line of sight – so sehe ich das

No matter how deep the crisis is there is always a way to rise from ashes to championship and here is my interpretation of the receipt.

1. Scoutmasters with Strategy.
2. Dedication and Diligence
3. Team and Trust
4. Frugality with Fun
5. Down-to-earth not Decadent

And to be honest some luck is also not preventing from success. Let me explain out of my view how my favorite football club Borussia Dortmund archived it’s seventh German championship after being near to bankruptcy only several years ago.

First of all the main reasons for their crisis -which are the opposite of the above mentioned success factors- could not be switched off in a second though some patience was an attribute of all acting people.

The right scoutmasters or leaders: Hans-Joachim “Akki” Watzke from the place where my best friends are from, the german “Sauerland”, aligned with a huge amount of expertise, not to arrogant to dig deep in the mud on his own covered by President Dr. Reinhard Rauball with a lot of trust and an excellent networking. In addition keeping the own Bundesliga record player and team captain Michael “Susi” Zorc after his active career as sports director for so many years showed either trust and consistency. Their common strategy was very simple, clear and published: “everything out of our own resources no loans!”

Clear that in addition and due to the professional background of Mr. Watzke -a very successful business man with his private company before- a detailed business plan was the basis to reduce the debts and that Michael Zorc had to work day and night to find the young talents for nearly no money. You have to watch third league games of east Mongolia to find them and not wasting time enjoying Manu playing Barca like other clubs could afford. By the way those clubs do not always succeed with their patchwork star-ensembles.

And the management team worked hard and professional. No more bought success by big stars or if, then only to sell them as soon as possible to reduce the debts burden. One can only do this for many years if really dedicated to the team and those guys are. I know and I learned it already from Uriah Heep’s “Sympathy” song-refrain many years ago: “Dedication is not an obligation, but the only way they say, to live from day to day and make each passing way a small sensation.”

And finally the team. It was a great season to watch them living their enthusiasm and friendship. Long years ago one of my former leaders advised me to forget all the pseudo-motivation-campaigns and to focus only on the people in the team. It’s vital to keep them always in good mood and consistently building up trust in changing times.

Even from lost games you have a chance to learn from and in hard times it’s even more important not to lose fun. A party from time to time and jokes, even satiric ones, make people laugh. I saw the guys from Dortmund laughing a lot over the years! Leader’s behavior in negative periods could score “big points” when not letting down but holding up the mood.

Congratulation Borussia!

Lange habe ich mich gefragt, was denn nun die Ewigkeit und das ewige Leben bedeuten könnte und um ehrlich zu sein, habe ich zwar viele gedankliche Ansätze, aber noch keine abschließende Meinung.

Aber inzwischen eine feste Überzeugung!

Denn die lokale Kabelfernsehfirma hat in ihrer Marketingabteilung wahrscheinlich Leute, die eine ganz besondere Vorstellung von dem Thema der Unendlichkeit haben müssen. Die lassen nämlich schon seit vielen Jahren meinen Schwiegervater nicht in Frieden ruhen. Nicht nur, dass sie uns mit ihren exorbitant hohen Rechnungen mindestens einmal im Jahr die Tränen in die Augen treiben, auch zwischendurch erinnern sie uns mit netten Werbebriefen immer mal wieder an unseren verblichenen Verwandten, an den sie diese Blättchen senden.

Dieser wird da indirekt gebeten, er möge sich nicht länger im Grabe umdrehen, sondern endlich den digitalen Errungenschaften dieser -auf ihr Kundemanagement bezogen- scheinbar grenzdebilen Firma zu frönen. Oder man fordert ihn immer mal wieder auf, seine langweiligen veralteten Geräte durch moderne zu ersetzen. Ist Grabschmuck eigentlich analog und wenn ja, wie macht sich so eine Trauerstätte mit digitalen Komponenten?

Nicht dass diese unglaublich serviceresistente Strippendealertruppe in den vergangen vierzehn Jahren schon x-mal die Nachricht vom viel zu frühen Tode des ehemaligen Hausvorstandes erhalten hätte, nein, aber diese Meldung wird genauso ignoriert, wie die Bildstörungen bei der Vorbeifahrt der lokalen Linienbusse.

Ewig soll der Kummer währen, aber ich schwöre, bald kauf ich mir eine Schüssel!