More management lessons from rugby

Don’t let the tears in your eyes from the Springbok loss to Australia blind you to the valuable management lessons to be learnt from that match.

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Don’t let the tears in your eyes from the Springbok loss to Australia blind you to the valuable management lessons to be learnt from that match.

Have another look at the official match statistics, the final analysis of the game between the Springboks and Australia which put South Africa out of the Rugby World Cup:
• Tries – SA 0; Australia 1.
• Penalties – SA 2; Australia 2
• Drop goals – SA 1; Australia 0.
• Points – SA 9; Australia 11.
• Territory – SA 76%; Australia 24%.
• Possession – SA 56%; Australia 44%.
• Tackles – SA 53%; Australia 147%.
• Lineouts (won/lost) – SA 14/0; Australia 8/5.
• Time in opponent’s 22 – SA 11 minutes 30 seconds; Australia 3 minutes 31 seconds.

How did South Africa manage to lose this game? The Boks spent three-quarters of the match in the Aussie half. SA was in Australia’s 22 for nearly four times as long as the Aussies were in ours.

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The Boks controlled the ball for 60% of the time. They won all their own lineouts, and took the ball away from the Aussies in 40% of theirs. But if ever a statistic tells a story, it’s the one on tackles.

Of the 200 effective tackles in the match, Australia made three-quarters of them – and kept the Springboks off the Wallaby goal line. Therein lies the moral of the story: defence.

A good defence
The long-term success of any competition, match, project, venture, enterprise or business probably has more to do with the ability to defend than any other factor.

That is, defensive action to protect the organisation from bad weather, to cope with the inevitable disease outbreak from time to time, to survive despite the strong rand and to operate successfully despite a government hell-bent on making life as difficult as possible.

It’s the strategies for handling these eventualities that keep businesses alive. It’s called “risk management” – a topic I’ve written about many times before – and one in which the Aussies have given us a wonderful lesson.

Let’s take nothing away from their lightning fast switch to attack mode when the one opportunity popped up. They took the gap and it was five points on the score board. And then, of course, they slotted both penalties while our two went awry.

So while strong defence was their saviour, their ability to pounce on the opportunity when it arose was also vitally important. But in the final analysis it’s defence that will keep your business alive.

Consult your ‘line judges’
There was another important business lesson for us in this match, courtesy of referee Bryce Lawrence. Why didn’t he consult with his line judges when he decided to judge the pass to Patrick Lambie as forward?

This was, after all, a quarter-final of the Rugby World Cup. When there’s a marginal situation such as this, in a case as important as this, it’s not only bad management but irresponsible not to consult. When making knife-edge decisions it’s pure arrogance not to seek alternative views.

Don’t get me wrong. My argument is not with Lawrence’s decision – it may have been correct – it’s the manner in which he took it which was completely wrong. One last point from this match. Video-replay technology is now available, sitting ready and waiting in the Television Match Official’s box. Why isn’t it used more?

It’s just as nonsensical not to use available technology in managing your business, not only in the production sphere, but in all aspects of the business. A good example I see again and again is the question of developing good quality management information, where many of our farmers are sadly still in the Dark Ages.

Apart from lacking the basic financial literacy to understand routine financial reports, many aren’t even aware of techniques such as “dashboarding”, which transform the delivery format and subsequent comprehension of data relevant to the performance of the business.

So, despite the tears in your eyes after seeing our beloved Boks sent home, take the lessons to heart. Get your risk management sorted out. Take your time and consult, especially on important decisions, and use all the available technology to drive up your business’s profitability.

Email Peter Hughes at [email protected].