Sports are an awful metaphor for business

John Sadowsky had a blog post on February 10 titled Can sports teach us anything worthwhile about business? and another on February 23 titled Is sport such a poor metaphor for management?  I don’t share John’s claim that sports can teach us anything, or his enthusiasm for the National Football League (NFL).

On February 3, 2017 the web site for the Harvard Business Review had an article by William C.  Taylor titled Why Sports Are a Terrible Metaphor for Business. He said:

“The logic of competition and success is completely different.”

“The dynamics of talent and teamwork are completely different.”

“The creation of economic value is completely different.”

I agree. Bill wrote that a few days before the Super Bowl. Most businesses don’t compete in an artificial oligarchy like the NFL where less than twenty events over part of a year decide a championship. And most don’t have their talent come from indentured servants like college students playing under the NCAA.

Also, as George Carlin hilariously discussed long ago there are huge differences between even Baseball vs Football.