Business Management

Many professional golfers go on to develop successful and significant business interests. Greg Norman is a standout example of this. Many senior business leaders play golf at a high level. This link between success at golf and successful business may not be coincidental, the attributes required for both are very similar. Consider the following.
Applying Fundamentals
Champion golfers spend hours getting the fundamentals right. They call this practicing. Very few golfers become champions without establishing the right grip, shoulder turn and stance. These fundamentals are developed and harnessed with extraordinary rigour. Still fewer champion golfers spend their time ‘reinventing the wheel’. Reverse grips and broomstick putters were an evolution in the game aimed at overcoming ‘the yips’ not a means of improving putting.
Business also relies on fundamentals – the fundamentals of doing the job right. Whether the function is operations, marketing, administration or finance there are fundamental good practices that should be applied. Champion businesses rigorously adopt known good practice to their individual situation.
Strategy
No champion golfer would approach a tournament without first understanding the layout of the course, knowing the various distances, where the hazards are and probably having played the course before. For every hole a strategy is determined before stepping onto the tee. This is called course management.
The equivalent in business is understanding the market, collecting data that helps determine the ‘lay of the land’, knowing what hazards may lie ahead and how they are to be avoided. No successful business ‘steps up to the tee’ hoping that they have the right club in their hand!
Flexibility and Range
No golfer can be a champion by mastering only one club or shot. Despite good fundamentals and strategy, the weather, lie and execution can result in a misplaced shot or undesirable outcome. Shot making flexibility and use of a range of clubs define a champion.
Businesses that are unable to adapt to unexpected outcomes generally fail. Imagine being on the golf course and saying, ‘I don’t care if the ball is in a bunker, I planned to use my putter for my third shot and that is what I am going to do!’ The flexibility to adapt to situations, without abandoning strategy, and to manage different and new situations separates the professionals from the amateurs.
Use of a Caddy and Coach
All professional golfers use a caddy and most have a coach. These two advisors help the golfer in both skill development (coach) and execution assistance (caddy). The job of both the coach and the caddy is not to play the game for the golfer but to help him get the most out of himself. The most famous of golf coaches, David Leadbetter, has never won a major championship yet he is the most sought after coach.
Compare this with business where advisors and consultants are often derided for not having direct experience. In fact, in many instances having an outside advisor or coach is seen as a weakness. Perhaps if more businesses approached their advisors as caddies rather than players they might then get more out of themselves. Knowing how to do something yourself and knowing how to communicate to others how to do something are two entirely different skills.
Both Small and Big Things Count
Few sights are more awesome in golf than seeing a +300m drive that lands smack in the middle of the fairway. Yet, in golf this scores exactly the same as a two-centimetre putt. In fact without the putt the hole cannot be completed.
In any business there are many actions that can be taken that are high profile and demonstrate progress but it can be the smaller detail that counts just as much. For example, generating sales is important but if you don’t collect the cheques or trade out of terms then you will be unlikely to win the game. The expression ‘drive for show and putt for dough’ is equally at home in business.
Equipment
Champion golfers do have the best equipment – but the equipment doesn’t make them a champion. Tiger Woods with cane clubs would beat a weekend hacker (like me) using the latest equipment. Equipment can enhance your game but it is how you use it that is more important.
In business we have all seen companies that have invested in new equipment or systems for very little sustainable gain. Equipment can make a difference if the change is fundamental but in many cases the difference between a champion and a hacker is not the equipment, it is how it is used.
Passion
Imagine playing golf for 40 weeks of the year. Sound good? Now imagine having to hit a thousand balls before breakfast, everyday. Then having to practice every afternoon. Then moving to a new hotel every week (or sleeping in your car because you can’t afford a hotel). Then missing the cut and not getting paid a cent. Life on the PGA tour may look good but getting there takes passion and commitment. Plus this is the ultimate performance based system; if you don’t make the cut you don’t get paid. Ian Baker Finch had a period where he missed 32 cuts in a row, ouch!
Most successful business leaders have this sort of passion, a belief in themselves, their ability and their company. Success rarely comes without passion and a willingness to do the ‘hard yards’.
The golf course is often seen as the place to do business, seal the deal and win the client. However next time you tee up consider whether your business is applying, the fundamentals, strategy, execution and passion that are needed to be a champion.