Sitting thinking about what should be the next subject for the blog my mind drifted to the fact that Chelsea were probably going to win the Premiership this season (which they have) and my team, lowly QPR, would end another season in the doldrums of the lower leagues. Another year of slogging it out, working hard but getting nowhere, a feeling shared by many of us at work. With January orders to be placed in the coming months and season’s featuring strongly in the Travel, Luggage, Infant and Toy Categories that I help to manufacture goods for, the subject just type of manifested.
What if business was a football team? What departments would play in which position? What players would you need to be a winner? Who would make the pies at half time?

Defence: Quality Department
A solid back four from the Quality Department, defending the company and protecting the brand. Centre Back rocks of Consistency and Reliability from Quality Assurance (QA), with Compliance and Quality Engineering as wing backs, scouting forward and returning with info from the market and supporting the midfield and attackers with a compliant, high quality, consistent product.

Sitting behind in goal is Quality Control, the last bastion of protection, stopping attacks as the last line of defence. But as I’ve said before, if you’re without a strong QA defence and you’re relying on QC on its own, you’re looking at a lot of quality-related trouble and a long season ahead dealing with those recurrent problems.

Midfield: Engineering & Product Development
Engineering plays in defensive midfield. Solid, balanced, reliable and safe, thinking about each move, playing off their creative midfield partner of Product Development. PD play with passion and flair (and sometimes let their imagination get the better of them!), but provide those star quality moments every team needs to be Champions. The key to the midfield is communication with internal departments, and these two must master this most important skill.

Wingers: Marketing and the Merchant Function
Fast and nimble, responsive to changes in play with deft skill and agility, supporting Product Development in the midfield and foraging forward, exciting the crowd and laying up the perfect plays for the strike force to finish the job. If the support from Marketing and Merchanting isn’t there, you’re giving your attack a near impossible job.

Strikers: Sales Department
A great partnership. The quiet, soft seller, slowly and gently working away with great guile and finesse of a number 10. His partner, the number 9, the centre forward. The out and out striker, knocking them in whenever they come. Together, a strike force getting results week in week out. The team relies on Sales to keep the customers and fans coming back week after week.

Management & Coaching – Supply Chain, Warehousing & Logistics
The backbone of the side, the Supply Chain Dept. supported by Coach Logistics and Physio Warehousing. Directing from the side line. They’ve done the planning, written the policy, set up the procedure, but always seem to be the ones blamed when it all goes wrong!

Champions or relegation?
Like football, business is a team game, and unless every one of the departments turns out, week in, week out, you’re going to be fighting for survival rather than lifting the trophy. Oh, and, if you’re lucky, finance can pay for the pies!