RPO and Talent Management Blog by Ochre House | Ochre Talk

How rugby mimics business…

I supported England against Wales in the 6 Nations rugby championship on Saturday and saw a once great team now down on its luck and playing with very little confidence. And it struck me that our rugby team share a lot of challenges with business today.  

They are good, but not great and confidence has completely deserted them. A sense of elite has been eroded by the removal of some key support, exacerbated by a lack of any decent wins. Key playing personnel have gone in the last few years and many coaching roles have been discarded. The competitive landscape has changed and we are not Number 1 anymore, probably nearer Number 5 or 6. Some other countries have adapted quicker to rule changes and now dictate the way the game is played, as we did once. The leaders of old became obsolete and it appears that there are none to replace them. 

We have always had good talent, perhaps not the best but certainly good enough. If we had developed a handful of leaders two years ago then we would be a very different team. Opportunity is presenting itself again, with no obvious stand out favourite for the World Cup next year. Oh how I wish we had had started to act two years ago to develop the next generation of leaders.

The rules changed in rugby and England was not ready – are HR and staffing professionals future proofing there talent management strategies to take into account the unknown?