How Olympic Athletes Offer Insight into Business Capabilities
Are you watching the Olympics?
Of course you’re watching the Olympics.
Today, a lesson from the world’s greatest athletes that you can apply in your business.
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You know how, when you look at an elite athlete, you can tell what sport they’re in?
They’ve trained to meet the specific needs of their sport, and it shows on their bodies.
What do they need to be able to do?
- Run forever
- Swim fast
- Jump high
- Flip through the air
At the Olympic level, an athlete is a fine-tuned machine, perfectly calibrated for the job they need to accomplish.
The connection to business? Athletes are crystal-clear on the capabilities they need to win.
I describe capabilities as “muscles” anyway, so the comparison is an easy one.
The capabilities you need inside your business are a combination of skills, relationships, and experience that help you deliver specific results.
Your capabilities should be tightly interwoven with your company’s value proposition: the things you need to do better than anyone else to deliver on your value prop are, or should be, your core capabilities.
For example.
Let’s say you own a restaurant, and one of your differentiators is offering customers a luxury experience. (Keep in mind that this differentiator, on its own, may not set you apart from competitors - but taken with your other differentiators, it should.)
What capabilities might you need to offer a luxury experience?
- Maintenance team who can keep your facility spotless
- Wait staff trained to deliver top-shelf customer service
- Chefs who can design premium meals
- Kitchen staff who can deliver premium meals night after night
Let’s take another example.
Say you own a restaurant, and one of your differentiators is convenience. You aim to offer the most convenient dining experience around.
What capabilities might you need to offer a convenient experience?
- Technology that allows customers to order on their own
- Tables supplied with any condiments and extras a customer could need
- Chefs who can design meals that can be prepared quickly and are easy to eat
- Kitchen staff who can deliver consistent food in a very short period of time
Do you see how your goals can significantly impact the capabilities you acquire?
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Capabilities are what set you apart from competitors, help you deliver on the promise of your value proposition, and, frankly, allow you to get things done.
Every time you set a goal in your organization, you should be asking yourself, “Do we have the capabilities we need to get this done? If not, how can we find them?”
Honestly, recognizing you need a certain capability is 80% of the work. It’s even more important than how you actually end up solving for it.
You can’t be good at everything. And, in fact, you don’t need to be.
The premium restaurant probably wouldn’t gain much by building a capability around mobile ordering - in fact, it might detract from the experience they’re trying to create.
Likewise, a convenience-focused restaurant might not see significant value in hiring extremely experienced wait staff to serve their customers.
A gymnast, a swimmer, and a beach volleyball player are all examples of elite athletes. But they aren’t interchangeable.
Focus on the capabilities you need to succeed.
Then, put all your effort into training them.
