On Sunday morning, I went to Bootlegger for a cappuccino. I like my cappuccinos slightly salty, and I was somewhat disappointed that I couldn't stir Sir John Kirwan’s bitter tears into my coffee.
The Springboks definitively, and unambiguously, cemented their dominance over the Kiwis in Cape Town this weekend. The hard-fought victory over our old rival was achieved through a combination of physicality and exciting adventurous play. The stadium was packed, the pyrotechnics would do Taylor Swift proud, the plane came over so low we thought it would land on us, and the faithful belted out the South African anthem in a way that really made you believe we’re all in this together.
There were no sour grapes, for once, from Kiwi pundit and legendary winger John Kirwan. Just honest and respectful praise for a side that had now earned the right to be called the best in the world. It was surreal.
There were sour grapes elsewhere, of course. A late allocation of tickets became available, the inflated price initiating another flurry of complaints about the greed of the organizers and the way the prices make the game an elite and inaccessible luxury for a few.
Listen. Argentina is a country that has been in dire financial straits for decades, and yet hundreds of thousands of fans still found a way to get to the Middle East for the last Football World Cup. People make a plan for their chosen religion, it’s all about priorities.
Case in point. My father used to have season tickets at the old Newlands stadium, but we gave those up 20 years ago. This year, because this test match was wrapped up in the season tickets, I bought four for the family. My boys love going to the stadium, and what that investment did was that we now plan our weekends away around the home games so we don’t miss out. This in turn means that the stadium has a pretty full supporter crowd for most games, the additional income is handy, and they can do their financial planning better by having a solid annual financial model.
When the renewal came around, we hardly hesitated. And we are now part of the thousands that ensure good attendance (I’ll give the tickets away when we can’t attend) and strong financial security. What a different place we are in from a few years ago when maladministration had the union on its knees.
Seeing as everyone these days wants to bring in a sexy equity partner, valuation is also important, and having annuity income through season tickets is the way to go. This is what my AI friend has to say:
On average, businesses with a higher percentage of recurring (annuity) revenue can be valued at 25-100% higher than businesses with mostly one-time sales, depending on how predictable and secure the revenue stream is.
For example, if a business with a transactional revenue model is valued at $1 million, the same business with 50% or more of its revenue coming from annuity income could be valued between $1.25 million and $2 million or more.
It’s no surprise that the Red Disa Consortium and their partners immediately seized the opportunity presented by the All Blacks game to drive their bigger objective, which was to create a predictable and renewable income stream. It’s textbook stuff around acting and executing on core priorities, and I salute Johan le Roux and his team.
It also means that, even though the excitement of the test is now behind us, I am able to predictably schedule all the home games with my family for the next 8 months, and plan the rest of our life around that. Systems drive behaviour, after all.
Now if I can only get my boys to switch their priority focus to the actual game away from the sweets, ice creams and snacks…
PG’s Pro Tip:
I talk about Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook IPO and going mobile in my new book Boks to Business. The All Black vs Springboks test was a glorious celebration of rugby in a festival atmosphere, but I salute the WP brain trust for leveraging the opportunity to drive their true objectives. Are you crystal clear on your core objectives, and are you unapologetically driving organizational behaviour towards those objectives? If not, well you know what to do…
Commenti