Tom Furphy and KC were talking about a Dan Shaughnessy column in ther Boston Globe about how retired baseball players feel that today’s model simply does not understand the fundamentals of the sport – the importance of moving the runner over, or bunting, or pepper, for example. Rather, today’s ballplayers are far more focused – and encouraged by management to focus on – things like spin rates, launch angles, and exit velocities. Not only that, young players are actively discouraged from allowing even the greatest players in the sport’s history to mentor them.
When they started talking about this column, it was purely a baseball conversation between two people old enough to have seen Sandy Koufax pitch. (Well, one of them is anyway – Tom is not quite as old as KC. But he is old enough to have been a Tom Seaver fan growing up.) But as they went on, they realized that they were talking about foundations/fundamentals and innovations, that there are ample business lessons to be found in this conversation, and that baseball, as usual, is an apt metaphor for much of life.
So that’s what this week’s Innovation Conversation is about. Enjoy.
If you’d like to listen to this Innovation Conversation as an audio podcast, click and download below.
Note: The continuing goal of “The Innovation Conversation” is to explore various facets of the fast-changing, technology-driven retail landscape and how they affect businesses and consumers. It is territory that Tom Furphy – a former Amazon executive who led the team that developed Amazon Fresh, and currently CEO and Managing Director of Consumer Equity Partners (CEP), a venture capital and venture development firm in Seattle, WA, that works with many top retailers and manufacturers – is uniquely positioned to address.
You can reach Tom Furphy at [email protected].
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