The Need For A Continuous Tune-Up

Posted on Jul 16, 2010 | 0 comments

I kept abreast of the hoopla last week involving basketball superstar LeBron James. His much publicized free agency that turned into a one hour special on ESPN elicits many different streams of emotion.

Most people focus particularly on the level of salaries (~$16 to $20 million per season) garnered to play a few games of basketball each year. Others questioned the motivation behind a one hour special to announce where you are going to sign your next contract? Apparently the monies generated were to benefit a charitable organization, which if true, helps to lessen the inherent pomposity.

Less obvious in this entire situation is the impact on the organization that James leaves behind. At the core, professional sports are a business and the significant investment of capital by sports fans is what dictates the athletes’ salaries. It is the business nature and tweaking done by professional sports organizations that parallel a business of any size.

Akin to a game a Tetris, organizations in professional sports are always tweaking and fine-tuning their rosters through signings and releases, hiring and firing coaches, and making management personnel changes.

The same is necessary for any business. Tweaking of management and staff, business strategies, product offerings, marketing campaigns, sales positioning, and all business systems must be done continuously in order to remain on top.

No organization knows this better right now than the Cleveland Cavaliers who are left in a precarious situation of having to radically rebuild their roster. Reaching the top in any profession is hard. Continuously tuning your business to stay there is even harder. And so it is with your business.