Learning from sport

We have witnessed some remarkable sporting achievements recently – Roger Federer winning Wimbledon for the 7th time, Spain winning the Euro 2012 Championships and Bradley Wiggins winning the Tour de France.

All of these achievements, and many more not mentioned, are remarkable because if somebody had said they would happen, not many people would of believed them.

Why, because they all go against the pattern of what has gone before and they seem impossible.

This reminds me of what we are tasked to do in business planning – we set business objectives based on what we need to achieve and what we believe is possible.

But, is there a role for setting business objectives that seem impossible ? Can we learn from sport and how teams plan for the impossible.

Let’s remember that before 2008, Spain had not won a major football tournament – they are now the European Champions, World Cup Holders and then if you look below the surface, they are the under 21 European champions, Under 19 European champions.

Before Bradley Wiggins won the 2012 Tour de France, there has never been a British winner of this race.

No doubt somebody started the dream for both Spain and a British winner of the Tour de France.

One key lesson to learn is that it’s not just about having a dream – it’s also about having a plan to achieve the dream.

British Cycling and Sky put together a team and then planned for success. Spanish Football set out a way to play football to conquer the world.

Both of these achievements seemed impossible but with a dream and well developed strategy and implementation plan, these dreams became reality.

What business dream do you have ?

Marketing Information Systems and Marketing Research

Clearly companies & brands do not operate within a vacuum. They operate within a market.

Defining the market and how your company/brand fits within the market is one area where marketing information systems and marketing research can help.

Kotler says that "marketing information is a critical element in effective marketing" - we probably have all experienced working with companies that have too much of the wrong information and/or information that is so badly collected that it provides an inaccurate view of the market and where each brand sits within it.

Spending time on this area of the business is I believe essential - how can you possibly know what to do next if your understanding of the current situation is flawed. Setting realistic business goals/objectives and then developing sound strategies and implementation plans is dependent upon having accurate information.

Kotler outlines four key systems - systems is an interesting word that suggests that marketing information and intelligence should be collected systematically and then analysed using a system of established techniques.

Far too many times I have come across organisations that base business and marketing decisions upon data where the source of the information has not been taken into account. I have actually heard a senior manager say that they think competitor X has a market share of Y because he read a trade press article saying so - this may be accurate but how do you know. Surely, there would be a more accurate way to obtain market share data, especially if you are about to base a strategic plan on stealing some of that share - it may not exist !

So, marketing information systems and marketing research are still important today as they were back in 1988. The way markets have become more complex, you can easily argue that they are even more important.