Friday, August 3, 2012

Team Sky Really Knows How to Pedal a Brand

Bradley Wiggins became the first Brit to win the Tour de France.

It’s amazing that since the Tour began in 1903, no one from across the English Channel could pedal to victory in France.

Maybe not so amazing when you look closely at how Wiggins, his teammates and their leader took to the roads. A lot like strong companies take to their markets.

Great companies do three things well: Help people understand and become interested in its story—its brand; teach employees to communicate that brand message consistently; and allow employees some freedom to represent the brand in their own style.

Seems Team Sky does all three of these and quite well.

Let’s start with gaining commitment to the brand. Team Sky immediately differentiated itself by doing something unusual: affixed to the top bar of each bicycle—on a blue background matching the team’s colors and staring straight back at the rider—were these words:

“This is the line
The line between winning and losing
Between failure and success
Between good and great
Between dreaming and believing
Between convention and innovation
Between head and heart
It’s a fine line
It challenges everything we do
And we ride it every day”

This is the brand statement by which this organization’s culture is created. That culture, whether you’re pedaling a bicycle with eight other guys or working for a Fortune 500 company, ultimately becomes your brand.

Every time a Team Sky rider looks down—and that’s a lot when he pedals over 2,000 miles in three weeks—he is reminded of the brand for which he works. The employees of this organization truly understand what the brand is about.

Not to remain just words on carbon-fiber tubes—like the dusty mission statements hanging on cube walls everywhere—the message is reinforced by Team Principal Dave Brailsford during practice sessions, pre-race meetings on the team bus and in conversations with the riders during each stage (teams use radios to communicate with the their leaders who ride behind them in small colorful cars with extra bikes piled on top).

Each rider knows his place in the organization and what his contributions are at certain points in the race. This became most apparent as “second lieutenant” Chris Froome, considered by many to be the best rider in this year’s tour, slowed several times on the mountain passes to allow Wiggins to catch up and save energy by drafting on Froome’s back wheel. You could literally feel Froome “dragging” the eventual winner up the mountainside.

How does such conformity to the team allow for individual expression and success? Team Sky catapulted itself to an almost too-easy victory because of specific individual contributions by each rider somewhere along the way:

Froome, the faithful domestique, carried his captain through the roughest terrain; Mark Cavendish, the sprinter, was allowed to break away from the pack at the last few meters of a stage, winning two of them (including the final one on the Champs-Elysées); and Edvald Boasson Hagen is a rare talent who is relied upon to both climb and sprint, depending on where the team needs him most.

Each was afforded the flexibility to showcase his individual talent and style during the race. Still, Team Sky determined beforehand that Wiggins had the best chance among its members to win the tour, so when it came time to concentrate on who would wear the yellow jersey for leading the overall standings, each rider rode that “fine line” to put Wiggins up front.

Sure enough, there he stood atop the podium after the Sunday’s last stage, sideburns growing to his chin, fresh off grumbling about stupid questions from the media, and ending his victory speech with “Don’t get too drunk.” A real character. A brand unto himself.

Froome came in a little over three minutes behind Wiggins in the overall standings, resulting in a rare occurrence: two riders from the same team finishing the tour in first and second places. The team placed second in the overall team standings.

Team Sky’s leaders know that a group of strong individual contributors rallying around a single brand leads to success and reward for both the individuals and the organization.

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