problem hacker #02
What business can learn from David Moyes (seriously)
Most strategy decks are full of abstractions:
• Vision
• North Stars
• Ecosystems
• Diagrams with arrows pointing to nowhere
But if you want to understand actual strategy — not vibes — you could do worse than watching David Moyes manage a football team with a net spend smaller than your marketing budget.
Moyes doesn’t talk about “strategic pillars.”
He doesn’t run Miro boards with coloured dots.
He shows up every week, makes decisions under pressure, and gets judged publicly by the scoreboard.
And he’s been doing it longer than most consultants have been out of uni.
1. Moyes knows what not to do.
He doesn’t try to dominate possession and counterattack.
He picks one plan, builds a system, and commits to it even when the fans moan.
Most companies try to do too much.
Too many priorities, too many personas, too many product lines that sound clever in a workshop but useless in the wild.
Real strategy is subtraction.
It’s about saying no with confidence.
2. He gets judged in real-time.
Football managers can’t hide behind quarterly reviews.
Lose three in a row and the pressure is on.
Lose six and you’re sacked.
In business, we wrap bad decisions in slide decks and “learnings.”
We call missed targets “reforecasts.”
We let bad strategy rot quietly instead of killing it.
Moyes doesn’t have that luxury.
He adapts, or he’s gone.
3. He builds around strengths, not wishful thinking.
He doesn’t buy players to fit a vague vision.
He looks at who he’s got and asks: how do I win with this?
Great strategy does the same.
You don’t wait until conditions are perfect.
You build around your edge — now — and get moving.
4. He manages up, down and sideways.
Owners, fans, players, press — every one of them has an opinion.
Moyes navigates them all while trying to hit results with a squad he didn’t pick.
This is what startup leadership actually looks like:
• Board pressure
• Team politics
• Burnout
• Budget trade-offs
Strategy isn’t a clean whiteboard.
It’s a messy dressing room.
Moyes thrives in it.
So, what’s the lesson?
If your “strategy” only works on a slide, it’s not strategy.
If it falls apart the moment things get hard, it’s not strategy.
If it relies on perfect talent, timing, or tools — it’s not strategy.
Strategy is knowing what to do when you don’t have any of that.
That’s what Moyes does.
So next time you’re tempted to drop £80k on a brand refresh or write a 40-page strategy memo…
Put the kettle on.
Watch Everton.
And remember what actual decision-making under constraint looks like.
Until next time,
The Problem Hacker
Making strategy a contact sport.