This past Saturday marked the start of one of my favorite summer traditions: watching the Tour de France over my morning coffee.

While Le Tour is often thought of as an individual event, it’s the team tactics that make it extra fascinating. Instead of every man for himself, teams of eight work together to give their leader the best chance to win the overall competition—even if it often means sacrificing their own results.

These support riders are valuable resources and change teams often. And according to recent research from Kellogg’s Brian Uzzi and Noshir Contractor, defections like these may give teams a strategic upper hand on their rivals. More on why that matters for organizations below.

Plus, why middle age offers an advantage when starting a new business.

Recruiting your rivals

It’s bad enough when a team loses a talented player in a trade or free agency. But when that player goes to a rival, it can compound the damage.

To understand what happens when players compete against their old teams, Kellogg researchers studied statistics from the top cricket league in India. They found that when a team was familiar with more players on the opposition, it was significantly more likely to win a match against that team.

“If you play against someone you know, you know their strengths and weaknesses and can better strategize around them,” says Uzzi, professor of management and organizations at Kellogg. “You might know how the team reacts collectively and the sort of advice the coach will give—the overall playbook.”

This edge may hold in areas beyond sports as well. Businesses have long tried to poach talent from their competitors, hoping that inside information will come along as part of the deal. But recruiters may also want to consider hiring people who have been on more “teams,” perhaps bringing in knowledge from multiple rivals.

And conversely, the researchers emphasize the importance of playing defense—keeping your most valuable employees happy and in-house.

“Sometimes a really strong organization is one that grows from the inside,” Uzzi says. “They grow their talent up, so they are less likely to leak to other organizations.”

Read more at Kellogg Insight.

It’s never too late to start(up)

Entrepreneurship is often considered a young person’s game, with youthful founders attracting media attention and investors. But in a new article on ageism for Forbes, columnist Melissa Houston draws upon Kellogg research that showed middle age is the true sweet spot for founders.

“Research from the Kellogg School of Management found that entrepreneurs in their 40s are nearly twice as likely to build a successful business compared to those at 25,” Houston writes. “Why? Because success in business isn’t just about energy and tech savvy, it’s about strategy, resilience, and decision-making, which come from years of experience.”

The study, coauthored by Benjamin Jones, a professor of strategy at Kellogg, used federal datasets to analyze 2.7 million company founders who hired at least one employee between 2007 and 2014. The average age of a founder at the time their company launched was almost 42 years old. But for the fastest-growing tech companies, where youth often dominates media narratives, the average was even higher at 45 years old.

All told, a founder who is 50 years old is 1.8 times more likely to start a top company than a 30-year-old founder, and a 20-year-old founder has the worst chance of all.

What accounts for this age advantage? It boils down to experience.

“Experience can bring substantial insight about specific markets and specific technologies, in addition to skills at running things,” Jones says.

Read more in Kellogg Insight.