Business and Sports: Similar Strategies?

Know your game!
Inspiring Winning Strategies...

I can't help but to compare business strategies to that of sports, the military, biology, and physics. Just look at all the phrases that marketing utilizes for verbiage related to military like aggressive lingo: strategize, campaign, brand, competitive analysis, infiltrate, division, targets, allies, war, guerrilla, launch, and many other terms utilized in business for dialogue. One of my favorite quotes is, "Failing to prepare, is preparation for failure" - Lincoln. Being a native of Cincinnati, and watching the Eagles vs. Bengals yesterday was entertainingly frustrating. While logging onto my email, a post by Yahoo! news catches my attention, so I bit. The video illustrates how when you're a professional, you need to be in tune with your surroundings, options, and the entire landscape when strategizing. I stray from the fact that both these teams played, lets just say, interesting games, but I relate this to any business plan, marketing agenda, or project you lead. Know your game! Educate yourself, play with passion, heart, and all out awareness of what your goals are! One of the best tid bits I was told by a former VP of P&G, Nabil Sakkab, while conversing about what inspires success was, "Have a focused vision". Simple enough, but all that hard work, learning, growing, and bringing your talent with excellence is key to any success! That, along with engaging others in your vision, adapting to change, having integrity, passion, listening (reminded of this article, "Don't Shout, Listen", by Greg Icenhower), and leading with a respectful fury to win are all key ingredients for a winning recipe!

To focus on the positive, Donovan did admit what he did not know, so that shows humility, or simply not being in tune with your 'A' game! I admire when people are authentic, honest, and humble, but I ask, do you feel there are times to 'listen' more than speak ; ) ! This shows how we must be realistic. The Bengals are now 1-9-0, and are beyond 're building' in the short term to aim for their long shot at the playoffs. I wonder if Marvin asks the team, "Do you want me to get fired?". Cincinnati, for the most part, appreciates Mr. Lewis, as do I, but inevitably it boils down to performance, not if we like someone or not. Just like business, we are a 'results driven' society, and the Bengals are not assessed on if we like them or not (well their image/PR are crucial and related to assessment) but Wins and Losses. All that hard work, the millions upon millions of dollars floating around, managing personalities in the locker room, having leaders on the team who can truly inspire others with not only a positive attitude, but with action, mentoring others, and creating a cohesive community are key elements to having any successful organization. Marvin inspires that, but like any team, it can dismantle with ego, lack of listening (like any relationship), and not being engaged in the vision with passion. Instead, the attitude is 'here we go again, same old same old, I am not getting this/that/passes/raises, etc., Cincinnati is a gloom town, etc.', but I extend this perspective with invitation of your insights, do you feel you can change an organization with merely a dose of positive attitude and psychology? Most teams seem close with salary, resources, training, and talent (a few have some outliers), but essentially most teams are fairly the same with different names/uniforms correct? At the pro level, do you feel it's how, who, and what is being led related to the 'talent pool', and how the resources are managed?

• How would you improve your business team, or the Bengals (besides fire Mike Brown)?
• Can a city (or community) and it's energy affect the team?
• Would you admit you didn't know a game could tie?
• What are your comparisons between sports (or other realms) and business?
• Is it the dialogue we're having, words we utilize, and how we converse that affects our attitude? How can we improve our conversations?

Who Dey!