Ep 528 | The Game Changed - Did You? An NCAA Tournament Special

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. In 1986, the Louisville Cardinals, University of Louisville, stood on top of the college basketball world. They were the champions that year. They were untouchable. But just one year later, that next season, they stumbled. Not because they lost talent— they lost a couple players but really kept the core of their team— so it wasn't because they lost talent. They fell apart because the game changed. A new line was drawn on the court, and they, they didn't adapt. And in business, we see the same story play out time and time again. Talking about University of Louisville basketball because we are in the midst of the NCAA tournament, actually coming to the very end of it, hence why we're airing this episode today. And we're going to talk about Louisville's rise to greatness, but their subsequent fall when the game changed and they failed to to change with it. So Louisville really went from champs to chumps in 1985 to 1986. That season, the University of Louisville went 32-7— 32 wins, 7 losses. They dominated down the stretch. They went on a 22-1 run, so 22 wins, 1 loss, uh, at the end of the season, which is absolutely amazing. They actually beat Duke, national powerhouse year in and year out. They beat Duke in the national title game. 72-69 that year. They had a couple star players, uh, one guy in particular, his name's Purvis Ellison, uh, who was a freshman, scored 25 points in the title game. And their coach, uh, Denny Crum, was his name. Denny Crum was a methodical, defensive-minded, interior-focused basketball coach. He didn't just have a good team that year. That, that Louisville team was a dynasty in the making. Louisville wasn't lucky, they were loaded. They were smart, they were experienced, they were physical. They played a style that had won titles before and just won them another in 1985-1986. Now that next year, the game changed. There was a line introduced on the court that changed everything. In 1986 and 1987, College basketball introduced the 3-point line— didn't exist prior to '86-'87— and it rewarded teams that could stretch the floor and could shoot. Well, unfortunately, Coach Crum and Louisville didn't adapt. They continued to play their style of basketball, which was this rather inside-heavy sort of basketball. They finished that next season 18 and 14. 18 wins, 14 losses. Remember, they were 32-7 the year prior, had a 22-1 run, uh, at the end of the season, uh, beat everybody and won the national title. And just a year later, they were just a bit better than.500, over.500, and were invited to the, the, the NIT, which is kind of like the, the tournament for those that don't make— don't even make this the NCAA core tournament of 64. They had key veterans that had graduated, but the bigger issue was philosophical. They just didn't evolve. The game changed and they all played like it hadn't. I think that this story parallels business in so many ways. It's the same game, but sometimes it's a different court. We oftentimes default to Blockbuster and BlackBerry as examples of companies that didn't innovate and change, but there's a lot of other ones out there. For example, many of you may be familiar with Kodak. Kodak's a company I've actually spent a good amount of time studying over the past few years. There's a lot to the Kodak story, but the bottom line is the Kodak— I would call them the inside game champion like Louisville. They invented the digital camera, but then they shelved it. They didn't believe in it. They clung to their core business, which was film, even when the market moved to digital, digital, they hung on to film. They failed to leverage their own innovation. Kodak's not really around today. How about Toys R Us? Toys R Us outsourced their own future. They dominated the toy world, but then they partnered with Amazon instead of building their own e-commerce, and that move trained the very company That crushed it. Yahoo, uh, I kind of call it a portal to nowhere. They passed on buying Google and buying Facebook. They could have purchased both of those companies at what would be perceived today as massive discounts, but they didn't fully embrace the evolving digital ad and social ecosystem. They kept playing this outdated portal strategy. And Yahoo didn't really have much of a future from there. Nokia, they, uh, were in the smartphone game. They led the global mobile phone market, but they didn't shift fast enough to touchscreen. They didn't shift to these app-based experiences, and as a result, they lost dominance. They certainly lost dominance to Apple. They lost dominance to Android. In each of these cases, the rules shifted, the lines were moved, and leadership held on to what used to work instead of building what would work next. Like a recent, uh, recent article, recent podcast we ran, maybe they should have sat in the room and had a little bit more thinking time. Maybe should have asked themselves, if our core business were to go away, what would we do? I think they got so caught up in what they were doing and were so anchored to, to their core business that they couldn't see the forest through the trees. So what's the real takeaway here? I think the real takeaway is what's your 3-point line? Are you sticking maybe with what won you the last game? What new lines are maybe being drawn in your industry? Is your team still playing inside when the games move to the outside. I think today's 3-point lines, they might be things like AI and automation. Maybe it's, uh, this remote or hybrid culture. Maybe it's more video content and short-form media. Maybe it's shifting consumer behavior. Maybe it's new platforms like Threads or TikTok or Substack or these things that, that are out there that we, we know are taking market share but haven't really fully embraced in many ways. If you're still playing last year's game, don't be surprised when last year's success doesn't show up again. So my, my closing challenge for you: championship teams evolve. That's how dynasties are built. They didn't— they don't— sure, they have some core principles, but they have to adapt. They have to change. They have to evolve with the game. Championship teams evolve. So do championship businesses, of course. Don't just admire what worked, adapt to what's working now because the game is, is still changing. And I think the only real question is, are you? So on that note, some things to think about here. Again, what's your 3-point line? I just want to make sure that all of the No Days Off Nation I'm not saying get away from what it is you do, but just make sure you're always thinking and looking towards the future. Don't be so caught up in what you're doing today that it ultimately jeopardizes your future. That's all we have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.