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Bill Belichick 101 for the Small Business Executive

 

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Many of you who are football fans or are from New England probably know who Bill Belichick is. For the rest of you, he is the head coach of the New England Patriots. Since he joined the organization in 2000, the Patriots have won three Superbowls.

As a student of business strategy, I find Belichick to be a fascinating character. His accomplishment of winning three Superbowls in 4 years is truly remarkable because the market (NFL – 32 teams) he competes in is "efficient" by design and rebalances itself to increase efficiency in clever ways. Every year, the teams that were top performers the prior year (i.e. The Patriots) are penalized by getting lower relative draft picks than the teams that performed less well. In addition, the NFL has a salary cap, so even if your team sells out every game, has massive endorsement deals, and humongous TV deals as a result of winning three Superbowls, there is a cap on spending that puts you at the same level as every other team.


I had a chance to listen to the Bill Belichick biography by David Halberstam over the weekend on cd and also happened to watch his interview on 60 minutes that I Tivo'd awhile back. Here are some of the highlights I pulled out of the two media relative to his management style and his competitive strategy formulation.
  1. Belichick does not believe in "tenured" jobs for his players. They are constantly evaluating and ranking all their players. Senior people are not "entitled" to their job -- it’s a complete meritocracy.
  1. Belichick believes that being better "organized" than the competition is the way to win.
  1. Belichick created a "modern, sophisticated" team that played by different rules and valued different skills/metrics than any other team. He exploited market inefficiencies much like a hedge fund would do.
  1. After losing a particularly important playoff game to an injury ridden Patriots team, Payton Manning (MVP that year) commented that "it doesn't seem to matter who they trot out there, it's their 'system' that wins them games." It seems that winning football games is more closely correlated with smart management than talented players.
  1. After having success, Belichick fought to keep the ego out. He feels like ego is a poison that kills teams.
  1. Belichick is all about the team first and individual second.
  1. Belichick's father was an assistant football coach at the Naval Academy. His main role there was to scout opponents. Belicheck literally grew up looking at opponent film with his father. He became an expert at finding weaknesses in his opponent's offenses and defenses. In particular, he became very good at identifying quarterback's weaknesses. For example, he would track metrics on accuracy throwing left, right, center, short, and long while standing still, while moving out of the pocket left and moving out of the the pocket right. Based on those metrics, he would design his defensive schemas. Belichick won 3 Superbowls because he was better at understanding his enemy than anyone else. Not sure if he ever read the "Art of War," but he's Sun Tzu's modern day poster child.
  1. From the book and the interview, it struck me that Belichick uses a sophisticated information technology platform to help unearth counter-intuitive insights about his business to create competitive differentiation.




This is a picture of Belichick looking like Yoda in his grey hoodie.


-- Brian Halligan

 

internet marketing kit

Posted by Brian Halligan on Mon, Oct 23, 2006 @ 10:49 AM

COMMENTS

Clearly, the Red Sox season ended early this year. The World Series is still in full swing, and you've moved on to football.

I wonder: are there organizations -- large or small -- where tenure is not guaranteed? I have heard somewhere of companies in which there are no annual salary raises, but rather performance bonuses awarded. Some years an employee does really well, other years s/he might do less well.

I suppose the trend towards using contractors, and the increasing supply of self-employed contractor skill base, is a reflection of this talent-not-tenure approach.

posted on Monday, October 23, 2006 at 11:14 AM by AndrewMahon


So how do you explain the fact that he didn't win any superbowls coaching the browns? ;)

I tend to believe that this is more of an after-the-fact analysis based solely on annectdotal evidence than a real explanation.

posted on Monday, October 23, 2006 at 5:01 PM by matt


Well its just impossible to win a superbowl with the browns.

No matter what they suck every year. =)

posted on Friday, December 29, 2006 at 9:28 PM by Bull


I think a great deal of sports commentary/ expert analysis consists of after-the-fact analysis- fitting a suitable narrative over a completed event. There is very little prescience involved. From this analysis of Belichick, it doesn't seem to me that his methods are any more revolutionary than other successful coach's. I imagine that he is a incredibly hard-working, bright individual who's been graced with success by the fortunate confluence of a number of variables, not the least of which is his coaching ability.

posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007 at 9:58 PM by pat


I've been a student of war and strategy in recent months. I was an original (and Still is) hater of the Patriots. But in my studies I now have a more knowledgeable appreciation of BB. He embodies and employs all of the methods advocated by the great generals of the past. Planning, espionage(lol), fluidity, etc. I wish there was a way of knowing if he studies war and strategy and incorporates them in his game.

posted on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 1:11 AM by Andre


As a Bostonian, I am saddened to hear that you are not a Pats fan!!
I read as much as I can get my hands on about Belichick and I watch as much coverage of him on tv as I can. I do not recall ever hearing him mentioning anything about studying generals or war strategy. Having said that, football is awefuly similar to battles in a war and any good football coach would benefit by reading "The Art of War" and Clauswitz' work.
Brian.

posted on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 1:32 AM by brian halligan


Comments have been closed for this article.