For a long period of time, the professional British cycling team, Team Sky 🚴♀️ was regarded as one of the worst teams of the world. In 2002, they hired Sir Dave Brailsford to incorporate a business concept ‘the theory of marginal gains’ to the team. The theory of marginal gains is the idea that making many small improvements of 1% creates huge overall improvements.
Team Sky started improving on a variety of things – for instance, they found lighter tyres, more comfortable seat, reduce chance of getting sick, better nutrition, better pillows, etc. They made hundred of little changes and in 2008 Beijing Olympics they won 7/10 gold medals🏅and won 7/10 medals in the London 2012, and won 4 times in the last 5 years for the Tour de France.
The most successful people believe in the theory of marginal gains. They never stop learning.
Top tips to improve:
- Audit your customer journey and look for where you can go from good to great
- Ask your customers where the improvement areas lie
- Look at competitors to see how you compare
- Never stop listening to customer needs and evolving
