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The Olympics… there’s a lot I could say about the arrival of the greatest non-football sporting spectacular on these shores.
The Olympics and the Olympians can be a great source of inspiration for business owners. There are lessons for all of us in the way gold medal winners like Dame Kelly Holmes and Ben Hunt- Davis (see p19) use analysis and systems to improve their performance and ultimately achieve their goals.
To become a top athlete you need to have single-minded focus and dedication to the cause. There’s a quote going around Facebook that says: “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.”
This statement could apply equally to top business people and sporting figures.
It’s a pity the business of the Olympics can’t do the same.
Plagued with mismanagement,farce and bullying the organisation of the Games has consistently delivered sub-standard service at over-inflated prices.
The revelations about the inability of G4S to deliver on its contract join a catalogue of own goals for the organisers – the ticketing fiasco, the question of the legacy use of the stadium, the trademark police, the Olympic Zil lanes around London, the awarding of the official souvenirs contract to China… and the list goes on.
One result of G4S’ mismanagement is that there will be more British troops involved in the Olympics than on duty in Afghanistan. The £284m G4S contract would pay for four Typhoon fighters, or a small frigate.
Remember the hype after the announcement of the Games when the government encouraged us all to go to endless workshops and seminars to find out how any small, local business could bid for Olympic contracts? Those that had the tenacity to wade through the endless paperwork involved were rewarded with… absolutely nothing.
Good luck to all of our Olympians, you are an inspiration to us all – it’s just a pity that you and the country have been let down by bureaucrats and incompetents.
By Steve Cook, Editor of Seeker News
by admin