How Olympic Training Techniques Can Improve Business Strategy
Can the new training techniques that helped American athletes achieve record medal results be applied to business strategy to improve companies' own form of gold medal: profits?
In a Fox News feature during the Winter Olympics, commentators noted that American training techniques have dramatically changed and that this change is responsible for record medal performance. The changes fall into two areas: all-body training vs. single movement training, and the heightened emphasis on balance and recovery training.
ALL-BODY TRAINING
All-body training refers to conditioning muscles as they interrelate in movement. The opposite of all-body training is the classical core or single movement training in which individual muscles – like biceps – are exercised independently.
Balance training is aimed at helping the body achieve recovery after extreme movements.
To get a picture of what this looks like, think of a downhill racer and the need for the entire body to respond and recover. In effect, we are seeing the synergy effect- when all muscles are integrated they perform better than the sum of their parts.
BUSINESS APPLICATION
This is a compelling concept for small and mid-size business; rather than over-build individual skills, departments, or functional areas (the muscles of any business) business can chose to build up the way skills, departments, and functional areas work together. In this way they support and sustain each other to achieve balance and to react to extreme business disorientations.
Of course, if a business lacks skills, talent, knowledge, or experience in an area critical for success, it must first gain them. In the words of Peter Drucker, only strengths produce results. However, the key is how to manage the development of the entire organization and not to overemphasize one area to the detriment of the total organization to produce results. This may mean, for example, that it is more productive to invest in coordinating marketing and sales rather than simply increasing the marketing budget for lead generation.
Mission: To help small and mid-size businesses capture the power of big-picture marketing.