Is victory at any cost a real victory?

By Michael Feuer

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There are many CEO types, some successful, some not, who have taken a page from the playbook of the legendary Green Bay Packers’ football coach Vince Lombardi. He was known for proclaiming his hard-nosed theories about winning, some say, at any cost. Then there’s the hugely successful, yet equally infamous, Indiana college basketball coach who believed more in action than words. Unfortunately, his actions sometimes included hurling objects onto the court when he lost.

Similarly, too many business leaders focus almost exclusively on winning for the sake of winning without fully understanding the economic and human energy commitment needed to reach the goal.

It’s well established at self-help meetings that each attendee must stand before the group, introduce himself or herself by first name and state that he or she has a problem. For those in business who are addicted to the need to win without regard to ramifications, imagine this assertion, “Hello, my name is (you fill in the first name here) and I’m an irrational, compulsive winner.”

Every organization has associates who must always be first, be right and never lose. The problem is, many times, the cost of being numero uno is simply not worth the price. Remember, your team doesn’t have to win every game to win the championship.

As leaders and managers, we must recognize when an all-out effort is warranted and, just as important, when it’s not.

In addition, we must train our associates, particularly the younger ones, to know how to assess the cost of a victory and how and when to pick their spots.

“Business is a marathon, not a sprint.” This is an overused saying but, nonetheless, it’s dead-on right. Leaders must operate their organizations to achieve continuous progress and growth, not to win every single battle just for the sake of the fight.

The concept of zero defects, the same as in always needing to win, is not only unsustainable, but it is also simply too costly and painful.

Sure, if you’re the maker of airplane jet engines, then I’m all for zero defects, particularly if I’m flying on the plane. However, if you’re the producer of a widget that is not essential to maintaining safety, it’s cheaper and more practical for the end user to replace the widget as needed rather than to pay the higher price for zero defects.

There are some simple practices to follow to ensure you invest your organization’s resources wisely to achieve a win.

Weigh the ROI. First, before you start any project, determine the payback. All victories contribute something, but they’re not always of equal value.

It’s critical to know when enough is enough and it’s time to just pull back and settle for second, third or drop out completely. This is easier said than done because there are many factors at work, including the mysterious chemicals that drive the alpha male and alpha female.

One problem is that for type A personalities, winning sometimes just feels so darn good.

Analyze the costs. A second consideration is burnout. You can’t let your employees put in 100 percent or more on every undertaking. Associates who constantly do so serve you well for a short time, but, in the end, they unceremoniously fizzle out like a cheap firecracker.

Measure results. Third, when launching every meaningful effort, create a 1 to 10 scoring scale, with the lower numbers representing the less important goals/projects. You must communicate with your people when the effort is worthy of a 9 or 10 so they know to turn on the adrenaline for success.

When dealing with something rated a 1 or a 2, they must certainly try but also know how much it’s worth investing to achieve the goal’s desired outcome.

As a sanity check, tomorrow morning when you wake up, look in the bathroom mirror and then audibly introduce yourself to yourself. If, in your heart of hearts, you hear a little voice saying, “Hello, my name is (fill in your name here) and I am an irrational, compulsive winner,” you’ll know it’s time to reprioritize because it does matter how you play the game if you want to win consistently year after year.

MICHAEL FEUER co-founded OfficeMax in 1988 with a friend and partner. Starting with one store during a 16-year span, Feuer, as CEO, grew the company to almost 1,000 stores worldwide, with annual sales approximating $5 billion before selling this retail giant for almost $1.5 billion in 2003 to Boise Cascade Corp. Feuer immediately launched another start-up, Max-Ventures, a retail/consumer products venture capital operating and consulting firm headquartered in suburban Cleveland, Ohio. Feuer serves on a number of corporate and philanthropic boards and is a frequent speaker on business, marketing and building entrepreneurial enterprises. Reach him with comments at mfeuer@max-ventures.com.