usiness is often told to consider
what it can learn from sport. But what
about the other way around? What
could sport learn from business? Sport
focuses on winning, the team spirit and match
analysis, but could it also learn how to focus
on customers, empower teams and better
use technology?
Could technology disrupt sport and the
talent-scouting process? I think it could
definitely benefit from technologies that
could decentralise decision-making.
I had an experience in Africa that convinced
me to try and develop a solution. In Abidjan,
a city on the southern Atlantic coast of
Côte d’Ivoire, I came across a group of young
footballers. Boys, with sandals on their feet,
were playing on a field that looked more like
scrub than a Premiership stadium. They let
me join in for a little game. And we lost 10-0!
Despite having never set foot in a training
centre and playing in sandals, one young
player scored 8 goals! It disappoints me
that this boy’s raw talent could go unspotted
due to a lack of resources and visibility.
The sports world wouldn’t be the first
entertainment industry to be challenged
by technology. The music industry has had
to reinvent itself by harnessing, rather thanB
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PEOPLEAUGUST 2019