012: “Yacht Racing” Your Company to Success with Bob Roitblat

 

Bob Roitblat’s passion is helping business owners succeed. This fervor, combined with years of practical experience, is what makes Bob such an outstanding mentor to his clients, showing them how to develop a goal-focused mentality and the competitive skills they need to achieve long-term success. In addition, Bob helps mold them into great leaders whom people admire and follow.

Using his experience as the CEO of Mainsail Consulting Group, combined with years as a competitive sailor, Bob powerfully draws parallels between building and leading a winning yacht racing team and building and leading a winning business, to the delight of his clients. 

Consequently, Bob helps current and emerging leaders develop business skills that are effective whether the seas are calm or storms are raging. “Yacht racing,” he says, “is the perfect metaphor for business success. Businesses, like race boats, require leadership, teamwork and rapid ideation and decision-making to be successful. Miles from land, you have only those resources you brought with you, your knowledge of the environment and your competition to eke out as much advantage as you can in a dynamic environment.” 

In this episode, Bob Roitblat and I discuss:

  • How to use experiences to support crazy hobbies
  • High Probability or Low Probability 
    • Adapt to eventualities
  • Strategy
    • Adjust as you go along
    • Be able to say no as well as yes to some things
  • Ideas
    • Innovation
    • Asking for ideas has a low probability of success because there is no target
    • Find the finish line first
      • What results are the customers looking for?
      • What are we looking for as a company?
      • Determine an end goal
  • Try to see things with fresh eyes
    • Go to a tradeshow of an industry you aren’t part of so that you can see things from a different perspective
  • Why ideas don’t turn into innovations
    • They may not serve a real need
    • People want solutions
    • You need to create a demand for the product
  • Patience and persistence are key
  • What will people actually buy?
  • Start with insight before you ask for ideas
  • Observation is important
  • As a leader, give people the tools they need and get out of the way
    • Let people fail
    • Turn their failure into success

Resources mentioned in this episode: