Watching
the mighty All Blacks beat the USA rugby team at Chicago in November made me
think about how this team has become one of the most successful sports teams
the world has ever seen. The ‘All
Blacks’ (reference to the colour of their uniform) are the national rugby team
of New Zealand, and even taking into account the fact that there are only 4.5
million people in New Zealand, their achievements on the world stage and
against much larger countries, have been mind-bogglingly successful.
To give you some idea of their stature, over the 144 years rugby has been played in New Zealand and the 130 years the All Blacks have been playing other countries, they have only ever been beaten by 5 countries, won 400 of their 524 games played at a win rate of 76%. As of September 2014 this year, they are on a streak that includes 20 games in a row unbeaten and 36 games unbeaten at home, all against tier one international teams and in some hostile environments from Johannesburg to Buenos Aeries and now London to Chicago. They became the first rugby nation in the professional era to achieve a 100% winning record in a calendar year.
It’s
difficult to compare their success because of subjectivity but records show
some of the best local and international teams of all time are,
Win
% Wins Losses Year Team Comment
.764 400 124 1884-2014 NZ
National All Blacks Rugby
.673 70 34 1914-2014 Brazil National Soccer Football
.878 72 10 1995–96 Chicago
Bulls best 82-game season
.825 60 8 1976–77 Montreal Canadiens
.798 67 17 1880 Chicago
White Stockings
How
do you create a winning team like the All Blacks? How does an organisation go out to fashion a
record almost unmatched around the world for any local or international
sporting team, over such a long period?
I have tried to put down on paper a few of the immediately obvious
traits that the All Black organisation clearly used to their benefit and these
traits can be transposed over to a commercial parking organisation.
Talent
The definition of talent is a natural aptitude or skill. I don’t believe this. I believe talent comes from hard work and years of preparation. You may have heard of the 10,000 hours (Malcolm Gladwell) it comes to becoming an expert. Take Tiger Woods, he achieved expert status probably by the time he was 5-7 years old, and today that would be Lydia Ko.
Access
to or attracting the best talent is a major challenge for any organisation, but
for one that has its eyes on being world class, it needs the best talent on
board, with the best talent coming through in a wave right behind, pushing
standards higher and higher.
To
test this I went through a number of parking job vacancies online to check out
what the vital and typical skill or talent was that if in abundance in your
organisation, would transform you into a world class parking outfit. There are no single set of skills that makes
a parking person like accounting makes an accountant or law makes a
lawyer. Organisations have advertised
for public administration, business administration, engineering, Bachelor
Science, Bachelor Arts, or ANY 4 year degree.
To cloud the water even more, for my team here, I look for economics
skills – the balance of supply & demand must be understood as a
priority. You can sub-contract the other
skills.
Maybe identifying talent young, with basic skill sets and investing in them until they become world class is a way to improve your business. I don’t know of any parking company that does that.
Clarity of Purpose
The
structure must be set to be focussed on ONE goal, success.
The
All Blacks are blessed with a structure in New Zealand where every town has a
rugby club. When New Zealand was being
developed in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the rugby club was the place
where all of the farmers and town folk would meet up. It was like the town hall and so the game
spread around the country. Today you
could not replicate that infrastructure simply.
Most sports organisations short circuit that process by having
commercial relationships with other clubs around the world. Parking companies should look at something
similar to extend their influence and to access resources limited in their own
environment.
The
New Zealand Rugby Union controls ALL rugby in the country. Every town has a team, every suburb or region
has a representative team, every region flows into a provincial team and 26
provinces in New Zealand form the five Super Rugby franchises that compete with
teams other countries that go from South Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand
to Argentina … the long way around! Each
of these franchises from New Zealand form the All Blacks. With that pyramid structure, it’s easy to see
how THE single goal of a small country is a winning national rugby team.
Many
companies including parking companies do not know what their single goal is and
in not knowing that goal, they can’t organise themselves to achieve it in a
world class fashion. The All Blacks
organise themselves to win international rugby matches better than anyone else
in the world, what does your parking company do?
Complete Trust
The
management structure of the New Zealand Rugby Union gives the right to organise
and run the rugby programme of the All Blacks to the All Blacks
management. They understand that the
coach and players are the experts and will get it right. Rugby Union focus is on supporting the team
through good times and bad. They trust
completely that the team is doing the right things to achieve its goals.
How may cities, councils and perhaps companies trust their teams to get the job done? An example of this is when the Councillors, Mayor or even the CEO give direction of operational matters like pricing. Operational matters belong to operations and in this case the All Black team. You wouldn’t hear of the Union instructing the All Blacks on tactics.
A Healthy Impatience
With
a positive and achieving culture, supported by a trusting management structure,
you can develop a team that pulls together during bad times and still manages
to win, even in the last minute of the game.
However, to consistently beat the world, you must get there first. This means that developing new technologies
or new methodologies to operate your car park should be trialled and tested,
even if no one else in the world has ever done it before. Not rushed, just impatient.
Developing
a healthy impatience or a positive edginess should be encouraged. The All Blacks score more points than any
opposition, even when they go a player down with a yellow card. Even when they are 14 on 15 players, their
record shows they rise and score more points.
This is a staggering achievement based on a desire to be the best in the
world.
The
All Blacks have shown the world that to be world class you have to get a bunch
of things right, all at the same time.
They don’t wait for others to achieve, they don’t wait for others to
learn how the All Blacks do it and catch up, they keep challenging, testing,
trialling, watching, adapting, recruiting, trusting, desiring and
building. Aren’t these traits we want in
our business and the industry?
Kevin
Warwood
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