I just finished the ~ 5 hour Acquired podcast on Rolex. If you can manage 5 hours (or ~3 hours at 1.5X), it’s worth a listen - even if you’re not a watch person. But my favorite insight came at the end when the hosts analyzed the business. They try to identify a key decision or risk that Rolex took that led to their outsized success.
For reference, they are a relatively small player in the watch market by volume, but garner a huge portion of revenue and likely a larger portion of profits. Outsize success usually requires some sort of key decision or bet that was made differently than the industry. So what was it? But they couldn’t find any. All of the Rolex decisions were relatively rational. Nothing outlandish, no bet-the-company moments.
So what differentiates Rolex from the competition?The combination of a consistent strategy, a focus on their core value proposition, and relentless execution.
I think the business world today too often over-values clever strategies and underrates the power of a relentless focus on execution and continual improvement. If you want to win consistently over time, you should really prioritize the latter over the former.