世界杯日子里的商务启示 绿茵场上的博弈

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 advance.These 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.天赋不代表胜利。四年前西班牙第一次获得世界杯冠军，很多人期待他们能够卫冕成功。西班牙队拥有世界上最好的球员，还包括皇家马德里和巴塞罗那阵容中的一大批主力，所以人们预测西班牙可以再一次获得佳绩。但是他们没有，在经历惨败荷兰和另外两场平淡的比赛之后被淘汰出局。同样拥有华丽阵容的英格兰和意大利也被天赋上不及自己的球队所淘汰。这些失利对企业是很重要的警示：仅仅有天赋不能保证成功。还需要努力，创新和敏捷的思维策略。

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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.社群是品牌最好的伙伴。世界杯也是国际品牌的重要舞台。耐克，可口可乐等众多品牌通过人们对世界杯的热情让创新又充满魅力的活动席卷全球。多数品牌专注于把他们的产品和服务与足球社群而不是产品和服务本身连结起来。这就在强烈提醒企业家为自身客户和潜在客户建立社群的重要性。

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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.不能轻视小角色。虽然剩余的球队都是备受推崇的足球强队，但一些16强淘汰赛中的国家并不是最好的球队。比如希腊，哥斯达黎加和美国，都从拥有像英格兰，西班牙，C罗带领的葡萄牙这样强队的小组中出线。这种事在每次大型体育赛事中都会发生，它向企业主们揭示了最优秀的员工并不总是发布客户需求产品和服务的最佳人选。也提醒企业家即使他们规模不大或经验不足也可以提供独特的价值和不同的产品。

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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。我们生活在一个即时连接的时代，可以通过社交网络和移动设备之间随时联系到对方。你可能认为FIFA想把世界杯扩展为两年一届。但是世界杯一直像奥运会一样保持四年一次，随着赛事的临近，这种积累创造出越来越多的关注。虽然我们从来不想让客户等待， 但是可以拥有自己真正独特的优势。每年会有很多不同的足球赛事，但只有世界杯可以带给我们这样的激情和守候。稀缺性是FIFA的优势，企业家也需要让自身变得独一无二和深入人心。

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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. 策略是商战的终极砝码。如果赛前我预测说哥斯达黎加会在半决赛把众星云集的荷兰队拖入点球大战，多数人一定不相信。但它却真的发生了，而且不是偶然。哥斯达黎加知道自己实力不济，但是和之前输给荷兰的球队不一样，他们对急于求胜的荷兰队使用了一种简单的足球战术：造越位。对企业家而言，哥斯达黎加执行的这种简单却有效的计划展现了策略的重要性。拥有人才的公司可以长久，但是同时拥有人才和规划才能让企业在激烈的竞争中技压群雄。