Strive to Survive -4 things F1 teaches us about growth and business

As this weekend approaches, any motorsport fan will be aware that it is the start of the Formula 1 season. Even non motorsport fans who have been enjoying Netflix's "Drive to Survive" will quietly be looking forward to seeing how their new favourite driver will do. All this excitement got me thinking about how F1 really teaches us about growth and business and what I take away from that.

The Big Brands do not guarantee success

If you cast your memory back to Michael Schumacher's Ferrari era, it would be laughable to imagine an era where they struggle to finish with points each race. "Every driver dreams to drive with Ferrari" is often said, however only time will tell if Carlos Sainz will regret chasing the famous brand when he realises the workload that big brand will bring him as it did with Sebastian Vettel, a former world champion.

Bringing this back to business, time and time again businesses choose the path of least resistance and follow the big brand name when choosing products, tools or services. " You don't get fired for buying(insert brand here) people say, without stepping back and thinking is this the best possible option for our business. Will this add value to the business and its employees. Have I explored all my options or am I just chasing a brand name. We have learned from F1 that big brands don't always mean big success so keep this in mind when making your decisions.

Design gives you the Advantage

There is no denying that Lewis Hamilton is an awesome driver but we also cannot overlook the fact that the Mercedes design is the winning design at the moment by a country mile. George Russell proved this after putting in a jaw dropping, eyebrow raising race only to be failed by a "bad pitstop" when he was sitting in for Lewis Hamilton in the Sakhir GP.

What I took from this is the Mercedes car simply works well for the user, not taking away from driver ability from either driver, but it definitely gives a comparable advantage. This does remind me of HubSpot. The design works for the user, it empowers them to win. There is not a day goes by without a new customer joining HubSpot because they had been with one of the "go to" brands and found out the hard way that they are adding friction rather than reducing it. You may have the best sales team or marketing team, but if they are using a poorly designed system that is clunky and unintuitive, the competition will gain an advantage. Be like Mercedes and concentrate on providing systems that work seamlessly everyday and enable your team to win championships.

Always be testing

The amount of live data available to F1 teams trackside or in the factory is nothing short of scary. They are in a game of one hundredths of a second. They are always testing, always looking to improve and find new ways and better ways of doing things and striving to push the limits of the cars and drivers while staying within regulations.

Businesses I talk to strive for something similar, granted they are not chasing hundredths of a second but they are chasing efficiency. Efficiency may be operational or financial but one thing is for sure, like F1 teams, efficiency will help them surpass their competition. Now unlike F1, most businesses do not have live reporting on how their business is performing. Reports consist of going to multiple different tools and compiling that data into an excel sheet. They often have no visibility how the money they are spending on advertising or sales efforts is contributing to revenue and they have no idea where they should be increasing their efforts to gain more advantage or decrease efforts where they are not seeing a return. This is one of the biggest game changers customers see when they deploy HubSpot, it is that ability to understand their efforts, live and through user friendly reports. That's how they can develop that F1 mindset and beat the competition.

The right team and processes can make the difference between winning and losing.

If you have never seen a Formula 1 pitstop, watch one here right now. In this particular instance it is Red Bull changing 4 tyres in 1.91 SECONDs. Now I don't know about you but anytime I change a single tyre it takes a hell of a lot longer. Looking at it being performed, it's the ultimate testament for teamwork and process. Everyone has a place, everyone has a job, everyone has what they need, everyone trusts each other and it is just seamless. The process is the same every-time and it can be the difference between being on the podium or not in many cases. Take a look at when it goes wrong here, chaos and confusion caused the process to break down and ultimately caused George Russell his podium. Now I know there are lots of conspiracies and lots of things to take into account, however it does prove the effect of the system being let down due to Human error.

It is no different in business, we invest in our teams and employ superstars to grow our business. We create systems and processes but often they are based on humans being superstars every day which is unrealistic. When they have an off day or if they simply move on, the systems break down and ultimately cause friction in businesses which allows the competition to gain momentum. The thing is it does not have to be this way. Setting up a system to be a single source of truth, that manages tasks, records, calls, emails and much more allows you to continue to gain momentum as a company no matter what challenge you or your team is faced with. It could be the difference between winning and losing.

I hope this has been interesting, thought provoking for you and enjoyable at the same time. Enjoy Formula 1 this weekend and please reach out with any comments or questions.