Boston Consulting Group's Hard Question

The Boston Consulting Group is promoting a book on its homepage called, Hardball: Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win? (Harvard Business School Press, 2004). You can download a summary from the BCG website, entitled A “Hardball Manifesto.”

"Sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet."

Several reviews (including The Wall Street Journal) have asked: What’s the difference between playing hardball, and just playing an effective game? That’s what I want to talk about here.

The answer, I think, boils down to attitude. And in that regard the attitude sounds a lot like what we’ve heard before in other contexts -- all the way from Michael Hammer (“obliterate the organization”) to Steve Jobs (“insanely great products”).

The authors criticize what they see as the business world’s current preoccupation with “soft” subjects – like corporate culture and customer relationships. They say you have to create discomfort in others and yourself in order to succeed. Or as a building contractor I knew once told me: Sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

Of course it’s that very willingness to be a little over-the-top that has also gotten a lot of business leaders into trouble. You need to be more than just pumped, a point the BCG authors repeatedly make. You also have to be right, on a lot of different levels.

So, what’s the answer? Where’s the essential magic in “hardball” play? That’s a fair question, given how much the authors stress that you should focus on the core essentials of whatever your particular game happens to be.

I think the answer is a passion for doing what works -- in other words, a passion for finding what’s true. The truth is almost always the thing that creates the most discomfort in others and ourselves.

Playing “hard” is not about breaking eggs. It’s about making great omelets. Start there.