What your business can learn from the Brisbane Broncos

Continuous improvement: Rather than simply focusing on what their competitors are doing, the Broncos look outside of the NRL to other sporting codes for inspiration on how to deliver a better product for their fans and sponsors.

Investing in junior talent: The combined salaries of the Broncos’ top 25 players must be less than $4.3 million, under the NRL’s salary cap restrictions. That’s not different to any business as all companies have limited money to pay their staff. The Broncos invest about 4 per cent of their revenue in developing junior talent. By having more juniors, who earn less, when the Broncos are forced to headhunt to fill specific positions, they have a greater proportion of their salary cap left to go to market.

Long-term thinking: By resting senior players from round games during the State of Origin representative period, Broncos management would have been aware that they were likely to attract reduced crowds and thus lower revenue and profit for those home games. However, at the end of the season, due to their standing on the ladder, the Broncos netted extra revenue from two home finals that they may not have grabbed had their senior players burnt out during the season.

Communication: When resting the stars of the team, Broncos coaches, management and front of house staff came under fire from the media and fans. After briefings from Broncos head coach Anthony Griffin, all staff understood why the decision was made and could stand united in the face of criticism.

Goal-setting: Winning a premiership each year is a clear goal for the Broncos. Businesses could learn a lot about setting clear, well-articulated goals.

Engaging customers: Forget how many likes on Facebook or followers on Twitter your brand has, the Broncos have real fans. Men, women and children who bathe themselves in gold and maroon and scream themselves silly at weekends at Lang Park. The reason for the fanatic following is a strong emotional connection with the Broncos brand. That’s hard to build, but easy to damage.

BRW

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