I’ve seen how sport can inspire and bring people together, transcending boundaries and borders. It’s just the same for the organisations delivering to the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Organising London 2012 – the greatest show on Earth -- requires collaboration on a grand scale.
As the official network infrastructure provider, I lead the marketing team who are helping to make the Games happen. We understand the size, complexity and hard work that’s needed – the equivalent of running 46 world championships at the same time, with no second chances.
If spinning plates was an Olympic sport, I’d be tipping the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) for gold. With everyone jostling for position, I’ve been so impressed by the way LOCOG protects sponsorship values and ensures we stay true to the ethos of the Games. Under pressure with only 200 days to go, working with LOCOG, other partners and sponsors continues to be both rewarding and challenging.
As the nights draw in, next summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games might seem a world away, but things change fast in the business world. So how prepared are you? Is technology helping businesses benefit when the Games end?
For even the most Games-ready business, the predicted absenteeism (28% during Sydney) and deluge of holiday requests (27% of staff requesting annual leave) is a headache-inducing cocktail for HR teams.
At Cisco, we’ve been involved with the Games for a while, so we’ve been busy putting plans in place. Like being flexible and agile during the Games, which sits well with our big push to be a more collaborative business. You’d expect us to demonstrate best practice, because we’re already supporting the Games with network technology. Plus, video, collaboration and business applications are at the heart of everything we do.
Flying less – our major departure
Some time ago, we cut internal travel by 90%, which radically altered attitudes to flying to business meetings, remote working and business mobility.
From this transformation sprung The Loop – an innovative, interactive, online forum for the UK and Ireland. This live Cisco TV show is now attended by 2,000 employees.
Globally, our use of Telepresence and WebEx has exploded. Now available across 1,010 rooms in 241 cities in 59 countries, one million Telepresence meetings have saved 191,000 trips and a staggering $817 million. Every month 700,000 WebEx meetings take place – 68% more than a year ago.
What works on the web, works for us
By sharing knowledge readily and richer interaction, we’re more productive.
Many consider Beijing 2008 as the first digital Olympics; I agree as it was the first Olympics after the launch of YouTube, Facebook and the iPhone. At a time Beijing was the most-watched Games in history, thanks to YouTube which generated 16.5 million views through IOC’s digital channel (International Olympic Committee).
In the past 4 years digital media has evolved significantly; that surely will make London 2012 take the digital sports experience to another level and make it the first mobile digital Olympics. Smartphones and tablets now outsell desktop and laptops. Today there are more than 800 million people on Facebook, 200 million on Twitter and 10 million on Foursquare (Source: Management Today) and more than 35 hours of video is uploaded every minute on YouTube (Source: Infographic: OneLily) , which makes YouTube the second most visited search engine after Google. Mobile, social media and Internet interaction have become essentials embedded into our daily behaviour and as such will play a vital role in London 2012’s success.
Two weeks ago I shared my interview with Sue Hunt, Director of Strategic Programmes at London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games on the subject of Inclusion and Diversity – what Inclusion and Diversity means to LOCOG and how they encourage it while faced with the challenge of an immovable deadline.
As part of our role as proud supporter and network infrastructure provider of London 2012, Cisco UK is involved in a couple of internal activities to encourage its employees to get involved in the Games. One of these activities is the Cisco Step Challenge, a 4-week challenge to encourage people to take the internationally recommended 10,000 steps per day. Providing you walked the minimum 70,000 steps per week, you were put into the prize draw for a pair of tickets to see a Paralympic Games event.
Employees across the UK joined together to formed teams and participated in the challenge. It wasn’t about fundraising or getting sweaty and struggling to find time to fit in extra exercise. It was about participation, improving your health and well being, team work and above all, having fun. A Facebook page and internal community was set up for participants to share words of encouragement and “top tips” for their fellow steppers such as park further away from your office building, use the stairs and not the lift, dancing burns more calories than walking and if you walk with children you walk more steps as you have to go back to get them every 200 yards!
The Step Challenge was very successful in engaging a large number of employees across the UK to participate in a sports challenge and raising awareness about how far you have to walk to achieve the recommended average of 10,000 steps. And one of the great things about it was that you could participate regardless of your age, gender, fitness levels, ethnicity, religion and belief or sexual orientation.
Inclusion and Diversity is a key component of Cisco’s culture and we believe that a truly inclusive and diverse workforce is critical to the success of our company and our people. The Step Challenge was advertised as “a challenge for everyone” and strongly encourage that everyone who wished to attend did so. Unfortunately we did not have anyone with a visual disability participate in the challenge and the team intends to look into this as a key area of focus for us next year. I think this is a real lesson for us all, that it’s not enough to open an opportunity to everyone -- we need to actively encourage Inclusion and Diversity and incorporate it into our strategy for success.
Cisco is the proud supporter and network infrastructure provider of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The 2012 Games aim to be the most connected games to date and Cisco are supplying the routing, switching, firewall, IP telephony and Software as a Service platform to fulfil this aim and transform the Olympic experience for the global audience. Click here to access Cisco’s London 2012 page.
The strong and collaborative partnership Cisco has with LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) is not just confined to a business relationship. We are both fully committed to Inclusion and Diversity -- understanding the importance of diversity and the value it brings and embracing difference whether that’s age, disability, gender, ethnicity, religion and belief or sexual orientation (you may recall my previous blog post on this topic).
And we aren’t just talking about fostering an inclusive and diverse workforce – it’s also about using Inclusive and Diverse practices to better serve our global customers and partners. For LOCOG, this means all the people around the world who will be flying into London, one of the most diverse cities in the world. And LOCOG is up against an additional challenge – its immovable deadline.
I decided to find out a bit more about this topic and reached out to Sue Hunt, Director of Strategic Programmes at LOCOG. If you have any comments about this post, please post them below.
Cisco UK is also involved in a number of internal activities to encourage its employees to get involved in the London 2012 Olympics. Stay tuned for more on this topic.
