Tenant Farmers Don’t Pick Up Rocks (014)
Forever Leaders Think Beyond the Quarter
By Ron Boire
In a recent episode of The Innovation Show, Aidan McCullen shared a deceptively simple yet deeply insightful metaphor: “Tenant farmers don’t pick up rocks.” It struck a chord.
The message is clear: those with short-term interests rarely take on the hard, necessary work that drives long-term prosperity. Tenant farmers don’t clear rocks because they won’t be around long enough to benefit. Unfortunately, this metaphor describes too many modern business leaders—what I call tenant leaders—operating with short-term horizons, motivated by near-term metrics, exits, or stock prices rather than stewardship and legacy.
The Cost of Tenant Leadership
Gary Hamel, in his work on Management Innovation, has long warned against the dangers of bureaucratic, short-term thinking. He describes a world where "incumbent mental models" and quarterly performance rituals erode an organization’s capacity to adapt, invest, and lead for the future.
In tenant-led organizations, leadership avoids the hard things like building capital reserves, investing in talent and culture, making decisions with a 10-year horizon, or tackling foundational structural issues. Why? Because their incentives don’t align with the long-term health of the business. As Hamel notes, when companies prioritize control over creativity and efficiency over resilience, they sacrifice the future for the present.
An example I lived through (almost didn’t) is Toys "R" Us, when it was under the control of a triumvirate consisting of two of the country's premier private equity firms, KKR and Bain Capital, and real estate titan Vornado. The disaster that became the legacy of these “investors” was easy to see coming and was often a topic among some of us in leadership. One quick example was bathrooms. If you are a mom or dad with young children visiting a Toys "R" Us, your first stop is often the restroom. To say the restrooms in an average “Toys” store needed investment is one of the great understatements in retail history – they were awful. In fact, before I joined the company as President of North America, I had visited dozens of Toys “R” Us stores. During an interview dinner with sponsors from KKR and Bain, I presented them with pictures of a dozen or so decrepit bathrooms. They agreed wholeheartedly and said that investment in bathrooms and much more was part of the plan. In fact, there was no plan to invest in bathrooms or nearly anything else.
I was forced out of Toys “R” Us in 2009 due to numerous disagreements over strategy and investment, and the company ultimately succumbed to the effects of neglect nine years later.
What Forever Companies Do Differently
Today, I’m fortunate to work with several Forever companies—organizations that think generationally. They understand that long-term prosperity is not the result of luck or quick wins, but of deliberate choices and courageous leadership.
These companies pick up the rocks. They invest in infrastructure, cultivate talent, build strong balance sheets, and make decisions that might not show up on the next quarterly report—but will secure the company’s place in the market 10 or 20 years from now. Their leaders think like owners, even if they’re not, and act as stewards of something bigger than themselves.
Strategy with a Long View
Rita McGrath, in her groundbreaking work on strategic inflection points and her book Seeing Around Corners, urges leaders to build early warning systems and to sense weak signals of change before it's too late. Her work complements McCullen’s metaphor beautifully: tenant leaders miss inflection points because they’re too busy managing what’s directly in front of them.
True strategic leadership is about taking action today to prepare for a tomorrow we can’t yet see—but must be ready for. In fact, Rita and I have done work with two Forever Companies this year to help them better understand strategic options and ecosystems, and build the Early Warning Systems that allow them to operationalize their preferred futures.
Want to lead a Forever Company – be a Forever Leader
Tenant leadership is not just a failure of strategy—it’s a failure of imagination and responsibility. Forever, leaders ask themselves fundamental questions like:
Am I building something that will outlast me?
What investments am I avoiding because they don’t offer quick returns?
Am I acting like a steward or a renter?
Picking up the rocks is hard. It’s slow. It doesn’t show up in this quarter’s results. But it’s the difference between companies that endure and those that fade.
Long-term prosperity doesn’t come from quarterly wins. It comes from leaders who clear the field for those who will come after.
I hope you have a great day!
- Ron
References & Further Reading:
Aidan McCullen, The Innovation Show
Gary Hamel, The Future of Management
Rita McGrath, Seeing Around Corners and The End of Competitive Advantage
Ron Boire, Innovation Leadership: Inspiring Your Organization
The Living Company by Arie Geus: https://hbr.org/1997/03/the-living-company
Need help becoming a Forever Leader? Feel free to contact me at ron@uplandgroup.us, ron@valize.com, or connect with me on LinkedIn atlinkedin.com/in/ronboire/ or Twitter @ronboire
Ron is a globally experienced organizational transformation specialist, keynote speaker, and leadership coach. His leadership has rapidly transformed underperforming businesses and operating groups as well as non-profits to create measurable results in extraordinarily short timeframes. He has held C-level roles as CEO of Barnes & Noble, Sears Canada, and Brookstone, as well as senior leadership positions at Sony, Best Buy, Toys R Us, and Sears Holdings.
(C) 2025 Ron Boire
