At the beginning
of the 2015/16 football season who would’ve believed that Leicester City would
be crowned the Premier League champions. After all, the odds were certainly
against them and they had only narrowly avoided relegation the previous season
with a win in the final game of the season.
So
how did they manage it and what lessons can your business learn from their
success?
There are a
number of contributory factors to Leicester City’s success which when applied
to your business can help facilitate growth, encourage teamwork and ultimately
help your business achieve success.
Strategy
Like business,
success in football is pre-dominantly based on identifying a strategy and
applying this strategy effectively. This includes the composition of your team,
understanding your own strengths/weaknesses plus those of your opposition, and
pinpointing and then exploiting any opportunities whilst minimising the
threats.
It can be
tempting to focus on individuals within your team and build your strategy
around their individual strengths rather than looking at the team as a whole.
But what happens if that individual leaves or the rest of the team aren’t able
to perform effectively within your chosen strategy? By creating a strategy that
encompasses the strengths of the whole team the impact of an individual leaving
can be minimised and their replacement will be able to fit in to your strategy
more easily.
Confidence & Self-belief
Although they had
only narrowly avoided relegation in the previous season, Leicester ended that
season in strong form, winning 7 of their last 9 games. It would’ve been all
too easy for Leicester to focus on the negatives but by focusing on the
positive end to the 2014/15 season Leicester began the new 2015/16 season with
confidence and were able to continue this form into the season.
Success breeds
success, and working in a positive environment that thrives on celebrating
success will help promote confidence and self-belief and facilitate further
success. Even when things go wrong, there are lessons to be learnt and
positives to be taken from the experience.
Teamwork
One of the main
headline grabbers throughout Leicester City’s success has been Jamie Vardy,
their top goal-scorer, however the contribution made by other members of the
squad cannot and should not be overlooked. For example, it doesn’t matter if an
individual scores a goal in every match if the defence then concedes 2 goals
per match, and it’s important to understand how many players contributed
towards the overall outcome of scoring the goal – this could include all 11
players from the team, rather than the final goal scorer.
Each and every
person in your team needs to be working effectively together to reach the team
or business objective and understand their own contribution to the overall
picture. By feeling valued and part of a team effort, individuals will be able
to perform to their own strengths in the knowledge that they are being
supported by the strengths of other team members.
Consistency
Leicester have
maintained a consistent team throughout the season enabling trust to build
between the players. They knew how each other played and how to bring the best
performance levels out of the different team members which in turn translated
to a consistent performance for the fans who began to expect the same week in,
week out.
This level of
consistency and trust can be brought about within a business through the
introduction of processes. By ensuring consistency within your organisation you
can manage your customers’ expectations and build levels of trust and brand
loyalty by offering consistently high levels of service and/or product quality.
Luck
Finally, it’s
fair to say that Leicester have experienced an element of luck in their run to
the Premier League title – but a little bit of luck can certainly go a long
way!
You may not
think these elements have anything to do with marketing however everything here
is actually what makes your brand live and breathe – both internally and
externally. A clear strategy; a strong, confident identity; great customer
service through internal communication, training and processes; consistency for
messaging and branded communications – will all give you improved opportunities
to win business … which is lucky!
If you would
like to discuss how we can help your business succeed, give us a call today.
Karen Munson is
Strategic Officer at Enterprise Marketing Solutions and contactable on 01296 695635
or Karen.,munson@enterprisemarketing.co.uk.
