Olympics 2012 : Inspiration from Champions

  

The Olympics is the fabulous event because each nation can find its own heros. Last night in the 400m women’s final Camille Muffat became one of France’s new heroines by taking gold. She narrowly defeated Allison Schmitt of the USA. 

Britain’s Rebecca Adlington took the bronze medal in the same race adding to her two golds in the Beijing Olympics. Last November, I posted an article about the inspiration that I had found from sources such as my own students, Howard Schultz the CEO of Starbucks and the young British swimmer.

Time to reflect once more on those thoughts.

The 2012 Olympic Games: Managing your own talent…or trying not to give it away

  

The 2012 Olympic Games begin today in London and there will be much talk over the coming weeks of the dedication and talent of the winners. Though none of us as yet know the names of the gold medalists of each event, one thing is certain, a lot of extremely gifted and hardworking individuals will return to their countries with nothing more to show than their participation in the games. Does this make them losers? Of course not.

An Englishman in New York

Psychological distance and international trade

In the 1970s researchers in Sweden starting looking into the concept of psychological distance and how this related to the international development of companies. The basic premise is that we prefer to interact and therefore trade with people who are similar to ourselves. Spanish companies find it easier to trade with South America because of the historical links they share. Similarly, British managers find that they are psychologically closer to their US counterparts than managers in Continental Europe.  

“The opposite of ‘success’ is not ‘failure’, but ‘mediocrity'”

I am very grateful to one of my international students for sharing this wonderful quote from a New Zealand business woman. It was during a class a fortnight ago and we were discussing entrepreneurship and why only 1% of European business school graduates create their own company immediately upon graduating. One of the reasons, said some of the class members, was the obsession with competitive exams and rankings and thus the overall fear of failing. The quote makes you reassess what exactly “success” and “failure” really are.

Symbols of the nation in the USA, the UK and France

 The news last week was dominated by the commemoration of the terrorist attacks on New York & Washington on September 11^th 2001. During such difficult moments people often try unite around their nations. In this context, symbols of the nation become important. However, such symbols will vary from country to country. 

Summertime blues: How much vacation did you really get?

In many countries, it is time to get back to work / school after the summer break. Depending on where you live, this break will have been of varying lengths.

Best management practices from the French football team… You just have to go back in time a bit!

A year on from France’s catastrophic display in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, French football could actually give us some best practices in management thinking. You’ll need to go back to 1998 though.