Henrik Bunge, the CEO and self-titled “Head Coach” of the Swedish sports fashion company Björn Borg, has a unique approach to leadership: he’s built his business like a gym. In fitness, there is a straightforward relationship between the effort you put in and the results you achieve. He aims to replicate this in the office. His employees are required to participate in weekly fitness activities, and they also take many lessons from sports culture and adapt them to office work. In this piece, the authors discuss whether CEOs like Bunge are really onto something in thinking that lessons from the gym can be seamlessly transferred into their companies — or if this leap is a mere fantasy.
Work hard and you’ll see results. For many in today’s knowledge economy, this feeling is elusive. They struggle to see how their labor contributes directly to the performance of the corporation, or how it helps the progress of their career. While there’s often increased pressure to be more productive in the office, it’s sometimes hard not to wonder, “What’s the point?” Whether in marketing or sales, it often feels like jobs are contingent on external circumstances, the whims of executives, strategic pivots, and shareholder demands. What happened to being rewarded for consistent, quality work over the long-term?
See The Original Blog:
https://hbr.org/2018/03/the-swedish-ceo-who-runs-his-company-like-a-crossfit-gym?fbclid=IwAR2Q6lW4QddFVmKfFGLzp-Mjz12k-dIlHpAfOw-Y8NN_sMD6mDXvj2ZfXY0
