One of the best examples that I’ve seen lately for “thinking outside of the box” comes from the high school football coach for Pulaski Academy in Arkansas. (Note: even if you’re not a football fan and your eyes start to glaze over a little bit, read on … there are some good lessons here).

Over the course of Pulaski Academy’s 14 game season they never punted the football. Not once. And the best part? They won the 5A state title on December 6, 2008.

How did Coach Kevin Kelley develop this unusual (but effective) strategy? Experience and Research. After a frustrating in-game situation where his team had a punt returned for a touchdown, he started doing his homework and looking at the statistical analysis of the likely outcomes of different play selection. He started with some “worst case” situations. What if his offense was pinned back with 4th and 8 from their own 5 yard line? He found they made a 1st down 50% of the time. If they make it, they keep the ball. If they miss it, their opponent scores 90% of the time. And if they punted, their opponent scores 77% of the time. Coach Kelley decided he would rather take a 50% chance of the opponent scoring 90% of the time vs. the opponent automatically scoring 77% of the time.

He wanted his team to have control over their own destiny, so Coach Kelley TEAMED UP with others doing research in game theory and statistical analysis and started using tools that would predict football outcomes based on different decisions. Oh, and he TOOK ACTION and implemented these new ideas.

He also took this “outside the box” thinking into their kickoff game. Coach Kelley found that when they used an onside kick and did not recover, they were only giving up an average of 14 yards. That was a small price to pay for the chance at getting a chance to put his offense back on the field.

This strategy provides a valuable lesson for business owners … especially in times like these where the economy is uncertain and smart business owners are looking for tactics that will give them an edge.

What are some of the “industry norms” that are accepted in your business. Just like punting on 4th down and rarely using the onside kick are football “truisms”, I’m sure that there are universally accepted assumptions in YOUR field.

Write down the first 5-10 industry assumptions that everyone in your industry thinks are “set in stone.” Is it the pricing of your product or service? Whether what you’re offering is a ‘commodity’. How about assumptions about who your typical customer is. Or what you can or can’t guarantee in your business.

Go ahead, write down some of those assumptions.

Assumptions in My Business

1. _________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________
4. _________________________________________________
5. _________________________________________________
6. _________________________________________________

(Share some of your assumptions with us in the “Comments” area below)

Now start questioning each of those. Be ruthless. Question everything about that assumption. Remember … if you want average results in your business, then do what everyone else is doing. If you want extraordinary results … then you need to be “extra” … “above” … “set apart from” the “ordinary”.

One quick, but important, example. Look at how you set your prices in your business. My guess is that 99% of you set your prices based on what everyone else is charging. This is fine as long as you want to be just like everyone else. But what if you want to be different. What if you want to be the “Champion” in your field. Then run the numbers. If you raise prices 25%, you can lose 20% of your customers (and the ones you lose are probably ones you wouldn’t feel too badly about losing). If you raise prices 50%, you can lose 33% of your customers base. And chances are you won’t lose that much, but running the numbers and thinking outside of the box will give you the confidence that you need to make a difference in your business and to think like a Champion.

At this month’s Chapter Meeting for Triangle Business Leaders we’re going to be spending some time on this exercise and  teaming up and helping each other think “outside of the box”. Get a head start and take some notes, and we’ll see you January 22. 

The original article about Coach Kevin Kelly and Pulaski Academy’s unconventional approach can be found at http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=892888

Related article: When Economists Talk, Pulaski Academy Listens