Strategy – Aristotle Enterprises

When the massive Persian invasion fleet arrived at a little Greek village called Marathon in late summer of 490 B.C.E., the Athenians knew they were in a tight spot. Outnumbered at least two to one, and without the feared Spartan warriors by their side (Sparta was observing a religious holiday at the time which prevented them from committing troops until weeks later), the Athenian and Plataean hoplites (Greek foot soldiers) had to find a way to fight off the invaders; if they lost, the Persians would subjugate all of the Greek city-states and much of the classical Greek history revered throughout the western world over the past two millennia would have been written very differently (or not at all). But simply winning one battle at Marathon would not be enough to secure Greek liberty – the Athenians would need to both win the day and throw the invasion force back in the sea.

The Greek army successfully encircled the Persian troops offloaded from their ships in an area full of marshes that prevented the Persian cavalry from landing, but realized quickly that holding the invaders at bay until the Spartans arrived wasn’t going to work – the Persians had superior archers and wreaked havoc from afar. So, the Greeks spread their soldiers out in a single, thin line and advanced, under fire, in protective phalanx formation. The Greeks met stiff resistance in the middle of the line but were able to break the weaker Persian flanks and then both edges of the hoplite formation wheeled around on the stout Persian center, eventually causing a rout as the invaders were forced to flee back to their ships.

The Athenians and Plataeans had just won a huge victory against one of the most powerful empires in the world without assistance from the professional soldiers of Sparta – it should have been cause for great celebration. But, the Persian ships began to sail around the island, headed toward an undefended Athens. For the victorious but exhausted Greeks, the day was not yet over.

Just as winning one battle does not guarantee full victory, being first to market with a successful product does not prevent competitors from entering later, with superior offerings. For example, Netflix, after successfully out-maneuvering a complacent Blockbuster, had to contend with Amazon when it entered the content-streaming business. At the time, Amazon Prime Video was essentially an add-on service designed to justify Prime membership (which provides other benefits, most notably fast shipping on items purchased on amazon.com) and contained far less content than Netflix. It may have been easy for Netflix to continue doing what had been successful before during its campaign against Blockbuster: add more content available to be streamed at any time over the Internet. But what won the first battles would not be enough to win the war against Amazon.

Indeed, the Greeks understood the victory they had won in the marshes at Marathon would be meaningless if they could not beat the Persian ships back to Athens. The mission now: rush back to Athens, in full armor and exhausted from battle, before the invasion fleet arrived. So, the Greeks covered the nearly 24 miles from Marathon to Athens on foot – still a difficult feat today without armor, wearing modern running shoes, and being fully rested – in time to watch the Persians sail away. How did the Greeks achieve such a complete victory? They were prepared to do whatever was required to turn the Persian invasion away, even if that meant pushing the limits of the human body. In short, the Greeks embraced a culture of endurance.

Success in business is really defined by one outcome: building a product or service that someone else is willing to pay for. Many innovative companies are able to address unmet needs with one or two products before competitors enter the market with better solutions, or redefine the market segment altogether (like what Netflix did to Blockbuster in the home movie sector). The companies that enjoy long-term success, however, are willing to do whatever it takes to continuously build new products that people want to buy.

Netflix embodies this culture of endurance well; when Amazon Studios was launched in late 2010 to create original content worth watching (and therefore, worth paying a membership fee for), Netflix offered their first original content to compete (House of Cards, in 2013). We don’t yet know who will win the content-streaming wars, but Netflix has continued to deliver new value as the market shifted: it transitioned from a physical movie rental service, to an online movie streaming company, to creating its own compelling original content.

The most valuable companies understand long-term success is a test of endurance and recognize that the path to product-market fit is not a sprint – it is a marathon.

Adam F. Caplan is the product leader at a rapidly growing digital healthcare IT company.

It was one of the largest invasion forces ever assembled in human history. 175,000 fighting men, 50,000 vehicles, 5,333 ships, and 11,000 aircraft were prepared to deal the decisive blow to Adolf Hitler in the European Theater during World War Two. The mission was called Operation Overlord and its success would alter the course of history for decades (for more on the historical significance of the moment, check out Stephen E. Ambrose’s comprehensive book D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II).

Hollywood has done a great job over the years immortalizing the battle. But the Allied invasion of Fortress Europe on June 6^th, 1944 should have failed. Fortunately, the Allies had prepared their military leaders to act like product managers.

As early as November 3^rd, 1943 Hitler knew an Allied invasion was imminent along the German-occupied French coast and, if the invasion was successful, would pose a serious threat to the Nazi Reich. So he put one of Germany’s greatest generals, Field Marshall Eriwn Rommel, in command of the defenses. Rommel quickly realized that Hitler’s so-called Atlantic Wall was nothing more than incomplete fortifications manned mostly by Slavic prisoners pressed into German service against their will. Rommel (who earned the nickname ‘Desert Fox’ while out-maneuvering the British in North Africa) understood that any Allied landing had to be defeated on the beaches – he implemented many of the dangerous hazards American, British, and Canadian troops would encounter on D-Day. More important than the static fortifications, however, was Rommel’s plan to overwhelm any invasion force with tanks.

Rommel wanted the seven Panzer divisions in the Normandy theater (approximately 70,000 soldiers and hundreds of tanks) placed directly behind the beaches so they could respond swiftly to any landing attempted along the coast. But, even though Rommel had the most direct knowledge of conditions on the ground and experience in maneuver warfare, the German high command overruled his plan and placed many of the German troops much further inland – it would take three days for reinforcements to reach the battlefield. This pattern of top-down decision-making would seal the Nazi’s fate.

Allied military leadership, in contrast, empowered the lowest level leaders (lieutenants commanding platoons of 40 to 50 soldiers) to make critical battlefield decisions without seeking higher approval. To borrow from Jim Collins’s business management ideas, the Allied military strategy centered on getting the right people “on the bus” first so that they could best respond to changing conditions on the ground rapidly.

This idea of building a framework around sound decision-making in stressful situations with incomplete information is very similar to how a good product manager must operate. A product manager is responsible for the success of a product but she can’t be everywhere at the same time – in any given day, a PM could be engaged by conversations with customers about a prototype, discussions with sales and marketing teams about the validity of a new feature in the market, tweaking user experience elements with designers based on feedback, refining product requirements with the development team, ruthlessly prioritizing product requests, or selling internal executives on why a particular long-term vision for a product offering is worth investing in. Suffice it to say, there simply isn’t time to micromanage every detail.

A successful product manager must organize all of these moving parts around a unifying framework. Yes, an effective product leader must establish a compelling vision. But when it comes to actually getting work done, the product manager cannot become a bottleneck and must delegate decisions to other team members. When every team understands the desired outcome, the product manager doesn’t need to be available at all hours of every day to shepherd a product toward success.

In the same vein, all Allied platoon leaders knew every objective they needed to secure on D-Day. When the battlefield devolved into chaos, the Allied platoon leaders didn’t need to check with higher command – they adjusted to changing conditions on the fly and made good decisions.

For example, D-Day began the night before the beach landings when 13,000 Allied paratroopers expected to parachute into clearly-defined landing zones near their objectives (like strategic towns and bridges). Instead, they ended up scattered all across the Normandy coast – individual platoon leaders had to step up and organize ad-hoc units to successfully capture objectives, ensuring the troops coming ashore on the beaches could establish a beachhead.

The Germans, in contrast, had to wait for approval from senior leadership to organize a counterattack. In fact, any strategic military decision during the war had to pass through Hitler, and no one wanted to wake him on the night of the invasion. Worse, the commander who could have mounted an effective counterattack wasn’t available – Rommel went home to celebrate his wife’s birthday on June 5^th.

The German centralized command structure severely hindered their ability to respond to the Allied invasion in real-time. Despite Rommel’s sound defensive plan, he wasn’t there to implement it; even if Rommel was present on the battlefield, he was not empowered to adapt the strategy as conditions changed. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme Allied commander of the invasion, understood the tactical edge his platoon leaders had over their German counterparts when he remarked: “[i]n preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable” – when the situation on the battlefield changed, Allied platoon leaders adapted their plans; the Germans waited for approval to launch an already obsolete counterattack strategy.

Allied platoon leaders were crystal-clear about their missions and were empowered to achieve them through whatever means were necessary. Effective product managers know how to define clear objectives for their teams, resulting in sound decisions even when they aren’t present. It should come as no surprise that a successful product will deviate from an early roadmap plan – conditions on the ground are always evolving.

Adam F. Caplan is the product leader at a rapidly growing digital healthcare IT company.

Tag: Strategy

Marathon: What the Greek Victory Teaches about Building Enduring Companies

Platoon Leaders as Product Managers – Why the Allies Won the Battle for Normandy