世界盃日子裏的商務啓示 綠茵場上的博弈

Talent doesn’t always win. Four years ago Spain captured their first world cup title. Folks were expecting them to do it again this World Cup. With some of the best players in the world and a large part of the rosters of highly acclaimed Real Madrid and Barcelona, people predicted Spain would make another deep run. However, they didn’t. They exited after an embarrassing loss to the Netherlands and two lackluster efforts to follow. England and Italy, two other nations with lengthy resumes made similar exits while making way for smaller less talented teams to e early exits serve as an important reminder for businesses: Talent alone doesn’t guarantee success. It takes more with things such as effort, innovation and strategy immediately coming to mind.天賦不代表勝利。四年前西班牙第一次獲得世界盃冠軍，很多人期待他們能夠衛冕成功。西班牙隊擁有世界上最好的球員，還包括皇家馬德里和巴塞羅那陣容中的一大批主力，所以人們預測西班牙可以再一次獲得佳績。但是他們沒有，在經歷慘敗荷蘭和另外兩場平淡的比賽之後被淘汰出局。同樣擁有華麗陣容的英格蘭和意大利也被天賦上不及自己的球隊所淘汰。這些失利對企業是很重要的警示：僅僅有天賦不能保證成功。還需要努力，創新和敏捷的思維策略。

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Community is a brand's best friend. The World Cup has been good for global brands. Nike, Coca-Cola and many more have set the world on fire with innovative and compelling campaigns capitalizing on the world’s passion for the World Cup. Most of the brands focused on tying their products and services to the soccer community and not to products and services themselves. For entrepreneurs, this is a great reminder of the importance of building community for your customers and prospects.社羣是品牌最好的夥伴。世界盃也是國際品牌的重要舞臺。耐克，可口可樂等衆多品牌通過人們對世界盃的熱情讓創新又充滿魅力的活動席捲全球。多數品牌專注於把他們的產品和服務與足球社羣而不是產品和服務本身連結起來。這就在強烈提醒企業家爲自身客戶和潛在客戶建立社羣的重要性。

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The underdog has a role on the big stage. While the remaining teams are all highly acclaimed soccer powerhouses, many of the 16 teams that emerged into the knock-out rounds were not the world's best. Countries like Greece, Costa Rica and the U.S. all came out of very difficult groups to emerge ahead of teams like England, Italy, Spain and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal. In every big sporting event this happens and for business owners it shows the biggest players aren’t always the most fit to deliver the products and services that clients require. This should serve entrepreneurs as a reminder that they can provide unique value and differentiation even if they are smaller or less experienced.不能輕視小角色。雖然剩餘的球隊都是備受推崇的足球強隊，但一些16強淘汰賽中的國家並不是最好的球隊。比如希臘，哥斯達黎加和美國，都從擁有像英格蘭，西班牙，C羅帶領的葡萄牙這樣強隊的小組中出線。這種事在每次大型體育賽事中都會發生，它向企業主們揭示了最優秀的員工並不總是發佈客戶需求產品和服務的最佳人選。也提醒企業家即使他們規模不大或經驗不足也可以提供獨特的價值和不同的產品。

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The relevance of scarcity. We live in a world of instant connectivity. Between social media and mobile devices we can be reached around the clock. You would think that FIFA may want to expand the World Cup to something like every two years. But much like the Olympics, the World Cup is kept to every four years as the build up creates greater and greater interest as the event nears. Businesses could learn from this as well. While we never want to make our customers wait, there is something to be said about having your truly unique differentiator. Football is played year around on many great stages but only the World Cup brings the passion and commitment that we are seeing right now. For FIFA its differentator is scarcity, entrepreneurs need to think what makes them unique and memorable
稀缺性的作用。我們生活在一個即時連接的時代，可以通過社交網絡和移動設備之間隨時聯繫到對方。你可能認爲FIFA想把世界盃擴展爲兩年一屆。但是世界盃一直像奧運會一樣保持四年一次，隨着賽事的臨近，這種積累創造出越來越多的關注。雖然我們從來不想讓客戶等待， 但是可以擁有自己真正獨特的優勢。每年會有很多不同的足球賽事，但只有世界盃可以帶給我們這樣的激情和守候。稀缺性是FIFA的優勢，企業家也需要讓自身變得獨一無二和深入人心。

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Strategy is the ultimate leveler of the business-playing field. If I were to suggest that Costa Rica would take the star-studded Dutch team to penalty kicks in the quarterfinals most would have never believed it. It happened, and it wasn’t by accident. Costa Rica knew they were outmanned but unlike those that couldn’t get the job done against the Netherlands before, Costa Rica was going to trap the eager flying Dutchman with a simple football strategy: “The Offsides Trap.” For entrepreneurs, this small but successful plan executed by Costa Rica is a reminder of the importance of strategy. Companies with talent can go so far but businessess with talent and a plan are the ones that go deep into competitive battles and often come out on top. 策略是商戰的終極砝碼。如果賽前我預測說哥斯達黎加會在半決賽把衆星雲集的荷蘭隊拖入點球大戰，多數人一定不相信。但它卻真的發生了，而且不是偶然。哥斯達黎加知道自己實力不濟，但是和之前輸給荷蘭的球隊不一樣，他們對急於求勝的荷蘭隊使用了一種簡單的足球戰術：造越位。對企業家而言，哥斯達黎加執行的這種簡單卻有效的計劃展現了策略的重要性。擁有人才的公司可以長久，但是同時擁有人才和規劃才能讓企業在激烈的競爭中技壓羣雄。