The Boston University hockey team last week won the NCAA title with a performance their coach called “the greatest championship game ever played.” Extraordinary efforts evened the score from a 2 goal deficit in the last minute of regulation play, and scored the winning goal after eleven minutes of overtime.
Beneath their uniforms, the team wore t-shirts that said “Burn the Boats.” The curious quote is attributed to Cortez who, when he landed in Mexico in the 16th century, sought the full commitment of his men to the search for Aztec gold. He gave the order to burn the boats as they started inland. He explained that “If you want to get this treasure, you have to raise the level of commitment because nobody else can do this. If we’re going back, we’re going back in their boats.”
Lots of times business leaders invoke sports analogies to inspire their employees (team). The “Burn the Boats” concept set me to thinking whether this appeal would work in today’s environment. As a strong believer in the innate persistence-against-all-odds displayed by intrepid entrepreneurs, it has a place, I believe.
Today, businesses are facing very tough times that also portend a different future with slower growth and continuing high unemployment as well as unprecedented government involvement in markets. Making strategic growth plans is an important requirement now. Plans that realistically assess the environment, play to your strengths, and recognize the certainty of marketplace changes driven by new technology are the ones that will be most successful.
Consider the case of today’s major daily newspapers. Here’s an interesting example of what happened to one of them. During its startup, Monster.com offered The Boston Globe the opportunity to partner with it in exchange for funding, etc. The Globe refused, and Monster went out on its own and shortly thereafter generated half a million dollars in annual revenue. The Globe was concerned that in becoming a Monster owner, they would begin cannibalizing their own classified employment advertising. Today the Globe is in deep financial trouble with the threat of closing. It ignored reality. It neither saw nor understood the longer term implications of the Internet, and was unwilling to “burn the boats” and go for the gold that might exist in another part of their world of information dissemination.
As a business leader, you may need to take the risk of setting out in a new direction that leaves behind some favorite part of your business. Often it is impossible to have it both ways. The old goes out when the new comes in. When high quality short run color printing first hit the market few traditional printers saw the threat to their businesses. But these machines replaced short run traditional printing and increased the market for full color printing. Adopting the new technology required heavy investments and a “burn the boats” approach for those who offered the service. The expense and technical challenge sucked up time and resources but persistence and fear of failure drove the entrepreneurs forward; there was no turning back for most. And many late adopters were left in the dust.
Whether you use the term with your team or not, a “burn the boats” approach on your part can easily make the difference between success and failure. Overcoming adversity in a new business venture is a great learning experience. It often requires a “burn the boats” attitude to get past the bumps and craters on the way to success. But it can be worth the pain.
Selecting the “gold” you want to go after is the really important task. You need to pick the right target and move forward into the right “jungle” ahead of your competition. And that brings us back to the critical need to make a strategic plan that identifies the best opportunity for you.
There are always more opportunities than resources to exploit them. But when you determine a particular opportunity is the right fit for your business, then you need to enthusiastically go for it. As the leader it is your responsibility to not only point the way forward and explain the benefits to the company and the team, but also to convince them that there is no going back to the old way because the results would not be beneficial to the team or the business.
It may seem harsh and over the top, but I think a “burn the boats” approach works in business as well as in the jungles of Mexico or on the competitive ice of the NCAA Hockey finals.
