“97 for 2 at lunch, a good morning for England, Geoffrey?”
“All reet, but, as I always say, if Australia take two quick wickets after lunch then it will be a very different story.”
A few of you will be following the short dialogue from Test Match Special – many of you will be confused. Let me explain.
Geoffrey Boycott is a legendary Yorkshire and England Test cricketer turned pundit. He is extremely grating to the ear but usually very accurate with his analysis. One of his oft stated theories is that, to assess your present position, you should imagine that you have lost two wickets and see whether you are still in a strong position. The argument being that it reduces complacency. It is a kind of Scenario Planning or “What-if?” analysis.
One of the key tools used to assess competitive position in the business world is the Importance-Performance matrix. In the exercise managers are asked to rate the performance of their organisation against competitors on a 1-9 scale. There are a number of issues with this approach. First the tendency to over rate their own performance, second the issue that competitors are gradually improving but one thing rarely considered is the Boycott Presumption.
Every industry faces disruptive changes, times when new technology and/or new competitors introduce a game changing element. Apple have been good at this iTunes, iPod, iPhone have changed the competitive positions in the music and communication worlds. The jury is out at the moment about the iPad. In retailing the combination of the internet and Amazon has seen off many booksellers. Digital photography, LCD, Fibre Optics, calculators are all examples of disruptive technologies. Every organisation faces the possibility of the “killer App”.
That’s why the Boycott presumption makes so much sense. Having assessed your competitive performance deduct 2 points from your score. Still so comfortable? I thought not. Time to dig in after lunch and improve the position.