Bookworm: The Infinite Game

A healthy business sets ambitious ‘infinite mindset’ targets, writes Simon Sinek.

What is this book about?

It explores Simon Sinek's take on infinite game theory. Sinek argues that in infinite games, such as business, politics or life itself, the players come and go, the rules are changeable, and there is no defined endpoint.

By this he means that if we achieve a short-term goal and make profit doing so, we should congratulate ourselves. But we shouldn't trick ourselves into believing that what we’ve done is the foundation for a healthy business. A healthy business sets ambitious, ‘infinite mindset’ targets.

Sinek wrote The Infinite Game to help businesses achieve success over the long term. Short-term thinking creates tunnel vision, he argues.

Could you give me an example?

Yes, Microsoft’s “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more” is an example of an 'infinite mindset' target. It's sufficiently inspirational while avoiding the charge of being so specific that it is unrealistic.

Sinek argues that this was  an ideology – or ‘just cause’ – that the tech giant forgot about when it began chasing Apple and engaged in tunnel-vision thinking.

What should it have done instead?

Perhaps Microsoft should have thought more about its consumers than its shareholders.

Sinek is critical of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, who, in his writings, prioritised the pockets of shareholders, and contributed to a trend that saw the gap widen between the income of a typical CEO and a regular worker.

So good behaviour pays off, even in capitalism?

Yes, even if the thinking is, arguably, self-centred. When companies treat their average employees with the same respect as they show their senior partners, they retain them for longer, spending less on recruitment. Everyone’s a winner.

So it’s about creating a positive culture?

Exactly. Sinek calls it "a culture of trust". It is also clear that organisations in which employees feel safe raising questions and concerns with their managers tend to prosper.

Financial services company Wells Fargo learnt this to its (literal) cost after having to settle claims (to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars) from people who had had bank accounts opened in their name without their permission. Their employees' actions were the result of a high-pressure sales environment in which staff broke the law in order to hit unrealistic targets.

I guess Wells Fargo was just trying to get ahead of the competition. 

Undoubtedly, though this wasn’t the way to go about it.

However, Sinek argues that “worthy rivals” can be very useful – because they help organisations to stay at the top of their game and also sustain the smaller (supply chain) companies. Ford, for example, didn’t want its rivals to go out of business during the 2008 financial crash because that might have bankrupted its suppliers.

That sounds counterintuitive.

That’s exactly Sinek’s point: that counterintuitive measures that might be damaging in the short term may have substantial benefits in the long term; benefits that will help companies hold on to employees, customers and profits (preferably all three).

What am I most likely to say after reading this book?

“Be patient. It’ll reap benefits in the longer term.”

What am I least likely to say after reading this book?

 “Let’s get rich quick at everyone else's expense.”