An engine is not the only useful metaphor for thinking about how to upgrade your company. In my last post, I talked about the insights generated by thinking about your company as a garden. This time, I’ll share why I think succeeding in business is much like winning in sports.

When I was growing up, I went to the state championship in three different sports, and we even won one of them. So, the sports metaphor makes a lot of sense to me—and to many, many leaders. This might be the most popular metaphor for business in America. For example, this metaphor reminds us that success requires fitness in the fundamentals. Not only do you need to learn fancy footwork and trick shots, but you also need to be in shape. So, you also run laps and drill on the basic skills.

Also, sports taught me that we play like we practice, so to get better results, we should improve our practice sessions. Very few companies actually practice before they play a live game in front of customers. When Chick-fil-A opens a new location, they spend a week with the new staff making food and delivering it to an empty restaurant. They don’t want their first game day to be their first time running the play.

This metaphor also forces us to face the fact that business is a competitive game. It doesn’t matter that you achieved a new personal best if the other racers reached the finish line before you. If your customer experience isn’t better than your competitors, it doesn’t matter how hard you work or that you’re better than last year. A tragic example of this is K-Mart, which made improvements in its operations every year right up until they went bankrupt. While they got better, they didn’t improve as fast as Walmart, so they fell further behind each year.

So, take a moment and consider your “sports team.” How strong are you on the fundamentals? What would practice sessions look like? And is your rate of growth better or worse than your competitors?