In delivering the keynote address at the LG Pro Annual Conference, Paul Bourke, from Brienburke Business Advisors, said that the single, biggest competitive advantage an organisation can have is ‘results orientated people’.
With extensive management experience, including heading up Arnotts, Cadburys and the Campbells Corporations, Paul Bourke said that setting an organisation’s agenda must include performance through people and continually reinventing your organisation.
He said that business does not appreciate the value of its human capital. To bring home this point, he has co written a book with Australian Football League coach, David Parkin, titled ‘Perform or Else! Lessons For Life From Sport’.
Peak sporting organisations gain the winning edge by gathering together the best group of people available and then nurturing them to achieve their best. “In sport, there is brutal honesty,” he said. “People know what is expected. There will be disappointment but no surprise, everything is always out in the open.
“A high priority is placed on recruitment and training. Distractions must be removed, with sports welfare managers looking at the present, but also working with sports people to plan their life after sport and assisting with the transition to other careers.
” Above all, in the brutal honesty of sport everything is measured.” He said in business staff rarely have any input into what is to be achieved. They are seldom consulted about how to cut costs. Too often in cost cutting exercises, cuts are made across the board resulting in the shedding of productive as well as unproductive people.
Paul Bourke also said that in business getting the best people is not given high enough priority. Organisations tend to spend much more money and effort getting rid of poor performers than selecting the best people in the first place.
