As the world settles in to watch the Summer Games in Rio, it got us to thinking about one thing that all of the athletes have in common: preparation.
No matter the sport, the athletes in Rio are world-class and have all put in an amazing amount of work to get where they are today. That work has them prepared for any eventuality they may encounter during the course of the competition, giving them the experiences, knowledge and skills to draw upon in any situation because – as anyone knows – very few things in life go as planned.
This also made us think of the preparation that goes into making sure your business is running perfectly, every hour, every day, all year long. There is an amazing amount of work, training and preparation for any eventuality that goes into keeping your company’s critical applications and information safe and available to you at any time.
A large part of this is to train for any eventuality that may occur. Just as athletes must shift and adjust, so too must your business and the partners you work with to protect it.
Need to make defensive adjustments because of a hot hand (or foot)? Try a different routine to make up points in the standings? You need to draw upon your preparation for these situations from your months of practice. Have a power outage at your main facility? How about an unexpected increase in bandwidth needs to meet a surge in customer interest? You have to rely on the disaster recovery or growth plans and preparation you have in place with your partners.
Just as you wouldn’t send untrained athletes to compete on the world’s greatest stage, you can’t expect your business to rely upon an untrained, untested partner without plans in place for any eventuality. They need to be trained and able to draw upon that knowledge at a moment’s notice.
As you look to build your medal-winning team, here are some things to remember as you review your partners’ training regimens:
Teamwork – How can your chosen teammates handle the unexpected (or even expected) growth of your team? If there is a surge in customer interest – meaning a need for even greater bandwidth and capacity – can they adjust and keep you going through the whole competition? Or will you need to change teams halfway through because they’re unprepared for the potential changes in your business?
Stamina – Is your vendor partner trained to last the whole competition? Do they have the plans in place to keep your business running, no matter how long the games take? Or do they seem like they’re just happy to get there? You should review with them their training regimens and see if they’ve had any outages in the past – and what their plans are if one happens. Will they be able to keep you in the competition, or will you both be saying “better luck next time.” Your business is too important to leave in untrained hands that aren’t confident they can handle any changes on the fly.
Coaching – Is there someone you can work with to improve things? Is there a person or team of coaches monitoring the program and all of the “players” all of the time? How easy is it to make adjustments or to ask for advice? Is there a team behind your team making sure the right decisions are made and the correct preparations put in place?
At the Markley Group, we’re dedicated to helping our clients be successful in any and all events – and to help them be prepared should something unexpected happen during the course of the game. To learn more about how our colocation and cloud computing services can help you medal every time, contact us at sales@markleycloud.com.
