After a disappointing start to the summer, British sportsmen and women have been enjoying a better time in the last week or so – well over a hundred medals at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and even a test match victory in the cricket after nearly a year of waiting!
As a sports fan and firm supporter of British teams in any competition, I have followed most of the major events reasonably closely on TV and of course the interviews and analysis that follow. When the successful participants are interviewed, there are always the old clichés (over the moon, one game at a time etc…), but there are also some interesting comments and some clear themes emerge when they analyse their own success.
Like most businesses, sport is a competitive environment, requiring high performance and has a clear result – whilst we measure against sales and profit targets, they count personal best performances, medals and funding.
And just like the most successful businesses, the winners in sport, whilst undoubtedly talented, often attribute much of their success to planning, training and their coaches. The winning performance is usually the culmination of years of hard work, carefully planned and tracked.
So if we want ‘gold medal’ businesses, don’t we have to do the same?
If we have a great product or service, then we can make the most of it by building robust plans; sticking to them; bringing in expert help and advisors and regularly measuring our performance so we know we are on track.
Chris.