Hardball Quotes

“There are many ways to win at hardball, and every winner has his own style of play. We hope that you will take from this hardball playbook whatever you can to better your own game. We wish you success as you work to create competitive advantage, shake up your industry, strengthen the economy, and make the business world a place where the game is played hard but true.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“Make all efforts fast, focused, and fundamental. Every project undertaken in a turnaround should deliver payback—demonstrable and quantifiable—in twelve to eighteen months. This is fast. Every chosen performance improvement project should be protected from the onslaught of “neighbor” projects that always move in next door and claim to be related. These projects must be banned. This is focus. And, as we’ve said, only those efforts that go to the heart of the matter should be considered and pursued. This is fundamental.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“Once you’ve entered the heart of the matter, however, how do you concentrate your energy and keep it focused on the heart-of-the-matter issues? Hardball leaders do it by thinking of themselves as being in a perpetual turnaround. Even if the company is already successful, or becomes so, they continue to try to make it better, to find new sources of competitive advantage, build a virtuous competitive cycle, answer new threats, serve new markets, or solve whatever new challenges arise.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“The only way to get the organization to focus on the heart of the matter is for the senior leader to define the issues, talk about them, and attack them first. Leaders who personally live in the heart of the matter have three traits in common: They live at the rock face. Living at the rock faces means being physically and personally connected to the market—to customers, consumers, competitors, and suppliers. Talk with your customers, “staple yourself to an order,” visit distributors, understand your competitors’ economics as well as, if not better than, they do themselves. You have to experience your customer’s experience for yourself.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“To play the game of hardball to its fullest requires a hardball state of mind. In this book, we have not focused on such matters as personal coaching, skills building, or self-improvement. But, as our stories show—and as we know very well from our experience with clients—playing hardball entails more than strategy. Hardball players possess a number of admirable characteristics. They have an intellectual toughness that enables them to face facts and see reality. They have an emotional awareness that means they know themselves, and their people, well. They are always dissatisfied with the status quo, no matter how fine things may seem, and they have the will to catalyze change. They’re tough, but they’re not bullies. They’re serious about their business, but they also have fun playing the game. They have such an intense passion for winning that it rubs off on others.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“To play the game of hardball to its fullest requires a hardball state of mind. In this book, we have not focused on such matters as personal coaching, skills building, or self-improvement. But, as our stories show—and as we know very well from our experience with clients—playing hardball entails more than strategy.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“Establish a pattern of rapid product innovation. Sell new products outside of Wal-Mart for as long as possible at as high a premium as possible and then sell through Wal-Mart when the products mature. But Wal-Mart is quick. The window of opportunity won’t be open very long. They will likely want to bring the new products inside before you’d like them to. If you resist, they may create a knock-off, as they did with Mainstays, which is positioned against Martha Stewart’s Everyday brand at Kmart.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“Wal-Mart continues to push into new categories with catastrophic consequences to traditional competitors. Its cost position is so strong that their competitors’ attempts to match it on “every day low prices” end in failure. As one of our colleagues observed, “The world has never known a company with such ambition, capability, and momentum.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“Replicate without starting the heartbeat. Many companies that find themselves stuck in the middle make an attempt at copying the market leader, but fail to understand the customer experience. Dunkin’ Donuts may fall into this trap in their effort to copy the Starbucks espresso-based coffee business by offering lattes and cappuccinos.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“The strategies we have outlined in this book are classics, but “classic” should not be interpreted to mean “static.” The game of hardball is dynamic and always evolving. New barriers to achieving competitive advantage emerge and new roadblocks to building decisive advantage are erected. There are issues that are so significant and complex (like the rising power of China) that they become chronic, and can never completely be removed from the managerial agenda.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“Seek outside advice and assistance. Even with a capable internal M&A capability, companies contemplating an acquisition can often benefit from the assistance of outside experts in a particular industry or business area, or from the counsel of an adviser who does not stand to directly gain from the acquisition. Such outside advisers should be used to increase the knowledge and skill of the acquirer, and provide a perspective on the acquisition that is free of traditional industry assumptions and unbiased by internal politics. Most important, the outside adviser should be able to help identify the sources of competitive advantage to be exploited by the merger or acquisition and the best path to obtaining that advantage. How many CEOs do their own brain surgery, close their own real estate deals, or manage their own divorces without the aid of outside advisers?”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“Hardball players apply focus, speed, and intensity to all stages of M&A. They are better at identifying the specific asset or capability needed to achieve competitive advantage and deciding whether it’s best to develop it internally or obtain it externally. They excel in identifying and assessing targets, calculating the maximum price to be paid, negotiating deals fast in a disciplined fashion (and walking away if a deal gets too pricey), and then integrating acquisitions quickly and efficiently in order to achieve the strategic objectives. They know what they want and then get it at a price that’s in line with the acquisition’s strategic value.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“Masonite International has a complicated genealogy. It had been a business unit of Seaway Multicorp, a family-held conglomerate in Canada, and was spun off as Premium Forest Products in a leveraged buyout in 1979. The company went public in 1986, at which time it changed its name to Premdor. It did not become known as Masonite International until 2001, when it acquired its largest supplier, Masonite, the manufacturer of wood-composite products. The Canadian door industry of the 1970s and 1980s, in which Premdor, as Masonite International was then known, was fragmented. Many small players, each offering a limited line of products, fought fiercely for business. Although small, they often had trouble fully utilizing the capacity of their factories. And, as a result of the U.S.-Canadian free trade agreement, the Canadian companies increasingly found themselves competing with U.S.-based companies.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“A competitor with a portfolio of operations around the world is in an advantaged positioned relative to a local competitor. He can take money made in one, secure locale, and invest it in an emerging market, and he can do so at a rate greater than the indigenous competitor might be able to do. Too bad for the indigenous competitor.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“To take care of Gail, Whirlpool introduced the Clean Top stove. The cooking surface is completely flat, with electric burners embedded in a glass panel, eliminating all the spatter and grease traps of the traditional designs.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“But AutoNation had its own problems. It tried to play hardball by copying the CarMax concept, but made the classic softball mistake of not replicating its heartbeat. It built big inventories like CarMax and copied the layout and look of the CarMax outlets. But it did not try or were unable to change the culture and break the compromises inherent in the traditional sales process. Getting an AutoNation salesman to quote against a no-haggle price was as easy as threatening to walk! In addition, AutoNation was burdened with the new car dealerships it had acquired at big premiums, and the combination of high costs, low revenues, and weak profits in the early stages of the rollout became increasingly difficult to explain to investors.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“The scope of CarMax’s business, coupled with its information system and management expertise, enables the company to make better purchasing decisions and create a fast-moving product mix. Used vehicle dealers buy most of their inventory at auctions hosted by dealer associations, leasing companies, and the manufacturers. The capability to make advantageous and winning bids is based on experience, up-to-date market information, scope of knowledge, and the deep pockets needed to make large purchases.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“CarMax breaks several compromises for the customer. The first outlet opened in Richmond, Virginia, in 1993, offering about 500 used vehicles of all makes. A used car dealer typically has about 30 vehicles for sale; a large new car dealer might have 130. CarMax outlets opened later were even bigger, with 1,000 to 1,500 vehicles on the lot. So, instead of driving hundreds of miles to inspect 30 Tauruses, the customer can go to a CarMax and look at 50 of them, side by side.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“Texas Instruments (TI) fell into the irrelevance trap in calculators and watches. By relentlessly building volume, driving down costs, and lowering prices, TI achieved leading market share in both products. Retail prices for watches and calculators plunged below $15, and TI dominated the volume channels, including supermarkets and discount stores. Casio, Sharp, and Seiko—all Japanese companies—followed TI’s lead in pursuing volume by slashing prices and designing costs out of the products and their manufacturing. But, as prices sank, the Japanese companies introduced new products with many more features than TI’s offerings. Prices were so low, consumers were willing to pay a few dollars extra for features such as solar power, more mathematical functions for calculators, and styling features for watches. Before long, TI’s relentless pursuit of higher volumes and lower costs became irrelevant to consumers, and the Japanese companies took over the categories. If you have not examined your costs, in detail, within the past five years—or if you believe your competitors have not—it is very likely that there exists, lurking somewhere in your cost structure, a major opportunity to improve your profits, weaken your competitor, and expand your influence. There are limits to cost-raising strategy. As important as price is to your customers, they care about other things as well, including product features, quality, time, and status. So, even as you pursue this hardball strategy with gusto, remember the mortal words of Dirty Harry: “A man’s got to know his limitations.”2”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“Whichever strategy you follow, you must also work to reduce your costs by redesigning products and processes. The combination of your increased volume, higher profits, and lower costs—along with your competitor’s rising costs—can create a powerful competitive advantage. If you can achieve the lowest manufacturing and service costs, and create greater cash flows than those of your competitors—so that you have more money to reinvest in your business—you may be able to attain decisive advantage.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“Federal-Mogul’s quest for increased profitability was just one aspect of a larger strategy: It wished to become the leading global player in its industry, not just the North American leader. Although their business with the U.S. automakers was strong, Federal-Mogul had no contracts with the Japanese manufacturers, nor did it have much of a presence in Europe. Gormley decided that the only way for Federal-Mogul to grow was for it to become the worldwide supplier of choice, with the lowest costs and highest quality.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“There was, however, a danger lurking in this strategy: Federal-Mogul’s own competitive instinct. It was very likely that Federal-Mogul could build its competitive advantage into decisive advantage and, conceivably, lure JPI so far down the rabbit hole that it could not escape. JPI was, after all, financially unstable. It might not realize what was happening to it—and take steps to change its strategy—before it came to the brink of disaster. Dennis Gormley knew that his team, conditioned by their long history of competing in a cutthroat industry with high fixed costs, had come to believe that there was nothing better than winning business, no matter how thin the margin. Gormley realized that now things had to be different; sometimes it would be better to lose a bid against JPI.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“The strategy that these Japanese companies employed so successfully in the 1980s can be applied in almost any industry and market, just as Federal-Mogul, an auto parts manufacturer, did to overcome a rival, JP Industries (JPI), in the early 1990s.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“Japanese manufacturers masterfully used a version of this strategy to attack and gain power in many industries in Western markets in the 1970s and 1980s.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“This can be done by taking actions that are likely to lure your competitor into a different business area where you also may both compete, but that is less important and profitable for you. One of the best ways to entice a competitor to retreat from your main area of interest into another area is to leverage your superior knowledge of the costs of your business activities. If you can lure your competitor to compete in an area that it believes (because of its inferior knowledge of its costs) is highly profitable for it, but, in fact, is not, you may be able to nudge it out of the area of your greatest profitability, and also cause its costs to go up, its margins to shrink, and its share to decline. You have, in effect, led your competitor to a business area that it convinces itself is the entrance to a goldmine but, is, in fact, a rabbit hole. This form of indirect attack is the most complex and subtle of all the hardball strategies, and requires a superior understanding of both your own and your competitors’ costs and pricing.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“It is difficult, if not impossible, to get people who believe in their work and respect their organizations to simply copy anyone’s ideas or mimic the practices of another company. They will join the effort, however, if they believe they can improve on the original idea and make it their own.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“The team discovered that the Honda dealers did not relegate service to second-rate status. Rather, they used it as a marketing tool. They mailed notifications to their customers, reminding them that their next service was due and encouraging them to have it done at a Honda dealership. The language suggested that a Honda automobile is a precision piece of machinery that should be maintained regularly and only by the Honda service experts who knew the cars best. One of the growth team members, whose wife drove a Honda, brought in a mailer she had received from her dealer. The headline warned, “Don’t let strangers under your hood.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“The growth team was further convinced that Honda was the best model to follow by another piece of data they discovered. After the first year, the rate of decline in customer loyalty was the same for Honda as it was for Ford. Theoretically, then, if Ford could crank up their initial loyalty rate close to Honda’s, they would keep higher levels of service business throughout the life of the relationship with the customer.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“In frustration, Ford’s senior leadership selected a group of talented executives, dubbed them the growth team, and charged them with finding ways to grow the service business, fast. The Ford team did what borrowers should always do first: their homework. They gathered information about the market, compared themselves to their competitors, sized the opportunity, identified successful practices, and considered strategies for achieving growth and building share.”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?

“But hardball players are not copycats. They are not plagiarists or knock-off artists. They don’t infringe on copyrights or steal patents. When they identify a good idea, they find a way to improve it. The founder of Kmart claimed that Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, “not only copied our concepts, he strengthened them. Sam took the ball and ran with it.”1”
― George Stalk Jr., Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win?