Rossman’s Business Manifesto for Competitive Advantage — The Pig, the Lipstick & the Playbook of Champions

The Pig, the Lipstick, and the Playbook of Champions: Why Mediocrity Is Your Biggest Threat

Imagine this: You walk into the boardroom of your company—polished, buttoned up, PowerPoints glowing on the walls. You’re ready to discuss “strategy.” The words roll off everyone’s tongue like gospel. Growth. Innovation. Digital transformation. Yet underneath the veneer of buzzwords, you sense the problem: mediocrity has crept in, and worse, it’s been welcomed.

I call it “putting lipstick on the pig.” It’s when leaders, instead of addressing core issues, dress up mediocrity with shiny new initiatives that sound bold but deliver little. It’s not just harmful; it’s fatal. Organizations that thrive do so by confronting uncomfortable truths and attacking them head-on—not by sprucing them up with a fresh coat of paint. It’s time to rip the lipstick off and face the pig for what it is.

Mediocrity Is the Enemy

The greatest danger to any organization is not external competition or disruptive technologies. It’s mediocrity within. It’s the slow, insidious erosion of ambition, accountability, and urgency. Mediocrity whispers, “Good enough is okay.” It rationalizes average performance, tolerates subpar results, and smothers innovation under a wet blanket of bureaucracy and excuses.

And let me be blunt: Mediocrity isn’t just your employees’ fault—it starts at the top. Leaders who avoid making tough decisions, who prioritize consensus over results, and who hide behind outdated processes are complicit in letting the pig grow fat.

If this makes you uncomfortable, good. Growth begins at the edge of discomfort.

The Tragic Tale of Competitive Advantage

Let’s not kid ourselves: The history of sustained business advantage is mostly a tale of failure. Think Kodak, Blockbuster, Xerox. These were companies with market dominance, strong brands, and resources galore. Yet they fell because they mistook their success as a shield against change. They applied lipstick to their legacy business models, assuming their past would protect their future.

The age of artificial intelligence has made the tale even more tragic. Competitive advantages are shorter-lived than ever. Today’s disruptor becomes tomorrow’s cautionary tale. Starbucks, Disney, Boeing, and Nike—all brands you once admired—are fighting to reclaim what they’ve lost: trust, loyalty, and relevance.

The lesson? Disruption doesn’t wait for you to catch up. If you’re not actively reinventing, you’re already behind.

Stop Playing Defense

There’s a disease in business leadership I call “playing defense.” Leaders get comfortable, protecting what they’ve built instead of pushing for what’s next. They chase quarterly results, patch problems, and avoid big bets. They focus on not losing, rather than on winning. And in doing so, they unwittingly lose everything.

Howard Schultz, the legendary leader of Starbucks, once reflected on his company’s decline: “The worst thing a company can do is start playing defense because you’re afraid to fail. That is a disease.”

Amen. Playing defense is not a strategy—it’s an excuse. If your organization isn’t relentlessly pursuing improvement and innovation, you’re not standing still; you’re sliding backward.

The Playbook of Champions: A Better Way

So how do we break free? How do we stop merely surviving and start thriving? Enter the *Playbook of Champions*. This isn’t a shiny object or a buzzword-laden framework. It’s a relentless, systematic approach to leadership, culture, and innovation designed to deliver sustainable excellence.

At its core, the Playbook focuses on three interconnected pillars: Building the Foundation, Chasing Perfection, and Taking Big Bets. Let me break it down.

1. Build the Foundation

Great organizations don’t rely on strategy alone. They align Purpose, Principles, and People to create a culture where high standards are the norm—not the exception. Your culture isn’t a fuzzy HR initiative; it’s your competitive edge.

Start by defining your **Massively Transformative Purpose (MTP)**. This isn’t your mission statement or a fluffy set of values on your website. It’s a bold declaration of what your organization stands for and what it’s relentlessly working toward. Pair it with leadership principles that aren’t just written down but are embedded in your daily operations, decision-making, and expectations.

And don’t forget your people. Structure comes before talent. If your team isn’t aligned strategically, role clarity and accountability won’t exist. Build your organization with intention, then hire and train people who thrive in a culture of excellence.

2. Chase Perfection

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos once said, “Relentlessness drives us.” That ethos of never settling, never assuming success is guaranteed, is why Amazon owns the domain *relentless.com*.

Chasing perfection doesn’t mean everything has to be flawless. It means identifying the right details—the ones that truly matter—and obsessing over them. Operational excellence isn’t achieved by chance; it’s built through humility, rigorous metrics, and relentless attention to improvement.

Take a hard look at your key performance indicators (KPIs). Are they driving the behavior and results you want? If not, redesign them. Create systems for accountability and make failure a learning opportunity, not a career death sentence.

3. Take Big Bets

If you’re not making bold moves, you’re not leading. Big bets are about doing more than tweaking the edges of your business. They’re about exploring transformative initiatives—new business models, disruptive technologies, high-potential innovations.

Big bets aren’t blind gambles. They’re calculated risks driven by clarity, speed, and focus. Leaders like Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, and Jeff Bezos succeed because they prioritize what matters most, act decisively, and pivot when necessary. They don’t bet the farm, but they don’t cling to it either.

The Lipstick Test: Are You Ready?

Here’s a challenge for you: Take a hard look at your business and your leadership. Are you applying lipstick to the pig? Are you tolerating mediocrity, playing it safe, or relying on incrementalism to get by?

The Playbook of Champions isn’t for everyone. It’s for leaders and organizations willing to embrace discomfort, challenge the status quo, and commit to a path of relentless improvement. It’s for those ready to trade short-term comfort for long-term success.

If you’re up for it, you’ll need courage. The courage to question your own assumptions. The courage to set bold goals and hold yourself and your team accountable. And the courage to lead your organization out of the quagmire of mediocrity and into a future defined by excellence.

No more lipstick. No more excuses. It’s time to reclaim your competitive edge and build a championship team.

Onward!