In the Autumn, like many of the Welsh public, I watched our national rugby team struggle to be competitive against the other nations. As you would expect, the general mood surrounding Welsh Rugby was relatively bleak and after we encountered our sixth successive loss against Ireland, there was very little hope for the Six Nations.
Shortly after the Ireland defeat, the Welsh coach Wayne Pivac was quoted as saying:
“We’re looking to change what has been done for over 10 years and change mindsets and it doesn’t happen overnight in my experience and it’s something we will continue to work towards because we believe in it. The players are working very, very hard. From our point of view, it’s roll your sleeves up on Monday. We’re not giving up on this, it’s not the World Cup, we’re working towards the World Cup and it’s going to take time.”
Turnaround
Well fast forward four months and who would have believed that the whole nation would have been cheering on and most importantly, expecting to win a Grand Slam on Saturday night?
The Grand Slam was not to be for several reasons and apart from some distasteful comments towards certain players by a minority of “so-called” fans, overall, the affection shown towards the team has been incredibly positive. The general mood surrounding Welsh Rugby is now far from bleak and the forward planning may well have started to pay off.
So forward planning… What does this mean for Hexa and what lessons can we take from this?
Well one of the first things I did on Monday morning this week (after taking out the recycling and avoiding messages from my English friends) was to revisit our original business plan. I wanted to remind myself of the plans we put in place before we launched Hexa and what our expectations were in autumn, compared to how the business looks today. I was pleased to see that several of our original ideas have now turned into consistent revenue streams and we continue to run the business with our core values at the heart of all we do. Overall, we have stuck to our plans in the same way the Welsh team have done and are pleased with the outcomes – although still definitely no grand slam for us yet!!!
What next for Hexa?
One thing that did stand out though, was that we do need to start building on our original plan and start thinking a bit longer term. This is not always easy, especially when you are trying to provide a consistently high service to your customers, but forward planning certainly is important in ensuring you get better and better.
With that in mind, I have managed to convince Stu that we need to block out some time next week to do some more planning. Let us hope I can keep him off his phone for a few hours!!!