Best things Singaporean businesses can learn from sports

As the beginning of the soccer season fast approaches, it got me thinking about what Singaporean businesses can learn from the sporting world and the individual athletes and teams we all love to watch.

In the world of sport, training for top athletes is a regular fixture of their weekly routine. Professional footballers train four days a week in preparation for Saturday’s match; golfers and tennis players practice daily to make sure they’re always ready for the next tournament on the tour. 

Yet in business, the majority of us spend the first four to five years training and the rest of our careers just putting into play what we’ve learnt. Yes, there is the odd residential training course along the way, maybe even an MBA, but the notion of regular training and education is not woven into the fabric of business culture in the same way it is in sport.

Generally company KPIs centre around financial performance - revenue, profit, cash flow etc. - and when the business falls below expectations there is generally a short-term commercial resolution to drive more sales. Seldom do business leaders focus on the capability and skills of their employees, for many this becomes only a consideration at the annual HR review.

But the results of the business are a product of human actions, and in reality those events which are passed off as ‘out of our control’ could be prevented if we, humans, planned properly, communicated effectively and analysed intelligently. So why do we not focus attention on training on a more regular basis?

Like sportsmen and women, we should use training sessions not just to maintain a desired level, but also to focus on continually refining our skills with the end goal of winning in mind. Instil a culture of continuous improvement.

In a fast changing world, if you are not deploying the latest tactics, you’ll soon find yourself at the bottom of the league. Think of technology as a barometer of change, when those of us in our fifties were ‘doing our training’, we were using logarithm tables; now PCs, tablets Smartphones and the Internet are the tools of the trade. Unless you keep up to date, change will happen around you and to you - and you won’t notice until it’s too late.

Take a look at Manchester United’s recently retired manager, Sir Alex Ferguson; arguably the most successful manager of all time, in any sport. At the tender age of 71 he called time his career after 26 years in the job with 38 trophies to his name. And he finished at the very top of his game.

This is a man who not only transformed the culture and performance of his business, he established it as one of the world’s biggest brands whilst managing to stay ahead of some fierce competition in an environment that was constantly and dramatically changing, ever since his first day in charge way back in 1986.

Often reported for his intimidating style, his success is more a testament to his belief in preparation and training than the infamous hairdryer treatment.

Last year his methods and philosophies were the subject of an in depth study by the Harvard Business School and he was invited to share some of his management secrets to at the prestigious American university to help young people to succeed in their careers.

Ferguson always had a blueprint for planning match-day rituals, the players he targeted, keeping control of the dressing room and the mistakes he made. Training was key: “We look at the training sessions as opportunities to learn and improve,” he is quoted as saying “...The message is simple: we cannot sit still at this club… We practise for when the going gets tough, so we know what it takes to be successful in those situations…”

“Our [training] sessions are powerful and insightful and encourage players to practise hard, perfect their roles and reinforce habits. “

So make sure you take time out for training. Make it part of what you do but schedule training in advance based on a forward plan built both on the needs of the business and the individual.

Naturally training has to be in the context of what the market and competition are doing. Ferguson studied his rivals closely: “Tactics can change depending on whom we are playing… On Friday we take our players through a video analysis of our opponents: their strengths, their weaknesses, their set-pieces, what their team is likely to be, and so on.”

You can set some KPIs for training but avoid simply measuring training hours or training spend per employee; these are meaningless unless they relate to results and targets. Instead choose KPIs that directly measure performance against the specified training and development outcomes or against your business objectives: increased skill levels, improved performance against budget, reduced costs, shorter processing times etc.  

Take your lead from the world of sport and the likes of Sir Alex. Keep an eye on the competition; excite your squad about the direction your tactics; reinforce your values and team culture; and then make sure your team is always match fit. I think you’ll be surprised by the business benefits you’ll experience as a result. You might even find yourself at the top of the league.