Let me start by saying that this article was written last week and, more importantly, before the kickoff of SuperBowl LIII in Atlanta where the Los Angeles Rams played the New England Patriots. The final score of the game does not, in any real way, change the theme or impact of today’s article. [Editor’s note: Actually, the article is improved by the Patriots’ 13-3 win!!]
For many NFL teams, simply making the playoffs is a huge achievement and enough to satisfy their fan base. Now, when you grow up in a city that saw its NFL team pack up and leave town in the middle of the night, sometimes the bar of achievement is set even lower. For some cities, simply having a team can be the achievement. As a Baltimore Ravens fan, I am very satisfied with their championship title cadence of once per decade and I am certain that the lone Jets fan on the Ardent roster is jealous.
I have lived in Boston (AKA Title Town, 21st Century edition) the majority of my adult life and have been a first-hand witness to the sports franchise that has redefined success in the NFL and, in many ways, in all of professional sports. I am speaking of course of the New England Patriots who played (won?) last night in their 9th Super Bowl in the last 18 years. The Patriots have won their division 15 of those same 18 years and have played in the AFC Championship 8 consecutive years. I won’t bore you with the string of other impressive completely unreal statistics and accomplishments. Suffice it to say, that the Patriots have been a consistently great and dominant team for far longer than any other team in NFL history in a period of time when doing so is much harder to achieve.
How do they do it? The easy answer is that they have Bill Belichick, the greatest coach of all time, and Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback of all time. It seems obvious when you combine the best player with the best tactician, great things will happen. Upon further review, football is the ultimate team sport (53 man roster) and the Patriots’ success has been off the charts. There must be more to it… and, there is.
When you dig a little deeper (and I’ve watched 90%+ of the Patriots games since 2000), you begin to understand that while a specific talent grouping and/or a specific strategy or scheme can create a short-term advantage, “the market” always catches up. The competitive nature of the sport and its high stakes has resulted in a sport where a strategy that wins games at the beginning of the year may be obsolete by the end of the year. To quote Kevin Clark, NFL Analyst at our “cousin” site, The Ringer, “A lot of people focus on the game plans that Bill Belichick employs because he essentially creates a new team every Sunday.”
A few of Belichick’s current and former assistant coaches were recently interviewed in an SI article and had this to say about him
“… Through all of those things, and all the years of success he’s had, I’m continually impressed with his ability to adapt. The game changes, players change, scouting the college game has changed, the draft has changed, free agency has changed, defense, offense, special teams, rules, there’s a lot of things that have changed in our game since I started with Bill back in 2001. And nobody is more at the forefront in trying to stay current in all of those areas, in my opinion… Bill’s willing to do whatever. We’ve been willing to do certain defenses, or do this in the kicking game or be heavy at receiver or run the ball more, or do training camp a certain way, and that’s so impressive to me…. Bill’s ‘whatever it is we need to do this year’—based on our personnel or what happened in the draft or who we play. It doesn’t matter what it is, he’s willing to adapt on a daily basis, which to me just stands out.” – Josh McDaniel
“The other thing that stands out is his ability to adapt to the different style of players or different rule changes, whether it’s salary cap rules or free agency rules or the draft, to be able to adapt his program to the ways the league has changed and still field a competitive team. I mean, his team is different every year.” – Bill O’Brien
“It’s the consistency. Being able to do it year-in and year-out, that consistent success in an ever-changing market and in a game that’s designed for parity. Bill’s been able to evolve through coaching changes and player movement.” – Mike Vrabel
“The other thing is, the Patriots are forward-thinking. You talk about evolving. Evolving isn’t as important as always making decisions that’ll affect you down the line.” – Charlie Weis
You get the point – to stay on top, you have to stay ahead, you have to adapt, and you have to be agile. And, you need the right talent and other support to enable that agility. This is true in the NFL, this is true in life, and this is true in procurement.
Ardent Partners started writing about the importance of agility in 2012 and published several large research studies over the next couple of years focused almost solely on the importance of procurement and sourcing agility. [Sidebar: I mention the dates because a few years ago, another “Group” in our industry infamously borrowed used large chunks of our words and ideas in their own writing on the topic… we weren’t flattered.]
Today, the pursuit of agility is top of mind for most business executives and a top pursuit of the Chief Procurement Officer. In procurement a long-term advantage can be created by becoming an agile organization. But, agility requires having the right team in place and the right supporting tools. Last week we hosted a virtual Executive Roundtable (as part of our Monthly Webinar series), when a conversation about 2019 trends and predictions turned directly into the importance of agility and the talent and tools that enable it.
“Our procurement clients aren’t living in a perfect world where they can always predict what’s going to be needed and they are looking for new ways to gain an advantage in the marketplace… They want to get the right people with the right skills in the small windows they sometime have… And, if they can solve for that, they can be more responsive to the needs of their customers and in some cases, accelerate revenue.” – Kristine Davis, Director of Marketing, Beeline
“Across different industries, the business units that our sourcing and procurement clients support are being asked to operate faster and under more uncertainty which drives up the requirement for greater agility. Procurement can either be responsive to that or they can grow apart from that… We have found that one of the leading indicators in how procurement is perceived is responsiveness… If your business has projects coming to you faster, you have to have a plan to adapt to that…” – Andrew Durlak, Co-Founder and VP of Operations.
In football and procurement, success sits at the intersection of talent and agility. What are you doing to bring these two key forces together in your department?
Andrew Bartolini is the Founder & Chief Research Officer of Ardent Partners and the publisher of this site.
Do you want to hear Andrew discuss the Future of Procurement including the intersection of Talent, Technology and Agility? Register for his upcoming webinar at the end of the month (Feb 28, 1 pm ET)
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