Bruno Chabas: “In sport, as in work, a competitive environment is an advantage that pushes one to excel”

Having experience of the sporting and corporate worlds, what would you say are the common threads that run through both?
Gerald Bouhourd: Among the characteristics entrepreneurs and sportspeople share are a love of competition, a capacity to learn and adapt, and the ability to take decisive action. The main difference is in how deadlines are managed.
Sportspeople spend lots of time training and, at the end of the day, very short periods competing, which are scheduled in advance, whereas managers are always on the field of play, as it were, with much less preparation time, especially for activities that are not planned in advance. 
Nevertheless, while a company manager may not have the luxury of preparing for challenges like a sportsperson, there is still a learning curve that will allow them to improve and make their mark. 
Bruno Chabas: In sport, as in work, a competitive environment is an advantage that pushes one to excel. The role of a manager in a company is to my mind more expansive than that of a sportsperson, whose preparation focuses on practicing the same things many times over, which can seem repetitive, even if it gets results. For a manager, learning comes by doing, in a variety of domains, and as a director I find that fascinating: coming up with new ways of overcoming difficulties is undeniably part of the job’s appeal.

How does the notion of performance factor in?
B.C.: Whether in sport or professional life, access to data is crucial in order to accurately assess performance. The use of statistics has grown massively in the information age, which has made performance more transparent. In basketball, player and team statistics have been harnessed for many years now, and I remember in my playing days how we regularly utilized them to make progress. The sports world showed the way for the business world in this regard.
G.B.: I agree with Bruno that the business world borrows heavily from the sports world. Sports people have a plethora of statistical information to draw on, which lets them know where they stand in relation to the field, if we take the example of golf. And this data is as important for their coaches as it is for the players themselves. I would draw a distinction between individual sports like golf and team sports such as basketball, where the use of data is even more complex, because you have to take into account team dynamics – and there is therefore a level of subjectivity to it.
B.C.: Indeed, while data is important, one must not neglect the importance of culture. The quality of the environment in which an individual operates is crucial, and that goes for work as well as sport. While it’s possible to obtain good results in a bad culture, when team spirit exists, members of any collective can thrive together.

You highlight the importance of cohesion. Is there a parallel between the role of a manager and a coach in this regard?
G.B.: A team in sport functions a bit like the executive committee of a company. The company director, in the image of the coach, has a key role to play. They pick the right people for particular roles in order to obtain the best results, and instruct them to focus on certain aspects. In a recent interview in the French press, Hogan brought up Didier Deschamps, citing his modern coaching style which, as coach of the French national football team, allowed him to cultivate a culture of interdependence where each member of the team brought their individual skills while harnessing those of their team-mates.

"Both business and sport require an ability to make good decisions, especially where human beings are concerned"

B.C.: It’s incumbent on a coach, and on a manager, to put together the best team possible and then get the best out of them. As a company director myself, I learnt a lot from my coaches who, in a counter-intuitive manner, got us to work on improving our strong points, rather than our weak ones.  It was up to our team-mates to compensate for the weakness in each of our games to advance collectively.  One must obviously take individual performances into account when choosing a team, but above all, have complementary strengths and weaknesses.

The best example of this that I can think of is the team selected to represent France in the world cup in 1998, which did not include Eric Cantona, even though he was the best player in the world at the time, because the coaching staff prioritized team spirit. It was a big call, but one that paid off.

According to you, what is the top quality to possess in sport and in business?
B.C.: To my mind, both require an ability to make good decisions, especially where human beings are concerned. While it might not go down well with the person in question, deciding to leave out a player or not promote a member of staff can be the right course of action, for the individual as much as for the team, because it is in no one’s interests to hand someone a role for which they are not ready. Taking risks is always a delicate subject and they must be understandable for all, but for me it’s also part of the fun in sport.
G.B.: I agree, insofar as the thing a manager is often criticized for is not taking a decision. For me, it’s better to take a timely decision that turns out to be bad, than a good one after a long delay. You need to know how and when to take risks, whether you are a player, coach or director.

How does playing sport at a high level help when dealing with defeat?
G.B.: As a golfer, I often heard it said that it’s impossible to win without knowing how to lose. Failure must not be an end in itself, but a teachable moment. Sport can help us to have the right attitude in these situations, to look within for reasons why we were beaten, rather than to blame outside factors and circumstances.
B.C.: Defeat teaches resilience, which is a fundamental quality in sport as in business. Basketball taught me how to come back stronger from setbacks, by rapidly learning the right lessons.

Many top sportspeople fall into depression after winning a major trophy. How can the desire to achieve be maintained over the long term?
B.C.: It’s also up to the coach here to find a way to rouse the player, make the adjustments needed to relight their competitive flame. Change is a constant and I have known it in both the sporting and business worlds. Adapting to a new reality is key and can help stimulate the desire to perform.
G.B.: Whether in golf or tennis, the best players are those who know how to keep an even keel – not to get too high after the wins or too low after the defeats. It wasn’t the case for me, as after every win, I would make sure to enjoy myself – which is why knew I would never make a career out of sport.  

To finish, Bruno, could you give us one defeat and one victory that has stayed with you?
B.C.: Back in the day, my basketball team lost a match that would have seen us promoted to the Pro B division. I blamed myself, because I was not in top shape. Looking back, I realize that I was coasting, not pushing myself to get better. The victory that comes to mind was in a regional rugby championship. We were a tight group of friends, and winning the title was immensely pleasurable. Those intense physical battles are etched in my memory, as is the team spirit we had.