Well, Billy Beane to be more exacting.
We watched Moneyball this week, a classic and true story.
If you’ve not seen it and you want to learn what zag strategy is all about, time to get hooked up on Netflix.
What’s zag strategy? Allow me to introduce you to Marty Neumeier- author of Zag (and Brand Gap, Scramble, Brand Flip and and and) – he’s a master brander that has worked with the big guns. He’s my mentor and incredible mind.
Zagging is about owning an entirely new position over competitors – actually, it’s about out manoeuvring your competitors for long term success. He says “when everyone zigs, you zag”.
Differentiation isn’t just enough, especially now, it’s about RADICAL differentiation.
Disruption. Challenger branding. Assumption reversal. Flipping things on their head.
Something truly new.
Innovative.
Leading.
Scary.
Not all brands operate in this area, most clients are not comfortable pushing too many boundaries, stepping into unknowns, challenging happy customers.
But it’s where the magic is and the revenue and long term gains.
So, back to Brad Pitt for a moment (no excuse needed here), and Moneyball – the true story of ex-baseball-player-turned-GM of Oakland Athletics team. Having had little success in the league, having a FRACTION of the budget of the big clubs, he turns to Peter Brand (Jonah Hill who plays a young economics grad from Yale) for help looking at data and stats of unknown players that, collectively, can out-perform the competition, at a far lower cost.
Did it work?
Not immediately.
They lost all their first games and were last in the league at the season mid point. It was an open invitation for all the naysayers who were calling them out on their flawed plan, disruptive behaviours and thinking.
“We don’t do that around here”-type of thought. We’ve all heard it.
Crucially, this also came from the manager who resisted and defied the new plan, not going all in with the strategy.
No wonder it wasn’t working.
Cut to a few underhand moves by Beane to get the strategy back on track and… Magic. They started winning.
Made the play offs.
Won 20 games straight.
Broke records.
They didn’t win the play offs BUT they changed the theory behind team selection and configurations in the game forever.
What did I learn from this?
1. That your weaknesses can turn into a strength.
They had 10% budget compared to most other clubs and worked smart within that to change their position. They turned to unorthodox methods from economics and data analysis to create advantage, insights that had not been drilled before and to truly leverage what they had available to them. You don’t always need to spend lots of money, you need to spend it in the right places.
2.That being the first is painful.
There’s a fabulous scene where it’s a room of male, pale, stale dudes all fixated with how they spot and select players, have done it that way for years, they are all so very experienced. And neglecting to realise it’s not working anymore. So much resistance, frustration and anger. The media were quick to jump on those early failures. Beane had moments of regret and uncertainty and ‘oh fuck, what are we doing’ moments. Growing pains.
3.That radical differentiation is extremely powerful.
Not only did this strategy turn things around (eventually) for the club, but it changed the whole industry forEVER. The last scenes show Beane rejecting $12.5m to go to Red Sox, one of the biggest clubs, in favour of seeing it through at Oakland. 2 years later, using Beane and Brand’s methods, Red Sox won the league.
4.That you need everyone onboard.
A good strategy is nothing if it’s not implemented right – with creativity, the right team and complete understanding from the whole team. Beane came up against this with the manager where he was unwilling to go all-in (played by the masterful Phillip Seymour Hoffman). It delayed their success and caused disconnect. Communicate – get people involved and aware if they are to carry it through with you.
Amazing real-life demonstration of zag strategy in action – all the pitfalls and pain that comes with it, and the eventual rewards.
So even if you’re not interested in strategy, Brad Pitt is always worth a watch.
Lauren 🌱
