I admit it. I’m a rugby fanatic. I loved being part of the lower platteland leagues; I loved watching my sons on the field in their schooldays; and I am privileged to watch my grandsons playing at levels none of us ever reached!
Adding to my fascination with the game is that the skills required to lead and manage a rugby team apply almost exactly to managing and leading any team, on the field and off.
Time and again we see that it’s the quality of leadership and management, not only the natural talent of players, that wins team sports.
Like so many other South Africans, I’m caught up in the prevailing national malaise of pessimism. So it has been a relief to enjoy the local Currie Cup competition, and to witness the depth of rugby player and leadership talent in this country.
While watching a recent match between the Pumas, my home team, and the Griquas, I saw how the men from Kimberley completely dominated for most of the first half, with close to 100% possession. But the Pumas defended tenaciously and, eventually, just before half-time, took the one opportunity that came their way and levelled the score.
Like lightning
I had a vivid, but vague, flashback. Somewhere, sometime, I’d seen this happen before. Eventually it came back to me: it was the South Africa vs Australia match during the 2011 Rugby World Cup at Regional Stadium, in Wellington, New Zealand, when they met in the quarter-finals. Despite being overwhelmingly dominant, the Boks had lost.
I retrieved the record of the match from the archives, and there they were, the mind-numbing statistics of that fateful game. The Boks spent 75% of the match in the Aussie half, and had 60% possession. Of the total of 200 tackles made, Australia accounted for 150!
But defence alone does not win matches! Points have to be scored, and when an opportunity was presented to them, the Aussies reacted like lightning, made a switch to attack, and put five points on the board.
The Springboks lost the match 9-11, and Griquas suffered a similar fate at the hands of the Pumas.
Tenacious defence and a lightning switch to attack when the opportunity arose won the game for both teams. But the foundation was laid by superb defence.
Take heed
There is a great lesson in this for us business managers, particularly those involved in the high-risk business of farming.
The exciting side of any farming business is the ‘plan of attack’. Deciding which crops to grow; working out how to optimise production methods; choosing how best to market the produce; thinking up ways of adding value via processing, and all the rest.
It’s these jobs, and others like them, that are the most fun, and have the ‘glamour’ in the business. But none of these would exist if the business collapsed due to factors beyond the control of management!
Long-term success in any competition, match, project, venture, enterprise or business depends more on the ability to defend than to attack. This includes effective defensive action that protects the organisation against risks such as bad weather, disease, fluctuating currency value, a government hell-bent on making life as difficult as possible, and much else.
Strategies dealing with these risks can keep a business alive, and applying these strategies is called ‘risk management’. It’s a mundane, unglamorous job, but it’s one which saw the Wallabies give the Boks a wonderful lesson, and cost Griquas a semi-final slot in the Currie Cup.
More lessons from rugby
We have a feast of rugby of the highest standard and entertainment value coming up soon. July and August are taken up by international games between leading rugby-playing nations from both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres. Then, in France from 8 September to 28 October, we have the Rugby World Cup, with all its pressure and excitement.
I’ll be watching most of these matches, looking for new management and leadership lessons, and to test my hypothesis that, while both attack and defence in business are vital, defensive strategy and execution are more important than attack. We’ll see!
Peter Hughes is a business and management consultant.
