“I have difficulty sometimes talking to people who don’t race sailboats.” This line, from one of my all-time favorite TV shows, The West Wing, comes from campaign strategist, Bruno Gianelli, when he’s having a pointed discussion with President Bartlet about his reelection campaign strategy. Bruno goes on to say, “… if you think that I’m going to miss even one opportunity to pick-up half a knot of boat speed, you’re absolutely out of your mind.” It is a surprisingly good way to think about marginal gains in business.
As both a business consultant and a sailboat racer, that line has always stuck with me. It captures something important about marginal gains in business: making lots of small improvements, each one adding “half a knot of boat speed.” This is what much of our work at Motus is about.
Every “good” business has gotten where it is by doing some big things right. It wouldn’t have survived the startup phase otherwise. But how do good businesses become extraordinary businesses? Marginal gains in business offer one answer: make many small things work a little better.
How Marginal Gains in Business Work
To begin with, it takes a shift in mindset from fixing problems or settling for “good enough,” to seeking excellence in every part of the business. The process of making continual, minor improvements across every aspect of an operation, which aggregate into significant overall enhancements, is referred to as marginal gains.
To illustrate marginal gains in action, take a look at Formula 1 racing. In a race between twenty of the fastest cars in the world, the difference between first place and last place might only be two seconds per lap. There is absolutely no one or two things that makes the difference between two seconds. But if every aspect of the design, engineering, setup, and driving can be improved by a fraction of a percent, they will be a winning team. And the team that can do this continually, day after day, month after month, is the one that will win the world championship.
Marginal gains shift the focus away from dramatic breakthroughs and toward the accumulation of small, deliberate improvements. Whether the person applying that thinking is a Formula 1 team boss, a gold-medal athlete, a groundbreaking biochemist, or the CEO of an innovative corporation, the underlying approach is similar: rather than waiting for something to go wrong, they keep looking for places where something could work a little better.
It surprises some of our clients that we dive straight into seemingly insignificant nuances of their operation to address the problems that bring them in our door. Marginal gains in business often come from exactly these seemingly small places. Once clients understand that even “big” problems are usually influenced by many smaller factors, they are grateful for our dedication to helping them make meaningful and lasting change through marginal gains. This only makes sense, since most entrepreneurs and small business owners are in pursuit of a truly healthy business.
