Many people may see elite sport and financial services as two areas in life which don’t necessarily intertwine. But what if I told you that there was a topic which is being adopted by businesses and elite sports people alike?
Sport and finance can often be seen to be different, but one thing they have in common is that on and off the field, in or out of the office, the most successful teams/businesses/players/colleagues are looking to find those 1%ers. Those golden nuggets which will give them the edge on their competitors and improve the success of their domain. This is what the best-of-the-best do on a daily basis to keep themselves, or their businesses, at the top of the tree. It’s not just about those big wins and major changes…
Now, I’m someone who believes that having high ambitions and goals is a good thing. It’s great to have something to strive for and to drive you, on a daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly basis. But unfortunately, the last few years have proved to be a challenging time for both the financial and sporting industries. We have seen businesses and elite sports teams dissolve, people lose their jobs and, for many, the financial struggles still exist. As a result, ambitions have needed to be tapered and business and elite sport alike have had to re-evaluate its priorities.
Could this therefore bring to the forefront those smaller changes?
Those high aspirations and large-scale changes which we saw more commonly before the pandemic have become more challenging in all walks of life. So, without these, what can businesses or sportspeople do to stay ahead of the game? Dave Brailsford (Head of British Cycling from 2002) once spoke about various improvements he made ahead of a Tour De France and said ‘Forget about perfection; focus on progression and compound the improvements’, when discussing his theory of marginal gains. He explains that lots of small changes can add up to something more. Having that perfection in mind is a great aspiration to have but compounding those smaller gains can make as much, if not more, of a difference.
In financial services, many providers in the market offer a range of similar services, be this transferring products, investing on behalf of clients or offering savings facilities. This is similar in many elite sports. Many elite golfers will be able to drive the ball well, cyclists ride fast, netball players pass the ball accurately. But what separates the best-of-the-best? It’s that continual passion to improve what they do, and this is also what the elite of the financial services sector strive to achieve.
Those small 1%ers may well be things which many customers do not see. A small change to an internal process or a tweak to an operating model within a department. These are small changes which may improve that process in comparison to other offerings in the market and help elevate the experience for the customer. Similarly, this can be replicated into the sporting world. For example, a golfer changing their thought process when addressing the ball. Again, a small tweak to their process, but one which may help them enhance their performance – internal processes and patterns which will improve the outcome but aren’t large scale changes.
But to summarise, let’s think back to the start of this article. Did you think that sport and financial services had anything in common? Did you think there were many similarities across the different professions?
Well, it looks like there may well be more than what you think!
