What do NFL dynasties and customer loyalty have in common?
I read an article recently on ESPN.com called “Impatience spins the coaching carousel” by Adam Schefter. In it, he describes how NFL owners hired a total of 11 new head coaches in 2009, and only three of them remain today. Apparently, the owners were looking for faster gratification than what history had demonstrated is needed, to produce a dynasty.
He gives some excellent examples to make the point:
Tom Landry didn’t take the Dallas Cowboys to the postseason until his seventh season, and most of today’s owners don’t seem willing to wait half that time. Chuck Noll of the Steelers, and Don Shula are other examples of coaches who went on to build hall-of-fame dynasties after enduring consecutive losing seasons at the start of the building process.
As I read the article, I couldn’t help but think of how some business owners and Boards of publicly-traded companies share the same mindset as the impatient success-seeking NFL owners. They both want to create an enduring dynasty, and they want to see it happen overnight.
You can’t make either one happen overnight. Winning traditions take time to transform from losing, or mediocre organizations into winning traditions that dominate their respective league or market, year after year. To become a winning tradition, you need to have a long-term mindset.
Businesses that are successful and profitable over the long haul tend to have a base of very loyal, if not fanatic customers. The leaders in these businesses realize that customers don’t become fanatics overnight. It can take years to establish trust, and build that kind of relationship. If you expect to make every transaction profitable from day one, you’ll wind up replacing your customers as often as those impatient NFL owners replace their head coaches.
If you want to establish a dynasty and dominate your market, exhibit patience. Think long term. Don’t sell off tomorrow’s loyal customer to gain today’s quick profit.
Plan for the long term, and act for the long term. Because in the long run, it’s worth it.
It takes years for an acorn to become an oak tree.
