Football & Business

I had the good fortune to attend the Mass Technology Leadership Council (masstlc.org) Annual Meeting in Boston this week where Robert Kraft was the featured speaker. Mr Kraft turned out to be a great storyteller.  In addition to owning the New England Patriots Kraft is the CEO of The Kraft Group, which is an international paper business. He has years of pure business experience so his stories were full of interesting business-relevant anecdotes. But even when he was talking about running the New England Patriots the lessons were business-oriented and you could see that he has a strong sense of purpose and passion that he has instilled in all of his organizations.

Early into his Q&A session Mr. Kraft stated "Life is about execution, not just dreaming." 

This is true in both sports and business.  If you don't execute in sports, you lose the game. Don't execute in the playoffs? Your season is over. If you don't execute in business, you lose the deal.  Continue to not execute, you will eventually go out of business.

Though I could have listened to Kraft talk for days about the New England Patriots (his Vladimir Putin/Superbowl ring story was incredible), the business-oriented nuggets in Kraft's speech were even more interesting.  If you get a chance to hear Kraft talk, do it. He was interesting, often funny and very inspiring. 

"Life is about execution, not just dreaming" 

- Robert Kraft

Owner, New England Patriots

CEO, The Kraft Group