Stan Kansten’s Learnings

This is the memo I have found with notes from Stan Kansten speech.

Stan Kansten is former GM of one of a very successful US baseball team, the Atlanta Braves.

He listed his 9 key learnings from being in baseball management for 27 years. Many of them are applicable to business in general.

  1. Try to learn something new every day!! It will force you to keep your mind open. It will encourage you to stay in touch with others. It will encourage you to listen.
  2. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Think ahead. Prepare for worst case scenarios. And prepare for best case scenarios, so that you don’t lower your upside potential.
  3. Have a long term plan. Success is all based on long term plan. Quarter to quarter management is death.
  4. Have a superior product. Nothing matters as much as this.
  5. Have a good work ethic: Be a great teammate, and a brutal opponent.
  6. Accept mistakes. But don’t accept the same mistake twice! Also, forgive errors that are because of overstretching, rather than errors of laziness.
  7. Get out of the way of smart people who are trying to help you!
  8. Focus insanely on customers. Know who they are, find out what they want, and give it to them!
  9. In rough times: listen to customers & stakeholders, devise a plan, then stick to it. Don’t worry about critics.

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