Seeing the Big Picture

Let’s leave the sterile indoor world of the automaker and this time take, as our inspiration, the world of competitive cycling.

My country, the UK, revolutionized its results by thinking about process. In 2003 a man called Dave Brailsford became performance director of British cycling, and he revolutionized it. His idea, which has been the subject of countless articles, was to unpack every element of riding a bike, examine each process, and improve it, even if only by a tiny percentage. Nutrition, ergonomics, pillows, anything and everything. As is now legend, these ‘marginal gains’ add up. This, then, is the theory of aggregation of marginal gains. Within a few seasons Dave’s teams went from worst to first, winning Olympic medals and even Tours de France. ‘Dave’ became Sir David Brailsford.