CEO/President/Executive Directors

I love this information from The Athletic, including the graph and excerpt below from Tyler Kepner in "The Windup", their Daily MLB Newsletter ⚾:

To top decision-makers around the sport, it's not so much that the Dodgers won 11 big games in October. It's that they've spent a decade leveraging their resources to excel in every aspect of baseball operations. Now, as one GM put it, "They have the platform to do seemingly whatever they want."

One reason this piece was fun to report - with my colleagues Jayson Stark, Britt Ghiroli, Patrick Mooney and Will Sammon - was the nuanced explanations of how the top teams operate. One especially telling anecdote came from a rival AL executive on how trade talks with the Rays typically go down:

Rays: "OK, this is the guy we like."

Other team: "Well, what about this guy instead of that guy?"

Rays: "Nope. That's the guy. Can we give you more for that guy?"

"That's their thing," the exec said. "I like dealing with them because they're very clear on what they want to do."


I really like taking lessons from other disciplines, fields, interests, etc. In this case it got me to thinking... What would others say about your organization's top leadership? What characteristics do you admire on the executive teams of your competitors, partners, etc.? What lessons are there for you from the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tampa Bay Rays, Milwaukee Brewers and other top MLB teams when it comes to leveraging resources, excelling at operations, sticking to a vision, articulating value, maintaining clear communications and expectations, etc.?

Please feel free to respond to this post with your thoughts.