Getting more, or doing less?

Beyond the baseline

I’ve spent much of January absorbed in the Australian Open tennis, arguably the best of the Grand Slams. Over a million people attended in person, and over a billion watched from afar.

It feels like an incredible privilege to watch players who’ve spent thousands of hours ensuring they are capable of getting any ball back, at serving with almost unerring accuracy and, if you’re Aryna Sabalenka, smashing forehands at 150km/h.

But as much as the players and matches, it’s the strategy of the tournament that fascinates me.

Let's step away from the court for a moment and examine how one of sport's greatest events has maintained its competitive edge through strategic openness. The lessons here are invaluable for any business leader looking to expand their market presence.

• The Innovation Game: I kept wondering who was making the ‘out’ calls. It’s all precision electronics: the Australian Open was the first Grand Slam to go all-in across every court. It's a perfect example of how being open to technological change can simultaneously solve operational challenges and enhance user experience.

• Adapting to Your Environment: When faced with Melbourne's notorious 40°C+ summers, the AO didn't just endure – they innovated. Retractable roofs, misting stations, and a comprehensive heat policy weren't just solutions; they were transformations of potential weaknesses into unique features of the tournament experience.

• Strategic Timing and Positioning: The tournament's move to January back in the 1970s wasn't just a calendar shift – it was a strategic repositioning that transformed the AO into the year's first Grand Slam. Think about that: they turned their geographical challenge (being far from traditional tennis centres) into a unique marketing advantage.

• Market Evolution: The AO's decision to brand itself as the "Grand Slam of Asia-Pacific" rather than just Australia's tournament shows remarkable strategic foresight. By partnering with Chinese brands, they expand reach and relevance to a huge and growing audience of tennis fans.

• The Progressive Edge: The AO’s early adoption of equal prize money in 2001 wasn't just about fairness – it was a strategic move that positioned the tournament as progressive and forward-thinking, attracting top talent and broader audience appeal.

So the AO is not just ‘open’ to professional players, but it’s marking itself as open to the widest range of spectators, and to technical and business innovations that will enable it to prosper into the future.

Question: Where are your electronic line calls? Your retractable roofs? Your Asia-Pacific moments? What assumptions about your business model might be ready for a Grand Slam-style revolution?

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Incremental benefit

I was in Los Angeles (just before their terrible fires) where I got to try one of these.

I'm sitting in a car with no driver, part of Waymo's 100-strong fleet that's now open to the public. The steering wheel spookily moves by itself – and provides smooth, autonomous motion through the streets of LA.

After the initial novelty wore off, I found myself asking a question that every CEO should consider: "How is this actually better than the status quo?" After all, Uber already solved the urban transport problem pretty well, right?

This got me thinking about how we evaluate incremental benefits in our own businesses.

Let's look at Waymo's proposition:

• 300,000 rides completed

• 98% customer satisfaction

• 60-80% fewer crashes than human drivers

• $45 billion valuation

Here's what's fascinating: Waymo isn't winning on traditional metrics. It's not cheaper. It's not faster. But it's winning on consistency and safety – benefits that might seem incremental but add up to something significant.

Think about your worst Uber experience – the driver who couldn't find you, the one who drove too fast or too slowly, the jerky ride home. Waymo eliminates these variables entirely. It's the same experience, every single time.

This brings us to a crucial strategic question for every business leader: What's your incremental benefit? Not your revolutionary, market-destroying advantage, but your small, consistent edge?

Maybe it's:

• More reliable delivery times

• More consistent product quality

• Slightly better customer service

• Marginally lower error rates

Here's why this matters: In many mature markets, the war isn't won with dramatic innovations but with incremental improvements that compound over time. Waymo isn't trying to make transportation dramatically cheaper or faster – they're making it more consistent and safer, ride after ride.

But it got me thinking about incremental benefit: “How is this better than Uber?"

Question: What's your Waymo play? What small, consistent advantage are you building that might not look revolutionary today but could compound into significant advantage over time?

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The Busy Trap

"We have a strategy. Our executives are busy. But I'm concerned they're doing too much."

Sound familiar? These words from a client CEO perfectly capture a paradox many organizations face: being simultaneously strategic and overwhelmed.

Here's the thing – we've somehow convinced ourselves that more actions equal more progress. But let me share a counter-intuitive truth I've learned: Sometimes, the most strategic move is to do less.

It turns out that their four executives are leading 155 actions, against 33 initiatives, within 3 strategic themes. That’s roughly 40 actions each. That's not strategy – that's juggling with too many balls.

The real question isn't "How can we do all of this?" but rather "Which of these really move the needle?"

Here’s how I plan to approach it:

1. Focus on Impact, Not Volume

Here, everything might feel important, but not everything is equally important. Instead of reducing effort, I’ll sharpen their focus on high-impact actions by asking:

• Which 20% of actions will deliver 80% of your desired strategic impact?

• If you could only accomplish five key actions per executive this year, what would they be?

2. Shift from Activity-Based to Outcome-Based Measurement

Their current approach often tracks inputs (effort and tasks completed) rather than outcomes (real-world change). So, here I’ll ask:

• What are the 3–5 most critical outcomes you must see this year?

• For each initiative, what single measure would tell us if we’re succeeding?

3. Introduce a ‘Strategic Through-Line’

Executives are busy because they are probably treating their list of actions as independent tasks rather than a cohesive system. To cut through the noise, I’ll ask:

• Where do your efforts overlap, and what can be streamlined or consolidated?

We’ll spend a couple of half-days together in the next month and the way I see it my main value is to give them permission to do less but achieve more.

Question: If you stopped doing half of what’s on YOUR list, what would truly break?

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Let me know if there’s any topic, issue or angle you’d like to see me cover in future 5MSMs; I’m always thirsty for new ideas and avenues for exploration.

And, as always, the Algorithm Gods smile upon those newsletters that have more than a few ‘likes’, so if you’d click the heart, we’ll all do well out of it.

As you travel through your week, notice areas where half could be done without detracting from the outcome desired, and see you next Friday,

Andrew