Hockey's Greatest Star Inadvertently Shows Business Execs the Way

When you seriously examine Wayne Gretzky's hockey achievements you start to realize that his nickname, "The Great One," is a vast understatement.


He retired in 1999, but nearly a decade later he still holds 61 hockey records, many by huge margins. I wouldn't have guessed that there were even 61statistical categories in hockey.

One day during an interview Gretzky made a very revealing comment related to his approach to his sport. Ironically, the wisdom behind Gretzky's statement is profoundly applicable beyond hockey, to business as well. Here's what he said...

" A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."
         ~ Wayne Gretzky

Businesses rise and fall based on their adherence to "Gretzky's Principle." For example:
  • Railroads were extraordinarily wealthy and powerful in the early part of the 20th century. However, rather swiftly, they got left in the dust as consumers opted for travel by airplanes and automobiles. What would have happened to the railroads if they would have viewed themselves as being in the "transportation" business, instead of just the "railroad" business?
  • Venerable publisher The Tribune Company declared bankruptcy this week. While, in an ironic twist of fate, during the same week venture capitalists shower news blog The Huffington Post with $25 Million in new funding. Why does one news organizations have investors throwing money at them and the other news organization find themselves in a situation where their creditors won't event work with them to restructure their deals? The reason: One company has a dying business model that bleeds red ink and the other has developed a huge following with a mere fraction of the expenses and infrastructure costs.
  • CompUSA was forced to sell becasuse they failed to see that the "puck" in software sales was moving from cd's to Internet downloads. While they've only got 29 stores left they're finally starting to make the right moves...
  • In the early days of the Internet the big boys were trying to figure out how to "own" it. Conventional wisdom was that the browser was the "on-ramp" to the user experience and the company that controlled the browser could dominate the Internet. That initiated the browser wars between Netscape and Microsoft. One problem...they didn't think far enough ahead as to where the Internet "puck" was going. Turns out the browser was just a utilitarian commodity, the real choke point was Search. Had Microsoft realized the importance of Search back in 1995, they would be Google.
So, while the economy sucks in general right now, it doesn't suck for everyone. Today, some of your peers are becoming phenomenally successful and wealthy because they've anticipated, correctly, as to where the "puck" in their market was headed. The same will be true tomorrow, so step back and survey your "rink" today. Good business people react. Great ones anticipate.


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Posted by Larry Genkin at 12/10/2008 9:29 AM
Categories: Strategy
 

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