Tanks teach us a lot. During WWII, Germany and the US had two radically different approaches to tank warfare.
Germany built tanks like works of art – a few beautiful, complex, heavily-armored, intricately-engineered beasts.
The US built tanks like tools – lighter, cheaper, faster, “good enough,” reliable machines that could be manufactured by the thousands.
We know which philosophy won.
German tanks were impressive on paper. In reality, their intricate parts and sophisticated systems broke constantly. The infamous “Tiger tank” couldn’t even fit on a standard rail car without modification. It was too wide, meaning more narrower treads were required for train transport to the front lines. When they arrived, the regular wide treads had to be put back on. Engineering genius that created logistical nightmares.
U.S. tanks couldn’t be more different. They were designed from the start with transportation systems in mind. American Shermans, for example, were so straightforward that teenage farm boys could fix them in the field. Transmission trouble? A simple bolt-on and bolt-off fix with. This simplicity meant they were cheap and fast to produce: the U.S. built nearly 50,000 Sherman tanks in the same time it took Germany to produce 8,500 “Panzer” Model 4s.
Numbers speak for themselves. Those that win know the game they’re actually playing. For tanks, the game wasn’t “build impressive machines” – it was “win the damn war.”
The team that focuses on the main thing is the one that wins. And this is just as true today as it was 80 years ago.
Amazon (which, according to Scott Galloway, performs a more logistically complicated operation than the D-Day invasion every single night), is a perfect example of this.
Bezos has been a broken record since 1997 – repeating two words: Customer First.
In his 1997 letter to shareholders, he wrote, “We will continue to focus relentlessly on our customers”, and “Obsess Over Customers – From the beginning, our focus has been on offering our customers compelling value.” In 2001, he wrote “Obsess over customers: our commitment continues.” And in 2000, after a big market crash, he highlighted that while financial indicators show the company remains strong, “most importantly, our heads-down focus on the customer was reflected in a score of 84 on the American Customer Satisfaction Index. We are told this is the highest score ever recorded for a service company in any industry.”
He didn’t call for the cleverest code. Or the most innovative business model. Simply relentlessly serving the customer.
Keeping the main thing the main thing sounds simple. It isn’t.
We like flights of fancy. We’re hardwired to overcomplicate and chase shiny things. We fall in love with our own cleverness.
Great leaders cut through the BS. They bring brutal clarity. They say the same most important thing until everyone’s sick of hearing it. And then they say it again.
The Sherman tank wasn’t trying to win beauty contests. It was trying to win the war.
What game are you trying to win?
