Lebron James and the Lesson of Remaining Viable in Your Business

As I watched last Thursday evening, the ESPN circus involving "The Decision" of Lebron James to take his talents to Miami, I was struck by how the Cleveland Cavalier's had been caught so completely flat footed by this outcome.


Business is chess not checkers. Success depends on your ability to plan a number of moves ahead as well as to create a variety of alternatives in the event that those anticipated steps play out differently then you anticipated.


The Cleveland NBA franchise had seven years to convince James that they were one of the best run organizations in the league and they didn't do enough to achieve that result.


To be successful, most businesses, not just NBA franchises, have to assemble an excellent staff, made up of well respected leaders both inside and outside of the company. They have to have one of the best products in the industry along with a reputation for sparing no detail in their pursuit of maintaining the best. And they have to have a world class working environment which is the envy of the industry they are in.


But in addition businesses have to make their companies into special places to work. Valuable employees have always had options in terms of where they work. Most people don't leave their jobs when they're satisfied that their employer seriously cares about created the best possible situation they can for them.


Businesses who don't modernize their operations until their forced to. Who don't continuously look out into the future and recognize that they have to change now if they expect to remain viable, inevitably don't succeed. And they lose their best people to the competition as a result.


When Lebron James looked at the product that was the Cleveland Cavaliers, he didn't see an organization that was led by the best people in the industry, both in terms of coaches and general management. He didn't see an organization that had done everything possible to make their product the best, in terms of personnel moves that could have put the organization in a better position to win a championship.


What he saw was seven years of his career invested in a company and a product that still hadn't reached it's promised potential. A company that only offered him the opportunity to continue toiling for what most likely would be the same or similar result.


But the difference was that he had finally seen what the rest of the industry had to offer. How other, better companies pursued excellence, and he concluded that there was a better place where he should be spending his valuable time in terms of his career.


It's shocking the number of businesses who aren't actively striving to improve the way they conduct business, who aren't striving for operational excellence by moderninising their systems and their business processes, demonstrating to their staff everyday that they are fully utilizing their talent and their potential to achieve the best result possible.


The moral to this story is that you won't keep your best people unless you show a willingness to continuously invest and improve your company across the board.


Dave Rice CEO, TrueCloud www.truecloud.com