Musings at Altitude

Every morning now, my daughter rushes downstairs onto my computer to check the hockey news and see who, if anyone, has been traded.  She focuses primarily on the Avalanche, worrying constantly about her favorite players (which seemingly are all of them) and whether or not they’ll have the uniform of the Avalanche on for the rest of the season.  So far, she’s left for school with a joyful heart.  No trades, and no disappointment or sadness.  But the trading deadline isn’t till tomorrow at noon, so she’ll be on edge till then.

Wouldn’t it be cool if business had a trading deadline too?  Wouldn’t it be cool if owners watched the performance of their teams very closely and made decisions based on revenues earned and overall competitiveness?  Wouldn’t it be cool if the Captain of the team was chosen because of leadership in the locker room and the superstars were only superstars because of the great play of all the others on the team?  Wouldn’t it be cool if the best business athletes wanted to play for your team and actively campaigned to become part of your team?  Wouldn’t it be cool if the owners looked at a business and sought chemistry in the team and traded for those very athletes that were needed to achieve the maximum result in business?  And wouldn’t it be cool if team members anxiously rushed downstairs every morning to check the trade wires to see if their team was indeed going to improve with changes made by their ownership?

Actually, business should indeed work this way, even without a trading deadline!  Owners should be looking at their team and seeking out those special athletes that would make the team more competitive and more successful.  Owners and the Captain should be monitoring team chemistry and when the mix creates strains rather than enables success, they should be willing to change the roster to get that right chemistry.  The Captain should be picked for outstanding performance both on the field and in the locker room, and if the team does not respond well to the Captain, the owners/coaches should be willing to trade the Captain or promote a new Captain to provide that much needed leadership to the team.

So, what if there was a trading deadline?  Since April 15th is tax day, what if businesses were encouraged to improve their teams and given special incentives to make changes up till April 15th each year?  I can only imagine the anxiety in an executive team if they indeed were subject to trade and the owners were incentivized to optimize their business teams!

I bet for many businesses the entire dynamic and performance of a team may change if that were indeed the case.