the first person in the drill, and much more.
Keegan Wilkinson - Taking The Hard Road, Learning To Communicate, & Authenticity
Today on the show we have the head coach of Marist Men’s Lacrosse, Keegan Wilkinson. Coach and I got a chance to talk about a lot of things like taking the hard road, learning to communicate, authenticity, and much more.
Gerry Byrne - Commit, Think, and Execute
Today on the show we have the new Head Coach of Harvard Men’s Lacrosse, Gerry Byrne.
Coach Byrne and I got a chance to talk about things like commitment, dealing with expectations, positive coaching, committing intellectually and emotionally, and much more.
Greg Raymond - Learning Patience, Asking For Help, And The Concept Of Family
Today on the show we have the Head Coach of Hobart Lacrosse, Greg Raymond.
Coach Raymond and I got a chance to talk about a lot of things like learning patience as a young coach, asking for help, the concept of family, passion for the game, his first conversation with Coach Tierney, and much more.
Peter Burke - Trust, Checking Your Ego, And Others Before Self
Today on the show we have the Head Coach of Holy Cross Men’s Lacrosse, Peter Burke.
Coach Burke and I got a chance to talk about a lot of things like the people you can trust, checking your ego at the door, the concept of others before yourself, how to teach integrity and much more.
Joe Amplo - The New Head Coach Of Navy Lacrosse
Today on the show I talk to the new Head Coach of Navy Men’s Lacrosse, Joe Amplo.
We got a chance to talk about things like the opportunity to impact a new class of leaders, finding consistent themes within the program, being OK with mistakes, defining their team values, and much more.
Tom Gravante - Pay Attention To Detail, Follow Directions, Put In Committed Effort
Today on the show we have the head coach of Mount Saint Mary’s Lacrosse, Tome Gravante.
Coach Gravante has been the head coach at Mount Saint Mary’s since 1995. We got a chance to talk about things like paying attention to detail, learning to follow directions, putting in a committed effort, and much more.
Mike Murphy - Commitment, Integrity, And Discipline
Today on the show we have the head coach of Upenn Men’s Lacrosse, Mike Murphy.
Coach Murphy and I talked about the values of Upenn Lacrosse, Commitment, Integrity, Discipline, and much more.
Lars Tiffany - Final Four Weekend, Being In The Moment, & Team Families
Today on the show we have the Head Coach of UVa Men’s Lacrosse, the 2019 NCAA National Champion, Lars Tiffany.
Coach and I got a chance to talk about a lot of things like final four weekend, being in the moment, getting honest feedback from his players, the concept of team families and much more.
Notes: The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution
Successful Strategy Execution Requires
Clarifying who has decision rights
Who owns each decision?
Who should provide input?
Ensuring Information Flows Where it is Needed
Ensuring that there is cross-unit collaboration.
Only after the above is properly communicated and organized, leaders can begin to think about reorganizing org. structure and/or realigning incentives.
Top 5 Fundamental Traits of Organizational Effectiveness:
Everyone has a good idea of the decisions and actions for which he or she is accountable for.
Important information about the competitive environment gets to headquarters quickly.
Once made, decisions are rarely second-guessed.
Information flows freely across organizational boundaries.
Field and line employees usually have the information they need to understand the bottom line impacts of their day-to-day choices.
Notes: Building Your Company’s Vision
Companies that have enduring success have core values and a core purpose that endure even as strategies change frequently to meet the changing environment.
Truly great companies understand the difference between what should never change, and what should be open to change.
Vision provides guidance about what should be core, and what future to move towards.
2 key components to vision:
Core ideology
What we stand for and why we exist?
Envisioned Future
What we aspire to become?
Core Ideology
Great companies understand that it’s more important to know who you are than where you are going.
Where you’re going will change as the world changes around you.
Enduring Companies have clear plans for how they will advance into an uncertain future. But they are equally clear about how they will remain steadfast about their values.
An effective Vision must embody the core ideology of the firm
Core Values: Guiding Principles
Fundamental Reason for Existence
example: Disney’s reason for existence is to make people happy.
An envisioned future has two elements:
Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals (BHAGs)
They take 10 to 30 years of work to complete.
Vivid descriptions.
A picture of what the company would like to achieve. make it tangible and real.
Core Values
Timeless guiding principles that have intrinsic value.
Companies only have a few core values. Usually between 3 and 5.
Values must stand the test of time.
Ask yourself, if circumstances changed and we were penalized for holding this position would we still keep that value?
Articulating Vision
A company should not change its values in response to market changes. Rather it should change its market. Remain true to core values.
The secret is to work from the individual. People involved in articulating core values need to answer questions:
What core values do you personally bring to work?
What core values will you tell your children you bring to work and that you hope they will bring to work?
If you had enough money to retire would you still continue to live these core values even if one became a competitive disadvantage
If you were to start a new company tomorrow what core values would you bring to the company regardless of industry?
Core Purpose
The second part of core ideology. The companies reason for being.
An effective purpose reflects people idealistic motivations for doing the company’s work.
The purpose should last at least 100 years.
Not confused with specific goals.
3M defines its purpose as:
A perpetual quest to solve unsolved problems innovatively.
5 Why’s to get at purpose:
Start with a description:
We make X products or deliver X services.
Why is that important? Why? Why?
If you woke up tomorrow with enough money in the bank would you keep working here?
Discovering Core Ideology
You don’t create core ideology you discover it.
What core values do we truly and passionately hold
Role of ideology is to guide and inspire not to differentiate.
Two companies can have the exact same core values or purpose.
Once you’ve discovered it you should feel free to change absolutely anything that is not part of it.
Envisioned Future
10 - 30-year audacious goal
A vivid description of what it will be like to achieve that goal.
Henry Ford “I will build an automobile for the multitude. Anyone with a good job can get it."
Vision Level BHAG
A true BHAG is clear and compelling.
Serves as a focal point of effort.
Acts as a catalyst for team spirit.
Example: NASA Moon shot. A Man of the moon by the end of the 60′s.
A BHAG should not be a sure bet.
50 - 70% chance of success.
Notes: Five Forces of Competition
The Five Forces of Industry Competition
Industry Rivals
Customers
Suppliers
Potential Entrants
Substitute Products
If these forces are intense, almost no company earns an attractive return on investment. If forces are weak, many companies can become profitable in the industry.
Any strategist should check to make sure the industry structure is healthy by analyzing these five forces.
Understanding this structure is the key to strategic positioning.
How The Five Forces Can Shape Your Business
Customers can drive down prices by playing your business against a rival.
Suppliers can constrain your profits by increasing their prices. Especially if there are few alternatives.
New entrants can drive up the investment required for a business to stay in the game.
Substitute products can lure customers away.
Rivals can produce a more preferable product.
By analyzing all five competitive forces you gain a complete picture of what’s driving profits in your industry.
Position Your Company Where Forces are Weakest
Example: A heavy-truck manufacturer chose to focus on a customer group where the competitive forces were weakest: individual truck drivers who own their own truck.
Customers weren't pricing sensitive. They cared about quality since they owned their own trucks.
The heavy-truck brand had become seen as a status symbol in the industry. Owning one of their trucks was a sign of pride.
The brand developed luxury features for their customers.
Reshape Forces in Your Favor
Neutralize supplier power by standardizing specifications for parts so your company can switch more easily between suppliers.
To counter customer power, expand your offering so it’s harder for customers to leave you for a rival.
To stop price wars, invest more heavily in products that are differentiated significantly from competitors offerings.
To stop new entrants, elevate fixed costs of competing, for instance, by increasing R&D expenditures.
To limit substitutes, offer better value through wider product accessibility.
Example: Soft drink producers did this by offering vending machines.
Seven Major Barriers to Entry
1. Supply-side economies of scale.
These arise when companies that product at large volumes get lower costs of production per unit because they can spread fixed costs over more units, employ more efficient tech, or company better terms from suppliers.
2. Demand-side benefits of scale
Also known as network effects. When a customers willingness to pay increases with the number of buyers in the network.
3. Customer Switching Costs
Fixed costs a buyer must face if they switch products or services because they may have to alter product specs, retain employees, modify processes, etc.
4. Capital Requirements
The need to invest large financial resources in a business in order to compete may stop new entrants.
5. Incumbency Advantages independent of Size
Incumbents may have quality advantages not available to other rivals that stem from things like proprietary technology, preferential access to raw materials, established brand identities, etc.
6. Unequal Access to Distribution Channels
A new entrant in the food market must figure out how to displace other products from the supermarket shelf via price breaks, promotions, intense selling efforts.
7. Restrictive Government Policy
The government can limit or even foreclose on entrants through licensing requirements and restrictions. Think liquor, airlines.
The Power of Suppliers
Suppliers capture more value for themselves by charge higher prices, limiting quality, or shifting costs to industry participants.
A supplier group is powerful if:
It’s more concentrated than the industry it sells to.
Microsoft in operating systems coupled with the fragmentation of PC assemblers.
The supplier does not depend heavily on the industry for revenue.
Industry participants face switching costs when changing suppliers.
Suppliers offer products that are differentiated.
There are no substitutes for what the supplier provides.
Suppliers can credibly move forward into the market. They can enter if producers are making more money than themselves.
Industry Analysis in Practice
Good analysis looks rigorously at structural underminings of an industry.
For example, the time horizon. Are changes, cyclical or temporary.
3-5 years is a good time horizon. though it may be more in different industries.
The point is to understand the underpinnings of competition and the root of profitability.
The strength of competitive forces effects price, costs, the investment required to compete. Thus, forces are tied directly to income statements.
Good industry analysis doesn’t just list pluses and minuses. It sees the industry in overall systemic terms.
The Power of Buyers
Powerful customers can capture more value for themselves by driving down prices, demanding higher quality, and generally playing industry suppliers off each other.
A customer group has negotiating power if:
There are few buyers, or each buys purchases in large enough volume that a supplier gets a significant amount of business from one customer.
The industries products are standardized or undifferentiated.
Buys face few switching costs.
Buyers can integrate backward (start producing everything in house).
A buyers group is price sensitive if:
The product it purchases represents a significant fraction of its cost structure. Buyers are likely to shop around for the best price.
The buy group earns low profits, strapped for cash, or under pressure to trim purchasing costs.
Quality of buyers products or services is little affected by the industry’s product.
The industry’s product has little effect on the buyers other costs.
The Threat of Substitutes
A substitute does the same or similar function as an industry’s product by different means.
Video conferencing is a substitute for travel.
Plastic is a sub for aluminum.
When the threat of subs is high the industry profitability is low.
Subs place a ceiling on prices.
The threat of substitutes is high if:
It offers an attractive price-performance tradeoff.
ex: long distances telephone services have suffered from cheap internet-based calling.
The buyers cost of switching to a substitute is low.
Changes in other industries may change substitute threat in your current industry.
Improvement for plastic allowed a sub for steel and aluminum.
Rivalry Among Existing Competitors
Takes many forms including
price discounting
product innovations
advertising campaigns
service improvements.
The intensity of a rivalry is greatest if:
Competitors are numerous or roughly equal in power.
Industry growth is slow. Usually precipitates fights for power or market share.
Exit barriers are high.
This arises because of highly specialized assets
Devotion to a specific business
Rivals are highly committed to the business and want leadership.
Especially if they have goals that go beyond economic performance in a particular industry.
Firms can’t read each other’s signals well.
The rivalry is especially destructive to profitability if it gravitates solely to price because this transfers profitability directly onto the customer.
Price competition is most likely if:
Products or services are nearly identical.
Fixed costs are high and margins are low.
Capacity must be expanded in large increments to be efficient.
Think of long and recurring periods of overcapacity.
The product is perishable and must be moved off the shelf.
Factors Not Forces
Five competitive forces are important because it determines the industries long-run profitability and how much of it will be given away to rivals, customers, suppliers, new entrants, and substitutes.
Implications for Strategy
Understanding the forces that shape and industry is the starting point for developing a strategy.
Every company should know and the industry’s profitability and why it’s been changing over time.
The five forces reveal why industry profitability is what it is.
Where does the company stand versus buys, suppliers, entrants, rivals, and substitutes?
Allows you to better position the company to deal with current forces and anticipate shifts, or shaping forces.
Positioning the Company
Strategy can be viewed as building defenses against the competitive forces or finding a position in the industry where the forces are weakest.
Paccar (heavy-truck manufacturer) is an example. They knew their customers are less price sensitive and really care about quality and status.
Found a portion of an industry where the competitive forces are weaker and where it can avoid price rivalry.
Exploiting Industry Change
industry changes allow strategist to identify new opportunities in industries if they have a good understanding of the environment.
Think Apple with iTunes and iPod.
Major record labels have declined from 6 to 4 contrary to what people predicted (many record labels).
Shaping Industry Structure
A firm can lead its competitors toward new ways of competing.
Many participants may benefit, but innovator can benefit the most if competition shifts in the direction you need.
industry structure can be reshaped in two ways:
redividing profitability in favor of incumbents
starting point is to identify which force or forces are constraining industry profitability and address them. The goal is to reduce the share of profits that leak to suppliers, buyers, subs or entrants.
Expanding overall profit pool.
Defining the Relevant Industry
Many strategies fail by defining too broadly.
Boundaries of an industry consisting of two primary dimensions:
1. Scope of products or services
ex: is motor oil used in cars the same as the oil used in trucks?
2. Geographic Scope
Constrained by the state? Or national? International?
identify the participants and segments them into groups
Who are? (determine which are strong, weak and why?:
The buyers and buyer groups?
Suppliers and supplier groups?
Competitors?
Substitutes Entrants
Determine Overall Industry Structure and Test Analysis
Why is the level of profitability what it is?
Which are the controlling forces for profitability?
Is the industry analysis consistent with actual long-run profitability?
Are more profitable players better positioned in relation to the five forces?
Analyze recent and likely future changes in each force both positive and negative.
Aspects of an industry that might be changed by competitors, entrants, or your company.
Notes: What is Strategy?
Operational Effectiveness: Necessary but not Sufficient
A company can outperform rivals only if it can establish a difference it can preserve.
Activities are the basic units of competitive advantage. The overall advantage stems from all companies activities.
Operational Effectiveness
Is about performing certain activities better than other rivals.
Individual activities effectiveness can be easily copied.
Strategic Positioning
Performing different activities from rivals or performing similar activities in different ways.
Example: Ikea - Targets young furniture buyers who want style at a low cost. The activities it chooses are what makes the strategy work (no sales people, mass-produced furniture, self-service, etc).
Strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities.
Serving a few needs of many customers (ex: Jiffy Lube)
Serving broad needs of few customers (ex: Bessemer Trust targets high-wealth customers)
Serving the broad needs of many customers in a narrow market. (Carmike Cinemas operates only in cities with a population under 200,000)
Strategy requires that you make trade-offs in competing - choose what NOT to do.
Strategy involves creating “fit” among a company’s activities.
Fit drives both competitive advantage and sustainability: when activities mutually reinforce each other, competitors can’t easily imitate them.
A Sustainable Position Requires Trade-Offs
A valuable position will attract imitation by incumbents.
Strategic position is not sustainable unless there are tradeoffs with other positions.
An airline can choose to serve meals - adding cost and slowing turnaround time or choose not to. But it can’t do both.
ex: Neutrogena said no to fragments in their soap in favor of a focus on the medical market. “Dermatologist recommended”.
Trade-Offs arise for three reasons.
Brand Inconsistencies: Doing one thing will damage the image or rep of an existing brand.
The activities themselves: Ikea can’t make the easy switch to high-end furniture.
Internal Control: Companies simply can’t be all things to all people.
A Company’s Strategy Requires Fit/Focus
Activities must reinforce each other.
System fit leads to more sustainability.
Books Notes: The Effective Executive
Note: This blog post is part of my MBA Curriculum; from the book “The Effective Executive”
Effectiveness can be learned.
A person is an executive if they are in a position to materially effective the output or results of an organization.
Know where you time goes.
Focus on the end results of what you’re working on. How will this contribute to the output of the organization?
Build on strengths: Both your own strengths & the strengths of others. Don’t focus on weaknesses.
Focus on the few areas where superior performance will produce outstanding results.
Know Thy Time
In order to effectively manage your time you must understand where your time goes.
Tracking what you do hour by hour is the only way to understand where your time goes.
In order to be effective you must have large chunks of time for deep work. You can not be effective with small chunks of time.
Excessive meetings are ineffective. This is a symptom of disorganization.
What Can I Contribute?
Focus on what you can actually contribute. The end result. Don’t worry about effort or activity.
Must be concerned with the usability of your product, “your knowledge”. People outside and within the organization must be able to benefit from what you produce.
Ask “What is the most important contribution I can make to the organization?” This is the same as, “What knowledge do I need? What skill do I have to acquire?”
If you demand a lot of yourself, you will get a lot of yourself.
Focus on outside the organization. Focus on the product you’re producing and the end user. Understand reality.
Making Strength Productive
Focus on whether someone can perform. Hire for strength aligned with the job you’re hiring for.
Do not worry about perceived weakness as long as someone can perform the job you need them to do.
When hiring, don’t settle for the least misfit.
Any job that has had 3 unsuccessful people in the role must be redefined. It’s not the people, it’s the definition of the role.
Jobs must be well defined before hiring.
Focus on strengths and build upon them.
Build on your superiors strength. What do they do best? How can you amplify that?
First Things First
Focus on one task at a time. The most important task. Once done, reassess priorities to choose your next task.
Always have a buffer of time between tasks for the unexpected (things that will go wrong).
If something is not worth the time, cut it.
Abandon any activity before it starts to decline in value/output.
Abandoned the old entirely before starting with the new.
Success depends on your ability to go after opportunities rather than on fixing problems.
Elements of Decision Making
Decisions must be about opportunities of the future. Don’t dwell on the problems of the past.
Elements of a decision:
Is the problem new or generic? If it’s generic (something that you’ve seen before and will reoccur), solve with a rule or principle.
Set boundary conditions. What does the solution need to satisfy in order to be successful?
What is right? What will satisfy the specifications and boundary conditions?
Action to actually carry out the decision.
Feedback to monitor whether you’re going to reach your specification / boundary conditions.
Effective Decisions
A decision is choice between the alternatives.
A decision starts with a hypothesis/opinion and must be tested, measured and monitored.
Must understand what is expected to happen. What are we measuring?
Averages are misleading. Most issues are happening in one place. Paretos law: 80/20.
Good decision makers create organized disagreement to hear the alternatives; see the options. This helps you understand both sides.
If the positives outweigh the risk, go all the way.
Qualification
Note: This blog post is part of my MBA Curriculum; from the book “The Personal MBA”
Let’s do some quick math. If you’re paid $100,000 / year and you work 255 days a year, for 8 hours each day, you make approx. $49/hour. Would you invest an hour of your time on a prospect that will make you $100? What about 6 hours of your time for $300? What about 30 hours of your time for $1000? If you do the math, even though you make a small amount of money in the first scenario it’s the only time investment you should make. In the other examples you’re cash flow neutral at best. The best companies take the time to qualify their prospects after they’ve defined their ideal customers. This ensures they don’t waste their time, money, and resources.
Qualification is the process of determining whether you should invest your time and money into selling a prospect. Evaluating your prospects before they buy will minimize the chance of wasting your time.
Progressive insurance, for example, qualifies each prospect at their website with 3 series of 5 questions. They do this because they want to make sure you’re the type of customer they want to insure. Progressive’s not trying to maximize their customer base, they’re trying to find the right people to insure. In fact, if I wasn’t part of their ideal demographic they’d recommend I use one of their competitors.
Of course, qualifying isn’t alway necessary. Sometimes you just want to get prospects signed up and paying as quickly as possible. In these cases it doesn’t make sense to ask a lot of questions to qualify your prospects. The more questions you ask, the less likely they are to sign up. Qualification works for companies who have a sales process as a compliment to their marketing. Online marketing material could be used to gather information on prospects. Once marketing has done their job and identified a number of attractive prospects, they pass those prospects along to the sales team.
By qualifying prospects you’ll learn it’s actually wise to turn down potential customers. If it looks like they’re going to take up more time, money, and resources than they’re worth it’s best to turn them away. Qualifying prospects is the best way to be sure you’re investing your time, money, and resources wisely.
This is the first ever live interview for the GameChanger Lacrosse Podcast. A few weeks ago we had Tom Schreiber stop by the GameChanger office in downtown Manhattan. We invited some coaches to stop by to listen live, and we even opened it up to a live Q&A at the end.
This was Tom’s second time on the podcast. He’s arguably the best player in the world right now so he needs no introduction.
During this talk we touched on how lacrosse runs in his family, the best coaching advice he received throughout his career, and what his training routine looks like today.
This is a must listen for coaches and young players alike. Here’s my interview with Tom Schreiber.
The GameChanger Lacrosse Podcast is about talking to people who have dedicated their life to the game of lacrosse and learning about who they are, how they got to where they are today, and what they do to improve themselves and their teams. Be sure to follow us on twitter, @GCSports. And, if you’re a coach, a parent or you run a travel or club team, check out GameChanger Team Manager in the app store. Its the essential, all-in-one, scheduling and communication app for lacrosse coaches and parents. Unlike other team apps, GameChanger Team Manager is free, easy to use, and doesn’t serve ads. Learn more at GC.com/TeamManager
John Galloway is on his second season as the head coach of Jacksonville Men’s Lacrosse. At the time of this recording Jacksonville is current 4 - 4.
Coach Galloway was a goal tender at Syracuse University. He has a NCAA record of 59 wins. He was the first 2 time First Team All-American goalie in Syracuse history. He’s also the first goalie in NCAA history to win a national championship in his freshman and sophomore year.
In the MLL he was named Rookie of the year for the Rochester Rattlers and in 2014 he was the MLL Goalie of the Year. He’s an MLL All-Star and a member of the 2014 and 2018 US National Team.
He started off his coaching career at Providence University where he helped their goalie become the Big East goaltender of the year and All-Big East First team honors. That was the first time in program history that someone from Providence earned that honor.
In this convo we talk about things like how he’s trying to establish a strong culture at JU, how he prepares his team week in and week out, and much more. This is a great conversation for young coaches who are trying to build a strong culture and set the tone for their program. Here’s my interview with Coach Galloway.
The GameChanger Lacrosse Podcast is about talking to people who have dedicated their life to the game of lacrosse and learning about who they are, how they got to where they are today, and what they do to improve themselves and their teams. Be sure to follow us on twitter, @GCSports. And, if you’re a coach, a parent or you run a travel or club team, check out GameChanger Team Manager in the app store. Its the essential, all-in-one, scheduling and communication app for lacrosse coaches and parents. Unlike other team apps, GameChanger Team Manager is free, easy to use, and doesn’t serve ads. Learn more at GC.com/TeamManager