Description

Underdogs. We revel in them. We identify with them. Their stories become ours. They are the clever ones who find innovative ways to achieve victory over the bigger and stronger.

The methods of the underdog apply equally well to the private companies and innovators seeking to compete with their much larger brethren. For those CEOs and management teams seeking extraordinary outcomes, the methods of the underdog may be their most effective method for competing.  

Underdogs do not win by replicating the strategies of their larger competitors. They don’t have the money, market share, brand, teams, or domain expertise at their fingertips to go toe-to-toe. Instead, they must find a competitive edge. They need a unique angle. They need to hone the ‘intangibles’ within their competitive arsenal. 

In this episode, Chris shares his experience having grown up and played with athletes that reached the heights of the NFL and NBA, as well as others who now coach at the highest levels of competition in NCAA football and basketball. He also shares some of his experience growing up in rural Iowa. In each of the stories, the competitive strategies of the underdog are revealed that enable them to out-compete those that were bigger and stronger. 

Key lessons in this episode include:

• Underdogs lean into and hone their ‘intangibles’, those subtle but profound factors that give them advantage, including their vision, anticipation and intuition, as well as the cadence and rhythms of their team; 
•   The intentionally curate their decision-making processes so that they are optimized for those critical moments in which they will be under pressure, the situational context is shifting, and the confusion is greatest. It is in these moments in which they can turn adversity into opportunity; and 
•   CEOs, like coaches or managers, must curate an environment in which they are overtly working to improve the intangibles, including the ability of their teams to work under pressure, manage through confusion, effectively anticipate how their competition will behave under similar conditions and come to trust one another’s decision-making and actions under new and challenging circumstances.  

___________________________________
Socials:
X: https://x.com/MailanderPod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chris_mailander_podcast/
https://www.podcast.chrismailander.com/
___________________________________
Original Music by Billy Goodrum