Short Term Wins vs Long Term Strategy: How Marvel showed you can do both

One of the best strategists of the 21st century probably won’t be recognized as such, though most people are familiar with his work. He’s taken his company from almost nothing to one of the most profitable in the industry. And he did it with short term wins that built on a longer term, 12-year horizon. The brilliant strategist? It’s Kevin Feige.

For those who love Marvel movies, Kevin Feige is a household name. Before he became CEO of Marvel Studios in 2007, the company was close to bankruptcy and had licensed properties like X-Men, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four to avoid Chapter 11. But some “secondary characters” were unwanted, so Feige made the decision to make the movies himself. He started with a lesser known character named Iron Man and cast Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. It was a great stand-alone movie. But from the beginning, Feige had plans for Marvel Studios, teasing a “bigger universe” as Nick Fury put it following the credits of that first movie. And with a global box office take of $585 million, it was a promising start.

Feige began producing films to grow this Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), giving characters their own movies with sequels to boot. Feige found talented script writers, brilliant directors, and passionate actors that would throw themselves into their roles. The Hulk, Captain America, and Thor came first, followed by Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel. Spider-Man also joined, though his rights were still owned by Sony. However, as Sony saw this MCU continue to grow, they knew adding their licensed property would be a winning proposition. They weren’t wrong. Each film produced by Feige had an average of $980 million in global ticket sales. 

The end goal of introducing these characters was to bring them together in Avengers movies where they would work together to fight against evil. Wanting to see this interaction between multiple superheroes, movie-goers flocked to the box office. The final movie, Avengers: End Game, broke records for the highest grossing film ever and Marvel Studios became the biggest movie company in the world. It only took 12 years from Feige becoming president of the studio.

Many business owners will say that short term strategy is easy. Find a need, fill it, and then find the next need to fill. Companies do that every day. But, the truly great ones have an eye on the long term strategy, recognizing that a short term opportunity should only be taken when it moves you toward the larger one. 

Determining what your long term strategy should be can be hard. It’s a dance of internal vs. external forces. For Feige, he recognized Marvel’s strengths: telling great stories and a list of characters they could build from. He also saw the forces around them creating opportunity - more channels and mediums where those stories could be told like network TV, streaming services, cable, etc., talent to utilize, and a fan base clamoring for a tribe to belong to.

Taking the time to build out your long term strategy is important for any organization. Whether you look 5, 10, or 20 years into the future, you can build a plan that capitalizes on today while building for the future. By looking at your company’s strengths and capabilities and matching them with upcoming trends and changing market factors, you can create a cohesive long term strategy. Once done, you can work backwards from the final goal to develop the short term wins that will build the momentum to get you to your own Endgame.