What it takes to create a school-to-global pipeline – what business can learn from sport

Just as the athlete with a highly skilled and knowledgeable team is steered to international success at AUT Millennium – so too can businesses be guided to excel and become global players in the international arena.

Today, dominance in sport runs much deeper than the fortuitous combination of talent and a good coach. It’s not just about training harder than everyone else.
 
It’s about training smarter…
 
At AUT Millennium, the game for New Zealand’s elite athletes has changed - with world-class facilities and services grounded in the latest sport science research. Athletes are supported and guided by a highly skilled and knowledgeable team from school age through to the world stage.
 
In the past, the expert support network for athletes was spread across a wide range personnel and venues, which wasn’t optimal
 
That’s not the case now, according to CEO of AUT Millennium and President of the New Zealand Olympic Committee, Mike Stanley., With High Performance Sport NZ we have been able to provide an environment where experts including trainers, nutritionists, physiologists, coaches and medics all collaborate and focus jointly on an athlete’s success quickly. Athletes are getting the very best people 100% focused on them, their achievements and how to optimise their performance. It’s accelerated the rate of improvement and were seeing the results in international competition”
 
Located on the North Shore in the Grow North District, AUT Millennium is home to a diverse range of organisations, from sports clubs and national sporting associations, to medical services and programmes for the community, local schools and sports groups.
 
AUT’s Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand’s (SPRINZ) is also located at AUT Millennium. Their team of internationally-renowned experts gather and use sport science and health information from high performance athletes and the wider community.
 
Mike Stanley describes AUT Millennium as, “a community of expertise and athletes at various stages of their development, from children who are learning to swim, to some of New Zealand’s very best athletes.”
 
In addition to preparing athletes for international competition, AUT Millennium addresses national, regional and local needs in sport, physical activity and community health, with the aim that New Zealanders may live healthier lives by excelling in sport and fitness.
 
Mike Stanley believes that although training for a sport at an elite level is very specific to that particular sport, there is a lot athletes can learn from other disciplines.
 
For example, rowing is renowned for its gruelling endurance training while shot put is explosive in nature. Both sports and their athletes can take elements of the other’s training into their own discipline with great results.
 
How does this relate to business?
 
In today’s competitive economic climate, businesses can face similar hurdles and challenges.
 
If experts can meet regularly, establish trust and share knowledge from their own business disciplines, Mike Stanley believes that it is possible to move beyond the current level of difficulties. Similar teething problems and the same costly time-consuming mistakes can be avoided.
 
Just as the athlete with a highly skilled and knowledgeable team is steered to international success, so too can businesses be guided to excel and become global players in the international arena.
 
The Grow North Innovation District ethos is to translate what AUT Millennium has done for the sport ecosystem into the innovative business ecosystem; to build an escalator that nurtures companies from start-up to scale-up faster and build sustainable businesses on the world stage.

If you’re an innovative tech business located on the North Shore and want to benefit from shared knowledge from peers and those who have successfully built global businesses - join our community portal - go to www.grownorth.co.nz to find out more.