Like many New Zealanders, I too contributed to the collective moans of despair of our nation as I watched Team America retain the America's Cup.
As painful as it was to watch this lazerithian turn around by Larry Ellison's tribe of world leading team members, it became a morning ritual to indulge on a breakfast cocktail of delicious anticipation and hope and then finish it off with an unwanted large side order of disbelief and deflation.
I have spent a good amount of time since the last race reflecting on the depth and breadth of my emotional roller-coaster ride during the 34th America's Cup Series. Not a huge sporting fan, I was initially convinced that my patriotic fervour was the significant ingredient in the glue that had me stuck to the couch at 8:15 every race day.
However, I also found myself intrigued by the speed at which the Oracle team implemented one of the sporting world’s most significant and successful business strategies ever.
While the framework of the event was one of the greatest sporting events, the competition itself was never going to be played on a level playing field. Oracle sought every advantage it could to be the market leader.
As the details of the race campaign of Team America emerge we begin to see a back story of
Vision,
Investment,
Research and Development,
Risk,
Dedication,
Early Adaptation and
Extreme Levels of Determination
by each and every one of the team.
While there are only a few others in the world who have the critical mass of Larry Ellison that enabled him to implement this delicious combination of critical factors at such an extreme level, there is so much of this moment that you and I can choose to mirror in our lives and businesses should we choose too.
If you are contemplating starting up a business venture, you would be well placed to adopt the clarity and absolute focus of the Oracle Team as you outline your business plan. You would explore every aspect of the market place you are looking to enter, learning everything you needed to know to ensure you are fully informed. You would seek the advice of those who are top of the field and invest well with professionals who will assess your position at an analytical distance, telling you want you need to know not just what you want to hear.
With a single goal now clearly identified, all your planning, preparation, recruitment and training will be focused, not allowing yourself to be distracted by what may be but rather must be achieved and achieved at the very highest levels.
For myself and others who have well established businesses, we can not only admire the determination of Team America to find a solution to their need for speed but also their willingness to change so many of their campaign strategies at critical times. No one can doubt their courage.
I for one, have been inspired to review so many of my operations. I spent the weekend clearing my mind, dissolving the white noise of the day-to-day distractions and have reset my compass and plotted a new journey to a single goal.
Having identified an exact destination, I am now reviewing my total business operations to ensure we are all traveling the shortest and most direct route at the greatest speed to get there.
I was surprised at how easily I had become becalmed by the daily grind. I am now looking for all those business wind shifts that will lift me out of the ebb and flow of the daily tides and allow me to 'foil' at speed towards my single goal.
While my critical mass is far from that of Larry Ellison's, I do have resources that I now recognize as being undervalued and under-utilized. Just as Team Oracle looked for the very best crew it could find, I too are now seeking even greater people to fill key roles.
So while I am still feeling numb about our team of gallant heroes not being able to secure that last race win, I have been inspired by the essence of Team America's unbelievable comeback.
As for our Team New Zealand crew… All heroes to me. Each and every one of them has my utmost respect. I will remain a huge fan and a proud Kiwi.
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