Management lessons from Euro 2004 - Part 2

Germany – Holland 1 : 1 – what does this imply as a management lesson for today’s corporate titans?

Let’s take a look at Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema and how they, in their book on “The Discipline of Market Leaders” published somewhere in the end 1990s, segregated companies into three different categories:

Operational efficiency – supplying customers with low-cost, reliable products or services

Product leadership – producing products and services that deliver best results. These are innovative companies, looking to the next product to maintain their lead.

Customer intimacy – companies that focus on the customer, and understand their needs and tailor a solution

Clearly – Germany basically plays to strategy number one – get the job done, keep on rolling, until you lead and than hold the results.

But they forgot one thing – and fall into the same trap as England. The gave their lead away in the last couple of minutes and lost their leadership position. It is simply not enough to just “get over with it and get it done” - execution and focus to the last minute counts to stay ahead of the game.