If you think of business as a game and the profits / revenue of a company as the score, then there are several ways of winning this game. There are three I can think of. You can either build networks with powerful people, ride a wave, defeat your competition in a square fight. Let us explore all the three models.

Power of networks

The Player

Recently I was reading Ambani and Sons, the story of the rise of Reliance Industries. Dhirubhai Ambani, the patriarch was a fearless, ambitious and dynamic player. I wanted to decode what his “game” was. Dhirubhai started as a small time importer of polyester yarn and then rose to have a vertically integrated textile business in his early days before hitting big time with oil and gas. At heart he was an opportunist and a risk taker. In the late 70s and 80s, the dominant factor of doing business in India was currying favour with the government. India was a socialist economy in which government had tight control over industry through a system of licenses.

Dhirubhai knew that the only way to grow in business in India was through being in cahoots with the government. He was able to get favourable licenses and laws passed that allowed him to create a massive polyester and textile business. His rise was synchronous with Indira Gandhi, who used his money to fight and break political opponents for her own survival. To his credit, Dhirubhai had it in him to think big, motivate and inspire people, and also execute. Reliance ran the world’s largest refinery that delivered both value and shareholder wealth - which he generously shared with millions of shareholders. But so did his nemesis, Nusli Wadia of Bombay Dyeing, the more “ethical” of the textile barons of his time, but he wasn’t able to “game” the system like Dhirubhai. So in my view, the biggest differentiator was his “courage” to not play by the rules (and laws) and “buy-off” anyone who came in his way (well, not everyone, but that’s another story). Building powerful networks and allies is one way of “winning”.

Extroverts are the best at winning in this model because they genuinely see ways of “helping” other people, winning their trust and then landing great opportunities in return. The player wins the game before it has even begun by stacking the odds strongly in their favour.

Riding a wave

The Hunter

The second common theme is riding a wave. Usually the wave or opportunity shows up in the form of technological, geopolitical or regulatory changes. The Indian IT Services boom is one such example that has spawned several successful businesses. Lower cost of hiring and the portability of software “work” created opportunities that were exploited by several entrepreneurs who went on to build great businesses. Jeff Bezos saw internet as an opportunity to change commerce. In a couple of decades, the flood of venture capital in India landed on the doorstep several startup founders (many can be traced back to a certain Mr Fixel) who were propelled to build great businesses. The Kamath brothers found themselves in the midst of regulatory changes that created a huge opportunity to change stock broking in India. To the credit of each of these entrepreneurs, they had the hunger, passion, will to execute well and win.

The model here is that a change in the environment gives the opportunity to overthrow the old markets and / or rise to new markets. This is what is probably called a “Blue Ocean Strategy”. The strategy is to find new opportunities where there are few players. In this model, the biggest strength of the entrepreneur is to stay in the hunt, lay out a plan and be patient - and when you land into an opportunity, then execute hard. Compared to the extrovert, this kind of entrepreneur does not need instant gratification. The best hunter is the perfect planner.

Battle royale

The Fighter

There is also a third model. A model where you beat the incumbent at their game and take the market by playing hard. In this the rules of the games are fixed and the winner is decided by a duel in the market. The simplest example of this is sports. The rules are usually the same, but the test is of usually who is the most motivated. The most motivated is the most prepared and the most able to win. In these battles, the winners are customers who get amazing products (or spectators who see a great contest). These battles are often a gladiatorial David vs Goliath (the underdog vs the incumbent) but also a fight between two upstarts, where each player pushes the other one to do better.

The first example that comes to mind is Apple vs Microsoft. This is an epic battle that is being fought for the last 40 years, ever since the basic architecture of the personal computer was created. Since the 80s, Microsoft and Apple have competed in inventing the best new products for consumers. Apple took early lead with Apple II and Macintosh, but then was quickly eclipsed by Microsoft with their open architecture and larger ecosystem. Decades later Apple hit back with products that were dramatically better designed and engineered and created a new class of devices to beat Microsoft.

Another great example is the Toyota vs GM. Fought through the 70s and 80s, Japanese car manufacturers came from nowhere to take the automobile industry by storm by creating cheaper and better cars. There was not “technology breakthrough” but they innovated on the philosophy of manufacturing by creating an entirely new supply chain model and quality consciousness. The cars we buy today are of astonishing good quality and reliability, thanks to these innovations by Toyota. In more recent times and in the software industry, the way Figma took over the Adobe market was amazing. Software graphic designing was dominated by Adobe who had stopped innovating, and the folks at Figma took the opportunity to build a better web designing tool that became so dominant that Adobe had to go and acquire Figma.

This is a “bloodiest” of all the games because there is real competition out there that is out to kill you. The kind of entrepreneur who wins is a fighter, and the defining charcteristic is skill.

Is there a best model?

The question then for someone who is hungry and ready to work hard to execute is, if you can choose, what kind of player do you want to be. I don’t think you can choose. The kind of persona you will be has probably been decided based on your talents. Some people are great at making deals, some are great at planning and some are great at competing. Maybe all people have traits of all three, and companies need a mix of all three types of people.

It may also depend on the situation you find yourself in. For example, Frappe finds itself in a highly competitive market. Pure software as a market is over heated with several players. The only way Frappe can win in this market is by doing better (significantly better) than the competition. The stakes are very high and so are the number of competitors. There is no option but to fight.

Do you want to be a big winner? What is your game?