What Entrepreneurs and businesses can learn from the German World cup success
When discipline meets talent it’s a win every time! ~ Me 2014
The world cup have just ended and the German team have won, it’s their 4th world cup victory, second only to Brazil with 5 wins ….
But if you look closely, you’ll notice the German success was the fruit of a lot of hard work … a lot of entrepreneurship!
The core German cultural values are “discipline, efficiency, hard work and planning”. In Germany, things are expected to be done properly and on time.
Here’s what can be learned from the games:
1- Preparation is the road to success:
Every team prepares before meeting the opponents, and the German team do not kid around with preparations … They have been preparing for the world cup for the last 14 years!
Business wise: To succeed you should be prepared, you can’t afford to learn as you go. Many businesses and entrepreneurs learn from mistakes, i’m not saying it’s a bad thing (i’m one of the people doing it), but that’s definitely not how Warren buffet and top business men do it!
My advice, be prepared, learn from the mistakes of others, don’t wait to make mistakes to learn from them!
2- Talent acquisition and talent development can make the difference:
The Germans made sure to acquire and develop the talent systematically, and in a way no other country did … investing millions in a huge project to find talented young kids, and then they made sure these kids get the proper training to be descent world cup contenders.
Business wise: Success also relies on talent … A talented management can steer a company towards success (Steve Jobs return to Apple), talented sales people are the elevator that will help you reach the 10th floor (without loosing energy), talented marketers can be ticket to growth …
Talent can be developed, marketers can get better, sales people can learn to sell more, and management can improve with some personal development.
3- Discipline is the key to successful plans:
The German team was one of the most disciplined teams in the world cup competition, watching them you would have noticed that they were executing their roles as they should, they were working as a team!
Business wise: Discipline is the cornerstone to efficiency, efficiency is the foundations to progress. Increasing discipline is actually increasing the work done! Increasing discipline get plans and projects executed!
4- Accountability is the magic potion to success:
When Germany won 2-1 in the Rnd 16 against Algeria, the German press was very critical of the German team performance, even when it’s a win, even when it’s a world cup Rnd 16, there’s always voices asking for accountability, and that what push players and coaches to give their out most to avoid being criticized! In most other teams as long as it’s a win you get free pass!
Business wise: Having a culture of accountability makes sure that the team is giving 200%, it also helps weed out all the under performing employees. As a business accountability is also essential to make sure you build a reputation of excellence.
5- Don’t give up:
The team of Joachim Löw played each game till the last minute, they did not accept to go to penalties, instead they fought till the last second securing a win on Algeria and Argentina in extra time.
Business wise: It’s more precisely addressed to new startups and small businesses, make sure you have exhausted all possibilities before deciding to let go, change the strategy or try some other marketing techniques.
6- Team effort:
During this tournament we have heard numerous times that Portugal has Cristiano Ronaldo, Argentina has Messi but Germany has a Team, if you check the top goalscorers in this FIFA World Cup, you will notice that all teams have 1,2 or eventually 3(Brazil) players with more than 1 goal, except Germany … they have 6 players with more than 1 goal, Add to that 13 Assist (the team with most assists in this tournament).
Business wise: In starting phase businesses and startups need the involvement of the entire team, these early days when a company is unable to hire an advertising company to take care of marketing nor even a PR agency to get some media exposure … during this time all the team should use the connections they have to create attention and exposure.
7- Master the networking, networking bring opportunities:
In a figurative speech, i am comparing ball passing to networking, the Mannschaft mastered the short and long ball passing, which created opportunities to score. In total the German team executed 5084 passes (the highest in the tournament) , 4157 of which were successful, thus a success rate of 82%, second only to Italy’s 85% (with 1859 passes).
Business wise: Networking rimes with opportunities, exposure, talent, networking is much more valuable than anyone would think! Especially for start-ups and small businesses! (Pssst, join this free online startup networking club: Startupz )
8- Focus & seize opportunities :
The winners of this tournament were focused, they did not waste chances, and that could be clear when we check the stats: With shots on the target Germany came second with 71 shot (Brazil had 72) , but the difference between the 2 teams, is that the Germans had 47 of these 71 shot from inside the area while Brazilians had only 37 of the 72 shots.
Business wise: Focus on your product and services, don’t get lost with the side projects, as Steve Jobs said:
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”
