Nick Bolton, CEO, discusses what business can learn from sport this summer

We’re in the midst of a real festival of sport this summer. England have had successful runs at the Women’s Football World Cup and the Men’s Cricket World Cup, New Zealand beat Australia by one goal in a thrilling Netball World Cup Final, and we’ve had drama a plenty at Wimbledon and The Open. A common feature across these events has been injuries, or rather some athletes rapid return from injury.

Andy Murray has done what nobody thought was possible and returned to playing tennis to win at Queens, after a hip operation. And in this month’s blockbuster Cricket World Cup Final, Jason Roy ran out Martin Guptill on the final ball to make England World champions – both players had made rapid returns to fitness. These returns from injury aren’t a coincidence. Coaches are no longer just going on intuition, they’re using technology to make informed decisions about their players recovery and performance.

In the case of Martin Guptill, his physio used IMU Step – a Vicon solution which measures the load placed on limbs during training. On the back of a busy 2018 season, Martin had returned from the Caribbean Premier League with both a lingering hamstring injury and a fresh soleus injury. His domestic team physio, Brendan Wilson, had recently invested in GPS tracking technology to monitor overall workloads across the squad. However, he felt IMU Step would offer deeper data insights and help him create a more impactful rehabilitation programme, speeding his return to competition and a place in a World Cup Final.

Rapid recovery from injury really matters when you’re competing at the highest level.

Nick Bolton, CEO.

Rapid recovery from injury really matters when you’re competing at the highest level. If you’re the Brooklyn Nets in the NBA and you’ve just signed Kevin Durant – one of the world’s best basketball players – for £130 million, then you are going to want Kevin to be fit. If he gets injured and misses a few games, that could make all the difference to their season.

Business needs to take note. In the UK, the productivity gap is getting worse, according to research conducted by Sage, productivity in the UK has not increased since the financial crisis in 2008. Some businesses have been walking wounded.

All too often, managers – myself included – don’t think carefully enough about how they can get the best out of their star players. Companies often talk a good game. We see firms tell investors how they are driving sales productivity or talk about developers who are ‘driving innovation’ – whatever that may mean.

But too often this is just lip service, we aren’t looking closely enough at each individual and how we can get the best out of each of them. So what can business learn from sport?

First, athletes place enormous value on being mentally fit for competition. They have access to the very best sports pychologists to turn around and maintain their performance when the pressure is on. Your business may not have access to the same resources but we all have the ability to listen and understand what motivates a person, so that they can bring their best each day.

Second, coaches look at what each player does best and keeps them focused on developing those skills. You don’t ask part time bowler Joe Root to bowl the final over in a World Cup Final, you ask your death bowler Jofra Archer. To drive productivity, businesses must keep their star employees focused on what they do best, don’t ask your best software developer to help with marketing!

Finally, athletes have access to the very best technology to ensure they stay fit and competing with the best. Some are using our new generation of sports tracking technology, Blue Trident, to advance assessment and rehabilitation techniques. In the same way, businesses need to look at how they can use and evolve their technology to reduce the time staff spend on administration and unproductive tasks. Free up that time, and your best salesperson can stay on the phone and close that marquee deal.

Our sports stars get the very best treatment and care to make sure they can perform. We need to start treating the very best sales people, software developers and engineers like they are professional athletes to help drive productivity and performance. If we do that, businesses have the right to win on the global stage, just as our athletes have done this summer.

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