The role of sport in business
The following are some notes from our "Managing Ideas" meeting at the Lexus Centre, Collingwood Football Club's new corporate facility in Melbourne on August 18th.
Sporting analogies can be a neat/convenient way to transfer complex ideas and attitudes to a group of people that need to be organised.
In using sport to communicate business principles, there can be a
- a clear focus
- The ball can be seen as the customer or the transfer of an idea
- The team ethos can be used to unite the group
Is a good coach a good business manager? Are they essentially the same roles in different situations?
- Good sport and good business is the result of good people management
- A good coach or business manager at times works like a psychologist
- A good coach and good business manager appreciates the importance of selecting the right people for the right jobs. In football, a team full of ruckmen is ultimately detrimental, and the same rule applies in business. A good manager seeks to complement people in their working relationships and maximise the potential of individuals by giving them roles that utilise their strengths while downplaying their weaknesses.
Does sport have a role in improving business performance?
- Yes, the ongoing training and development ethos in sport should be applied to business. Would you ever see a sporting team stop training because they had over compensated the previous year? Sporting teams emphasise continual growth while business is too erratic.
- Teams training far more than they play; business is the opposite.
- Business could benefit from knowing their opponents as well as sporting teams do.
- The work ethic in sport can be used as a motivating force in business
- Bob Ansett developed a strict fitness ethic to drive business performance
- Japanese businesses exercise together as a way to bond and motivate
Fundamental differences between sport and business?
- You rarely see sacrificial acts in business as you do in sport (Olympic cycling example)
- There are more variables affecting the final outcome in business. Sport is simple, the dynamics are reduced and there is a narrow goal.
- No – business is just as simple, profit margins are the simple, narrow goal to which you measure success.
- Sporting teams rely on external experts for maintaining and improving performances (physios, nutritionists etc). Business tends to have a more insular focus.
- There is a fundamental philosophical difference that stems back to the win/lose mentality of sport and the win/win intention of business (a good service or product equates to a win for the customer and a win for the business)
- Sport has some set rules that cannot be changed without destroying the game. Rules and business are far more problematic – the idea of business ethics is totally subjective.
- Sporting results are tangible and objective whereas measuring the success of a business is subject to more variables and is often more emotional
- After the game, sporting opponents resume a positive relationship. True or false in business?
Bonding 'sports' weekends with work – are they effective?
- Most of the time they lack follow-up
- Need to be more emphasis on applying what you have learnt at the weekend to the business
- Can be effective but need to be sensitive to people's physical weaknesses