The Wimbledon tennis tournament is in full swing. Tennis is a unique sport in many ways with its bizarre scoring system; the number of biomechanical, equipment, surface and weather variables it brings into play; and, the complex interaction between mentality and physicality that it demands of its players. But perhaps the biggest oddity in tennis is a fundamental difference in the nature of the spectator sport versus the participation sport: although the vast majority of club players almost always play doubles, almost all of them prefer to watch singles. These are two massively different games in terms of patterns of play, technique and strategy, and it strikes me as quite strange that people choose not to watch the sport they play and vice versa. I can’t think of any other sport in which this dichotomy exists.
Organisations tend to evaluate their success by performance metrics. These metrics capture tangible, measurable outputs — how much, how fast, how profitably — that connect directly to the bottom line or ROI. But as most CEOs know, performance, no matter how you measure it, depends on something less often quantified: executive effectiveness. And given the […]
This month, executives of kitchen appliance manufacturer Whirlpool came forward and apologized for not opting to recall fire-prone dryers they had been selling for the last decade or so.
Paul Parker is an Expert Partner at PerformanceWorks International and former England footballer. Below, Paul discusses the ways in which businesses can learn from sport, calling from his own years of experience. Having a career in professional sport taught me a lot about the processes behind building a strong organisation and making sure everyone feels […]
What differentiates your company from your rivals? In corporate literature, the answer to this crucial question is usually about unique selling points, improved value propositions and unrivalled leadership teams. However, such internally sourced answers are rarely meaningful - you should be asking the customer. Increasingly in the modern economy, the profitable established sectors are becoming […]
As human beings, we are not immune to the fact that being organised brings efficiency and order to our lives, but as much as we enjoy the control that brings, we are notoriously bad at staying organised. Here is a reminder of some of the changes we can make in order to declutter our minds […]
Richard James is Director at Jolly Good Communications, a social enterprise providing a full range of communications and public relations services to charities, social enterprises and other not-for-profits. They also work with start-ups and SMEs, helping them to operate in a socially, environmentally and ethically conscious way. Below Richard explains why your company should at […]
Marketing is often associated with vast amounts of cash and expensive publicity stunts, but this doesn’t have to be the case. If you work for a charity, you can create and launch an effective marketing campaign on any budget — regardless of your marketing goal. Here to explain how is the team at Where the […]
The fight to retain top talent is tougher than ever and organisations need to look for alternative ways to differentiate themselves in a competitive marketplace, in an era where annual, inflation-only pay rises are becoming the norm. Here Paul Hutchinson, Head of Product at Sparks Grove and Founder of 360 feedback and talent managements start-up Culr, […]
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