Quote McLaren_Field="McLaren_Field"There is also an underlying point that a person who makes a success in one business venture generally tends to think that they achieved that through having some sort of Holy Grail type knowledge on how all businesses should be run - whereas the truth often boils down to the fact that they got lucky the first time around and it might not work the second time, or third, or fourth around.
There is a saying in business that you don't have to scratch too deep beneath EVERY successful CEO of any organisation to find (usually) a string of failed business ventures, most are quite happy to admit the fact.
The problem starts when such a person buys their way into a sporting venture which is often seen to them to be a plaything, a private club where they can act out a fantasy and show off to other CEO's of other companies, its a vanity thing and their business sense goes out of the window the minute they park their car in front of the main stand in their own private parking space.
There is also the delicate issue of marketing and there is no doubt that the most successful business people surround themselves with experts in the countless other fields that exist within any retail or manufacturing business - you don't think that Alan Sugar actually knows how a micro-processor works do you, he came into business with an ability to sell stuff literally in a market, failed several times along the way and got lucky several times along the way, but he probably hasn't got a clue what went on inside the cover of his most successful products, the secret was, he employed people who did.
Sometimes these business people bring successful marketing ideas to their sporting clubs with them but other times they seem to forget that they need to buy in customers to their sporting businesses in the same way that they do with their other products, sometimes they just fall into the lazy trap of assuming that sports fans will just keep coming every week no matter how much you charge or how poor your product is and to an extent its true - how many times would you go back to Subway if the bread was mouldy and they charged you £2 for the same sandwich as the guy in front of you just because you were not from the town in which the shop is based ?'"
Agree with all......except I wouldn't go back to Subway if they charged me 2 quid less then the guy in front!
