Last Sunday, I headed to the incredible new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with my son, to watch our team Spurs face Arsenal in the North London derby.
As huge Spurs fans, we had high hopes for the game, but unfortunately the result didn’t go our way – Spurs lost 1-0 and, truth be told, were far from at their best.
But while the performance on the pitch may have been underwhelming, what really impressed me was something important to long-term success—the business systems in place at the stadium to deliver an incredible match day experience.
Now, if you’ve ever been to a live sporting event, you’ll know that running a stadium on a match day is no small feat.
Over 60,000 people need to be guided in and out, fed, watered, and entertained, and all of this happens in a short window of time with event staff who, in many cases, aren’t even working in full-time roles at the stadium.
Yet, despite this, the whole operation runs like clockwork.
From exchanging season tickets with another holder, to getting to the stadium from Seven Sisters station, to grabbing a beer with my son once we were inside—everything was seamless.
And the sheer smoothness of the experience reminded me of another operational giant—McDonald’s.
Think about McDonald’s for a second.
The average store generates around £3 million in turnover and makes about £300,000 in profit.
The kicker?
They don’t rely on highly experienced, long-term staff.
In fact, many McDonald’s employees, especially at the crew level, are under 19 years of age, on minimum wage, and stay for less than a year,
Yet the quality of service and product is consistent (whether fast food burgers are your thing or not)
Why? Because they’ve mastered the art of systems – tried and tested processes that allow even young, relatively inexperienced managers and staff trained to deliver consistent, high-quality results.
Each store is a well-oiled machine, not because of who’s behind the counter, but because of how they operate behind the scenes.
And this is exactly what I saw at Spurs on Sunday.
The result on the pitch was far from ideal, but the infrastructure that supports the match day operations was flawless, and the systems in place allowed temporary and part-time staff to deliver a world-class experience for fans, without missing a beat.
In fact I’ve been watching the whole business of Spurs, not just the stadium, is impressively systemised from: recruitment, to player development through the academies, to the support and infrastructure provided to players, and even their community outreach and investment programmes. As a result the business has become profitable and grown tremendously in the underlying value of the asset,.
It’s a powerful lesson for any business owner – systems are the backbone of success.
If your business depends on one or two key players to function well, then you’re setting yourself up for a fall.
However when you create clear, repeatable processes that anyone can follow, you free your business from relying too heavily on any one person.
Your team can change, your staff can come and go, but the results stay consistent.
It doesn’t matter if you’re in a McDonalds in London, New York, or Tokyo—the experience is the same because the systems are the same.
The fact that Spurs could deliver a seamless matchday experience, using staff who aren’t full-time, shows the power of well-designed systems.
They’ve built processes that are easy to implement, even with a rotating team, and the result is a consistent, world-class experience.
Ask yourself: if you stepped away from your business today, would it continue to run smoothly without you?
If the answer is no, it’s time to start focusing on building better systems.
Document your checklisted processes, streamline your operations, train your team and create a structure that can be followed by anyone.
The key to long-term success lies in the systems you create.
Spurs might not have won the match, but they’ve built a system that’s setting them up for long-term success both as a business and a football club.
Can you say the same about your business?
Need help building your systems? Book a free 45-minute session with me today.
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