John Mahaffie

Using foresight to expand your strike zone

February 18, 2025September 12, 2018 by John B. Mahaffie

Your organization is good at something, or tries to be. It works for opportunities in a certain part of the marketplace. That part of the whole is the organization’s “strike zone.”

But that zone may be too limited for your ongoing success, especially as change unfolds around you. Areas outside that zone have potential too. They may be where the best opportunities are.

This, of course, is a baseball metaphor. And we can take it a little further.

Where’s the best “pitch” to hit? Is it in the zone of opportunities you already pursue? Can you, and should you, expand that zone?

Ted Williams was sort of wrong

Baseball great Ted Williams wrote a book called The Science of Hitting (1970). He had been a phenomenal ball player who by 1970 was managing the Washington Senators.

In his book, he explained how to maximize success by knowing what pitches to hit. And the ideal pitches are specific to the batter.

There is wisdom in what he wrote. And smart organizational leaders follow a similar line. Even Warren Buffett, is a fan of Williams’ book and approach. Go for what you can hit well.

But organizations too often follow this to a fault. “Stick to our core business” they say. (That’s their “happy zone” in Ted Williams’ phrasing). “Don’t chase low-odds opportunities.”

Williams taught that expanding the zone in which you’ll swing the bat only gives the savvy opponent (his opposing pitcher, and your marketplace reality) a stronger chance of beating you. He did not focus on expanding your zone of capabilities, to expand your opportunities. But sometimes, that’s what an organization needs to do. Foresight can help guide that process, at least by showing you where to look.

How does foresight help?

1). It helps you understand your strike zone, its limits, and whether the opportunities there are growing or declining. Pitchers are like your marketplace, and pitchers around your league have figured you out. You may not get enough good opportunities any more, especially as the marketplace changes.

2). It shows you what’s beyond your strike zone, and motivates you to look at moving there. Where else are there opportunities?

You need to change your approach. The futurist is your batting coach. I’m happy to join you in the batting cage!

_________

If you enjoyed this baseball metaphor, here’s another from a while back:

As long as you do what’s conventional, you won’t be accused of a blunder

The future shaping the accounting industry

February 18, 2025September 18, 2017 by John B. Mahaffie

I will be speaking in October 2017 at “Women Who Count,” the national conference of the Accounting & Financial Women’s Alliance (AFWA) in Alexandria, Virginia. For AFWA, I wrote the article linked below, which closely tracks the theme of my talk.

My key themes:

Accounting and finance professionals can have a great future, but it’s not guaranteed.
They have to sieze the initiative and make the transformation they want happen.
The scary news: The center drops out–mid-skill level work is destined for automation, and that includes accounting and finance.
The good news: The transformation of commerce–new business forms, new scales of operation, and other elements of the “millennial economy” create new opportunities for accounting and finance professional.

The Future Shaping the Accounting Industry

You make it or you take it–The two things you face when you face the future

February 18, 2025October 21, 2015 by John B. Mahaffie

You move, always, into the future. But what future? Well, there are two kinds:

1). The future you can shape. [“You make it”]

Defining this future is about exploring the changes you can influence and clarifying the outcomes you want. A future you strive for is called a normative future, and there is little reason, across the sweep of change you can influence, not to drive toward the one you want. But too many people don't figure out what they want because they feel subject to, or even victim of the future.

Your vision of a desired future will focus you on things you have a part in shaping. But defining it has to account for the other kind of future, the future you are subject to.

2). The future you are subject to. [“You take it”]

This future is in your external context. It is a product of the forces and changes that will happen no matter what you do, or that you have, at best, only a small chance of influencing. To explore this future, you need to understand the forces of change and identify how you can respond to them to better reach the future you want.

This future is tricky, since there is no way to absolutely predict it. You have to stay prepared for a range of possibilities.

If you don't yet understand the external future, you better get to work now to clarify. Otherwise, you won't have much chance at determining where it it there is the future you can have, or discovering how you will strive for it.

It's an easy trap for people and organizations to think that all they can do is address this second future, to try to just keep up with change. But reversing this, and identifying goals and visions of a desired future, can take you from a sense of being stuck, to a sense of command of your destiny.