Competing for the Future
Very few teams can throw money at their immediate problems and organizational shortcomings like New York's Yankees can. After failing to make the playoffs for the first time in 13 years in 2008 (with a $207 million payroll—by far baseball's largest), they went out and signed free-agent first baseman Mark Teixeira, along with starting pitchers CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. These three men alone will make a combined $52,410,714 this year to play in the $1.5 billion bandbox called (New) Yankee Stadium. The Yankee organization spends this kind of money because, despite General Manager Brian Cashman's recent attempts to build up a decent farm system, the Yankees are expected to win now, this year, today, this inning. When they don't, their fans get finicky and the New York press becomes downright apocalyptic. There is no tomorrow in New York, only today.
Chances are, your business can't afford this kind of wild abandon. You're the hometown Milwaukee Brewers (this is meant as a great compliment). And, though you want to be successful now, there's always next year to hope for and always tomorrow to consider. Instead of throwing money at the best talent in the world every year, you have to build up what Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad call "core competencies" and look toward the future. And, Hamel and Prahalad's Competing for the Future is just the book to help.
"... [S]eeing the future may be more about having a wide-angle lens than a crystal ball."
The Tampa Bay Rays built a pennant winning team in 2008, spending a mere $40 million to the Yankees $207 million. The Rays are off to a rough start this year, but their core is young, in place and projects well into the future. They signed Rookie of the Year third baseman Evan Longoria to a new contract before they needed to, giving both him and the organization some long-term stability and assuring he wouldn't be snatched out of their system by the mighty Yanks in a few years time. The Brewers, though they made a mid-season deal for the aforementioned CC Sabathia last year, have done the same, signing Ryan Braun to a long-term deal, and they didn't sell the farm to get Sabathia for the half a season they had him. With Sabathia's help, they made the playoffs for the first time since 1982 while keeping their core talent together, letting it develop as a team and learn how to win together. And, even though the Yankees snatched away Sabathia after the season, they themselves are off to as rough a start as the Rays. And, unlike the Rays, their core is aging (albeit superstars) and plagued (yes plagued—it's apocalyptic in New York) by injuries.
So, take a long, hard look at you team. What are your projections for its future? What's your strategy going forward? Sure, you may need to go out and acquire an aging veteran who's been in the game awhile to shore up your bullpen every so often to be competitive right now. But, to really succeed—to make success last—you need to develop a forward-thinking strategy, draft some young talent into your organization and then develop it around that strategy. You need to develop an organization that attracts talent; that makes people want to work hard for you—and not just because you're throwing money at them. You need put some people at the top of your order who can get on base at a decent clip, and you need some rain-making sluggers to bring them in. You certainly need a decent starting rotation and a competent bullpen to help clean things up when a game starts to get away from them.
It is the players on the field who play the game everyday, competing day in and day out and, scratching out wins where they can. But, it is management's role to look a few year's out, gauge the prevailing winds of competition, and compete for the future. Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad's Competing for the Future can help.
We have 25 copies available.
Sorry! This offer has expired. Check out today's offer instead.
