Strategic Management Lessons from Tokyo Olympics 2020 Inderjit Singh

The world has taken somewhat of a media break from Covid19 updates and become engrossed in the Olympic Games in Japan. The Tokyo Olympics is the first in history without an in-house audience, owing to the pandemic. However, there has been no lack of excitement and thrill associated with the games. There were no foreign tourists to fuel the local economy, none of that warmth that comes when people from various parts of the world share drinks and unite under something as trivial as sports. Contrary to initial fears about the empty stands demoralizing the athletes, the competitions have maintained the highest standards in terms of the performance and commitment of the players and the teams. While many obvious changes to the management of the event are apparent, the determination, athletic graceful and brilliance of the world’s greatest competitors remain unchanged.  In both the Olympics and in broader organizational contexts, it takes a lot of discipline, focus, self-sacrifice, support, feedback, mentoring, failure, resiliency, persistence and intrinsic motivation to be successful. There are many leadership and strategic management lessons from this games which can be applied management based on the wholesome activities throughout this historic event

Long Term Planning for Organizers and Athletes

Olympic athletes need to think long term to ensure that they are in the prime of their life to compete at such high levels. Unfortunately, as business leaders, more often than not our focus is concentrated on business in the next three months, six months or even the following 12 months. Rarely do we imagine what life will be like in four years or make plans to achieve significant goals. Just more than two months since the decision was made to push back the 2020 Games to next year, organizers have reported little progress in confirming new plans. Preparation has been hampered by the spread of the coronavirus, which forced Japan to impose a state of emergency in April and May 2021. But 100 days before the start of the Olympics, the organisers face a deluge of challenges and growing uncertainty as the pandemic rages around the world, affecting decisions on everything from athlete safety to spectator numbers to ticket sales. In Japan, vaccinations have been the slowest among developed economies, as Tokyo has lurched in and out of soft lockdowns. The host long term planning has been adjusted to crisis management planning as issues of safety and security was the key manifestation of the people who wanted the games to be called off. 

As a result, foreign spectators have been barred, parts of the torch relay have been re-routed, and the organizers are yet to decide what to do with the domestic audience. This has caused major challenges for sports venues and travel agencies, already grappling with restrictions to block the virus. But the show has to go on and the world has saluted Tokyo for organizing a comprehensive and meticulous games based on long term planning.

Practice Makes Perfect

Olympic athletes have a repetitive practice strategy for success. Rain, hail or shine, they are practicing every day. Striving to be better than the day before. These athletes also know they should never let this practice schedule stagnate and that they need to be constantly aware of the need to improve their practice strategy. The Tokyo Games have seen incredible performances in the short-distance track events. We have seen two major world records fall: the men’s and women’s 400-meter hurdles - and numerous personal best times. This better preparation, in turn, is due to two things: first, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant less competition and more time for training; and second, steady improvements in sports science and applied research are maximizing the extremes of human performance. `To be a successful leader you need to bring the same mind-set to your business strategy. Execute daily, rain, hail, or shine, go over the execution of your strategy, with your team regularly. How can it be improved, what can be done better, where do you need to focus more? At a very minimum, never let things stagnate.

Motivation

In the Olympics, a highly diverse group of people can come together, compete with each other, and come away respecting their competitors and admiring each other’s accomplishments. Olympic champions often deal with multiple stressors relating to their sports performance, occupation and personal lives. But their work requires them to develop resilience and approach stressors as challenges to be overcome. An athlete’s performance can also be impacted by a variety of environmental cues including their peers, opponents, training facilities, training activities and their coach. Coaches therefore have a particularly important role in shaping an athlete’s environment and promoting high performance. Athletes have to compete with each other, but you also see them helping each other prior to or following events by providing feedback, support, encouragement and direction. One can still compete at the very top of their game, and if everyone is being collaborative, it’s still likely that the very best competitor in the moment will succeed. The triathlete Lotte Miller, from Norway, was filmed consoling the Belgian Claire Michel, who finished the race in the last place and was seen crying. In a conversation, Miller told Michel: “You are a fighter. This is the Olympic spirit and you have 100%,”.

Prepare for Uncertainty

The Olympians mostly perform in venues they had never visited before. They need to prepare so they can adapt to the local conditions. For instance, The Tokyo summer has been hotter than predicted. The hot and humid conditions have been taking a toll on the athletes, especially the runners. In the Olympics, the coaches and trainers work behind the scenes. The athletes execute the strategies suggested by their mentors. The medallists acknowledge the roles of the coaches, trainers, and other support teams in helping them perform optimally. The rowing competition is subject to the vagaries of wind movement and speed. Rowers have to adjust their rowing to unexpected changes in the wind’s direction and intensity. Physical endurance must complement mental toughness to perform in the world’s toughest competition.

Leaders need to consider the market’s uncertainties when they plan for the future. Technological changes pose a threat to organizational longevity and emphasize the need to have a Plan B and resources to cope with unexpected market changes. Companies must be agile and adaptable to flourish in a dynamic market.

Diversity

Workplace diversity is one an important phenomenon in the current era. The diversity refers to the variety of differences between people in an organization. That sounds simple, but diversity encompasses race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, education, background and more. Diversity is much more than just a multicultural issue.  Diversity is about embracing many different types of people, who stand for different things and represent different cultures, generations, ideas, and thinking. Over 11,000 athletes from 206 countries took part in 33 sports in Tokyo 2020 Olympics. It’s the most diverse gathering of athletes in terms of sport, race, and nationality.

The perfect case study for why diversity drives excellence and innovation. Just take a look at the current medal count and imagine if only certain countries could compete. While those countries would go home with more medals, it might be a hollow victory. An athlete that might not have been on the podium or even in the final heat, is suddenly a medal winner. In Tokyo, the youngest Olympian was 12 and the oldest 66. Hend Zaza, a 12 years old table tennis player, represented Syria in her first Olympic Games. Meanwhile, Mary Hanna, a 66 year old Australian equestrian competed in her sixth Olympic games. Ray Zapata and Ana Peleteiro have made history for Spain in their categories, triple jump and artistic floor gymnastics. A victory that the female gymnast accompanied with a message that not only speaks of her skin colour, but also of the richness of the mix of cultures and races.

As with the Olympics, age doesn’t have as much to do with success as determination, hard work, and creativity. Warren Buffet made more money after he was 65. We have all heard of Harlan Sanders who started Kentucky Fried Chicken at the age of 62 and then there is Mark Zuckerberg who started Facebook at the age of 19. A very good example of diversity is the Indian Tokyo Olympics gold medallist medal winner Neeraj Chopra with his German coach, Uwe Hohn. Even our Malaysia’s Azizulhasni Awang the silver medallist from this games have an Australian coach, John Beasley. Bringing very different life experiences and perspectives, they share common goals of competing to the best of their ability proudly representing their home countries. In our organisations, we will be stronger if we have mechanisms in place to hear from both the young and the more experienced. Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, we can dismiss the young citing lack of experience and being too naive.

Success is A Product of Teamwork

Be mindful of the range of contingencies and challenges you are going to face and prepare as much as you can to address them. Athletes spend years preparing their mind-sets and bodies to compete in complex routines against the best competitors. That is no different from going back to a complex world of work, and knowing that people’s expectations will be very different about where and how they are supposed to work together. And we see the same in sport, with collaboration and problem-solving at play, both in advance (through strategy and tactics) and live on the field of play. Of course, there is a role for occasional individual brilliance, but any sports fan knows the foundational importance of passing, encouragement, collective determination, and support - every member plays a role and without it, the team is lost. Collaboration, partnerships, coaching, mentoring are the ingredients that make up sporting team success.

Apart from the athletes’ perseverance, determination and resilience, it was the expert help from a bunch of foreign coaches and their entourage of support-staff members, from scientific and analytical advisors to physios, masseurs, mental conditioning coaches and psychologists, which helped separate these sportspersons from the also-rans. They have mostly remained unsung but deserve accolades for shaping the careers of these athletes. Individual athletes need the assistance of trainers, coaches, physiotherapists, and nutritionists to perform at a peak level. In team sports like soccer, basketball, hockey, players need to play their assigned roles to create a synergy of effort.

In both the Olympics and in broader organizational contexts, it takes a lot of discipline, focus, self-sacrifice, support, feedback, mentoring, failure, resiliency, persistence, and intrinsic motivation to be successful. It takes those same qualities to build a team where the people on that team have a common mission and objectives and are aligned, focused, supportive, challenging, inspiring, empathetic, inclusive, clear in their expectations, and willing to step up or step down. CEOs take all the credit for a company’s success. They bask in the halo effect created by the company’s achievements. Leaders spread responsibilities across the hierarchy but seldom share the pie of rewards. The CEO is the team’s captain, but its performance hinges on how other members perform their roles.

True Spirit of Sportsmanship

Athletes train for years before the start of the Olympics. They have to compete with the best and cannot take competition for granted. They devise strategies after considering the opponents’ strengths and weaknesses. They mould their physical training to suit the host city’s climatic conditions. While most organizations understand the need to plan for the future, many don't take concrete steps to identify where they want their business to go and even fewer have long-range plans. The gap between present realities and long-range strategic planning means many organizations meander along, never really achieving their full potential. Companies operate in competitive market conditions. A leader needs to have a long term vision of the company’s growth trajectory. The CEO has to plan for technological changes that may make the products obsolete. Back up plans to adjust to unexpected changes in the market are essential survival tools.

It feels like this Olympics was about a lot more than medal counts, podium ceremonies, and nation-versus-nation action. It was a celebration of the effort put in by every athlete from every country just to be there, competing under unsettling circumstances after an extra year of unexpected training in the middle of a pandemic. The sportsmanship we saw across countries and events only underscored that, showing that even when athletes fell short of gold or the podium, they could appreciate and respect their fellow competitors and the work they put in. Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi and Mutaz Barshim of Qatar were locked in first place after a tough few hours of competing on Sunday. The two athletes, who are also good friends, were then given the option to settle matters with a jump-off.

The moment has been widely celebrated for reflecting the Olympic spirit. It was a decision to choose sportsmanship, and friendship, over all else. In any organization there will usually be some underachievers, competitors and haters. Driven by workplace jealousy they might try to bring you down to their level. In management we often see our peers or colleagues being promoted and some feel envy or even jealous on their promotion. The spirit of sportsmanship is related here in inspiring and congratulating them which provides the push factor rather than feeling resentful.

Leadership

There are many positive forms of leadership including: ethical, servant, considerate, inspiring, humble, authentic, transformative, instrumental, innovative, supportive, directive and empowering. Whether you are a leader with years of experience under your belt or just entering the workforce, pay attention to things like how Olympians prepare, focus, set goals, work through adversity, support their teammates, and how they handle defeat. Not only is it eye-opening and inspiring, it can help you grow as a business leader.

Every positive form of leadership is reflected in aspects of the athletes’ behaviour and how they work together, in the coaching of those athletes, in the support they receive from friends and family, and in the organizations and sponsoring organizations that support this high level of competition. Every negative form of the above is likely present. Some athletes will take performance-enhancing drugs that are forbidden, coaches or family members will push athletes physically or mentally too far, an organization that is charged with running these Olympics will allow abuse to go on for years before taking a stand to eliminate it, sponsors will take advantage of these young athletes’ careers and peers will promote themselves over others.

Lt Colonel Associate Professor Dr Inderjit Singh is a Senior Lecturer at the National Defence University of Malaysia.