Football lessons for businesses

Germany did not win the recent world cup on July 13th; they won it at least 10 years earlier! The winning coach- Joachim Loewe thanked his predecessor – Jurgen Kinsman for putting in place the building blocks for the victory in 2014. By the way, Joachim Loewe was Kinsman’s assistant for two years, from 2004 – 2006 before taking charge in 2006, pointing to continuity and a consistent approach. You would recall that Germany had been to the semi – finals of the two previous world cups in 2010 and 2006. There was a deliberate strategy on the part of the Germans to reach the pinnacle of football, following their woeful performance in Euro 2000 and 2004. In Euro 2000, Germany was virtually disgraced from the tournament. They finished with only one point and were thrashed 3 – 0 by Portugal’s reserve team. In Euro 2004, they again failed to get out of the group stage. They were eliminated by supposed minnows and beaten, again by a reserve Czech Republic team. Their team was ageing and were playing an out-dated model of football.

Those experiences triggered a long term plan that included overhauling their total youth system. This overhaul eventually produced exceptional talent such as Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil, Manuel Neur, Thomas Muller, Jerome Boateng and Andre Schuller. Most of these players were part of the team that won the UEFA under 21 championships in 2009. The scorer of the winning goal of the final match – Mario Goetze is only 22 years old. This brimming young talent is the result of a decision years ago to compel every German club to set up a youth academy. These academies ensure training of young boys academically and technically, football wise. In the just concluded season, the German League (Budesliga) featured more 17 years olds than at any time in history.

We begin see that the success of the Germans at the world cup was carefully planned. They had put in place the building blocks years earlier. So how can businesses adapt this level of long term planning to their operations?

The first thing is to work with the end in mind. The Germans had a goal of winning the world cup. For businesses, however, these goals could be things like; attaining market leadership, expanding to new markets, employing a certain number of staff, or attaining a particular turnover or profit target. That goal must be clearly stated and agreed by all in the organisation. Everyone joining the organisation should not be in doubt as to what the organisation is driving towards. All resources in the organisation should be pulled towards those stated goals. Then, a business needs to get its best hands leading the attainment of those goals. The Germans co-opted the legendary Franz Beckenbauer, Jurgen kinsman and other top ex internationals into the attainment of their goals. Businesses need to realise that it might not happen overnight, and there would be near misses (as happened to the Germans in the 2006 and 2010 world cups). These misses might lead to a revision of the process, but the goal should always be kept in view.

The second lesson businesses can learn from the German triumph is the appropriate use of technology. Technology is no longer a nice to have; neither is it just about getting everyone in the company hooked up to the internet. It goes way beyond that. Technology should be an integral part of business strategy, planning and processes. I dare say that the German team actually won most of their matches with the aid of technology! Before the final game of the world cup, the wall street journal published an article titled. “Germany’s 12th man at the world cup: Big data”. The German national team actually partnered with German software giant, SAP AG   to designed a proprietary system that allowed the German team to have up to the minute relevant data about both their players and other players. The tool called Match Insights analyses video data from on field cameras capable of capturing thousands of data points per second, including player position and speed. This data then goes into an SAP database that runs analytics and allows coaches to target performance metrics for specific players and give them feedback. This feedback could also be sent to their player’s mobile phones for further analysis and help in improving their game. For instance, with this system, they were able to gauge how many touches players made during a game, how many tackles, how many runs, how many headers, the speed of the player, his positioning….. and the likes. The list is endless. The system also includes a video clip of what they wanted to get cross. What this meant was that the German coaches had a scientific way of measuring player performance and determining which specific areas needed improvement. The system could also judge which type of players would be suited for a particular game or opponent. SAP’s head of soccer sponsorship Mr Jungkind said of the tool, “When it comes to positioning on the field, Match Insights can show the team virtual defensive shadows that show how much area a player can protect with his own body”. This can help them visualise and exploit weak links in an opponent’s set up. And, exploit weak links they did. In the game against Brazil, even though Brazil had 52 % ball possession, the Germans passed the ball at full speed to create holes in the Brazilian defence. They had used the tool to cut down their average possession time from 3.4 seconds to I.I seconds. Talk about using data and technology to gain a competitive advantage! The German team used the tool to maximum effectiveness. For instance, before Germany’s first game against Portugal, Jerome Boateng had asked for data on Cristiano Ronaldo. He wanted to find out how Ronaldo moves in the box, and this made his job of marking Ronaldo a lot easier. They also used the tool to analyse the French team. They realised that the French team were very concentrated in the middle but left spaces on the flanks, so the German team targeted this weakness. Clearly football has gone way beyond what happens on the pitch or training grounds. Teams that did not take advantage of data, statistics and scientific approach to games lost out in the end. For instance, the Nigerian team had 9 corner kicks against France, but didn’t test the French goalkeeper from any of the corner kicks. In contrast, France’s two goals against Nigeria were from corner kicks.

Essentially, businesses must realise that Technology is integral to business success in the 21st century.  The rise of Big Data is changing the game for businesses. Businesses need to invest in gaining a competitive advantage through the gathering and effective use of data. This cuts across all industries. The battle field is shifting to the accurate use of data. Businesses should be concerned about getting the tiniest bit of data about current and potential clients. Things like, what are their buying patterns, what is their level of disposable income, how many children are they likely to have, what’s their buying preference, how do they want to be served, what are the migration trends, what is the demographic component of my current market? These data if correctly analysed will ensure market leadership and will ensure that businesses are ahead of their competitors. Scenario planning is also another game changer. Companies need to plan for the worst and begin to build their systems for what happens if, for instance, regulations change, their key supplier closes down, there is political tension in the country of their key buyers… and the likes. Businesses need to build different scenarios using technology and data to assist them in this process. Granted, a number of smaller businesses in Africa might not have access or resources to acquire these sorts of game changing technology, but it is also a challenge to technology firms to design solutions that are affordable and deliver appreciable value just the way SAP was able to provide to the German national team.

So when watching a football match, try to see which lessons your business can adapt from the game…don’t just enjoy the game.

Oguche Agudah