Reading the game

I am a very nervous man.

Tomorrow my football team, Collingwood, will line up in the AFL Grand Final. They are firm favourites to win, but Collingwood supporters have grown uncustomed to cruel and unusual quirks of fate that have lead to countless grand final losses in the last 50 years.

I have followed the Magpies for the last 27 years, when my mother and grandmother dragged me to my first game, and the folklore of these defeats is in my blood.

Of course, that hasn’t stopped me absorbing every piece of information about the big game during the last week. I’ve read every story, listened to countless interviews and watched every footy television shows looking for insights and hoping for reassurance.

What I have noticed is the explosion in statistics around football and the way this is changing the way the game is played.

For many years, football statisticians measured kicks, marks, handballs, goals and points. Everything else was considered superfluous.

Today, the stats people measure everything. Where a player takes possession of the ball, the circumstances under which this happens (was it a contested possession or uncontested, was it in the backline or the forward line) and what was the outcome of the possession (was it effective or ineffective)? We measure smothers, shepherds, tackles, intercept marks, the number of time the ball is bounced when a player is running along – basically, every action on the field has a statistic.

While some may question the value of these stats, the clubs try to use them to chart their performance, look for strengths and weaknesses and make improvements.

It’s an attempt to implement a scientific approach to a sector that is inherently unpredictable.

Business is of course far more important than sport, but I do wonder how may entrepreneurs bring that level of analysis to their company.

Sure, we track the big stats like revenue, profit and costs, but what are we missing out by not measuring other parts of the business?

For example, how do you track the effectiveness of your sales staff? You know when the make a sale, but how effective is their technique? When do they pull in sales – is it only at the end of the month when the pressure is on?

How do your customer complaints process work? How is your customer satisfaction measured and tracked?

How do your staff perform in different situations? What proportion of your profit is every different staff member responsible for?

Not all of these stats are going to be readily available, but it is crucial that entrepreneurs at least start thinking about the crucial parts of their business are measured.

Who knows, the results might change your business completely.

Go Pies!