I’m not talking about the business of sports or the sports’ business, but what can we learn from sports.
Two weeks ago I watched the Washington Huskies football game with my son, daughter-in-law, wife, and grandchildren. Then a week later the NFL season got into full swing. I watched the season ending golf tournament, the grand slam US Open for tennis. And I’m not even an avid fan. But, I did learn a thing or two that can be applied to business.
- Keep score
See those numbers at the bottom of the picture? What good is a competitive game without keeping score. In business it’s market share, relative profitability to competitors, relative gross margin, sales, and many more ways to benchmark the competition.
- Have a plan
See that single sheet strategic summary the coach is holding? You cannot keep it all in your head. Write it down. Illustrate it with pictures. Announce it at meetings.
- Communicate
See those headphones and microphone? Communicate with your leaders. Communicate with your people. Avoid distractions (see the over the ear headphones to block out the sound of the crowd). Make sure you can be heard clearly (see the special microphone directly in front of the mouth). You will often see coaches cover their mouth with the single sheet strategic summary to avoid letting competitors to see what is being said. Don’t let your competitors in on everything you are doing.
- You need a team
Even the US Open winners walked over to their team to give and get congratulations on a job well done. Even a solo entrepreneur, like myself, has people on an extended to team to help with IT, marketing, legal, taxes, accounting, insurance, software, training.
- People will talk
One reason you need to constantly and repetitively communicate is people will talk. If you don’t tell people what happened, they will talk about it and fill in blanks. If you have to let someone go, tell people about it and, perhaps, why they were not fitting with the culture of the company. Sports coaches have to remind team members all the time about what is expected of them. Team members with a bad attitude can spoil the camaraderie of a team. Your competitors will talk as well.
- People will judge
Of course the referees will judge. The video recordings and the vision based systems will decide if a ball or a foot is in or out. Everyone is watching. Some calls will be good and some will be bad. Handling those situations is when companies excel or implode. For business it’s financial auditors, quality assurance certifications, customer assessments.
- There are rules
Every game, every business has rules within which competition occurs. We all spend too much time and effort discussing, judging, explaining, complaining, and defending those who break the rules.
Some additional quotes/thoughts from me:
- What kind of an owner are you?
- Owner Operators
- Majority shareholder
- Minority shareholder with a board seat
- Shareholder
- Activist shareholder
- Chairman Emeritus (Warren Buffet)
- Live off your business instead of working in it
- How do you keep score?
- Report card from grade school
- MLB or NFL player cards
- Player statistics on PGA Tour
- Financial metrics ratios
- Balanced score card
- Asset-Class Business Capacity (let’s talk)
- Cost
- TCO Total Cost of Operation pioneered, for me, by Daimler Truck
- TCT Total Cost of Transport recently used by Dirk Wohltmann of ZF
- Landed cost as often discussed on Shark Tank
Recent Comments:
- The parking garage story lands, Paul. From the inside of a big company, getting a decision made feels less like a business case and more like winning an election: you need a lobby, you convince people one at a time, and eventually the collective produces something that gets presented as the boss’s call. Uwe Mierisch
- Paul, making it easier to buy is something a lot of salespeople overlook. Trust gets you into the conversation, but reducing uncertainty helps people actually make the decision. Marshall Adler
- Paul, Thought provoking article. In the opening of my speech called “The Trust Goldmine” I say that in today’s world we must trust: 1. ourselves 2. Our team, 3. Our company 4. Our customer. Jerry Fletcher
- What a very inciteful email! . . . shared this email with Jay Wommack, CEO and Owner of Vertical Alliance Group. He sent me a short note (his normal response format!) stating “Really good read” which is a very high comment from Jay. If he has not already read those books – they are now on his list to read them. Greg Shipman
Additional Opportunities:
- Check out “Diagnose Your Turck & Company with Jon White on
- Register for October First Friday Forum for Free
- Navigate to a Business that Runs withOUT You
- https://www.eventbrite.com/e/navigate-to-a-business-that-runs-without-you-tickets-2000283376425?aff=oddtdtcreator
- Let’s talk soon https://calendly.com/paul-ba
- Get your Asset-class Business Capacity Score Card for free
- Learn the basic finance ratios and how to glean important information from the 3 essential financial reports
- See how to deal with complexity as you scale from under 10 persons to over a thousand
- Find out WHY you do it, HOW you do it, and WHAT you expect
- Apply to be on Business Accelerants Memos podcast, both audio and video on Apple now.
