Shane Parrish

And if it didn't work, you hadn't lost much.

But if it did, you had a new base to launch the next push.

Britain became the base for Holland and Belgium.

Holland became the base for France.

France became the base for Italy.

Each country was a staging ground for the next.

The ammunition was frozen potatoes and the territory was shelf space.

But the strategy was pure military logic.

That was so typical of Harrison.

It was the only instruction I ever got.

That was management by suggestion.

The style Harrison had learned from Casey Irving.

Tell someone where to go and let them figure out how to get there.

Before any domination, though, there was scouting.

There was no committees at McCain, no studies from high-paid consultants.

Just go have a look, come back, and tell me what you found.

The man spent six weeks walking around Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.

He came home and recommended the Netherlands.

It sat in the heart of Europe's best potato country between Germany and France, two enormous markets that it could serve.

He also urged Harrison to stop thinking about Europe as a collection of separate countries and start treating it as one single market.