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Red Bull - a winning formula
As a massive fan of Formula One I tuned into the BBC 5 Live Chequered Flag podcast recently where Sir Clive Woodward was hosting an episode about the Red Bull Racing Formula One team. He was going for a factory tour and interviewing key staff to find out exactly what makes them tick and ultimately so successful. When I saw this my instant reaction was that ‘why is a rugby coach interviewing a Formula One team?’. After listening to the podcast it was apparent that the common thread between running a Formula One team and a rugby team and business for that matter, is people. Without the right people in the right positions, you won’t shave that extra 1,000th off a lap time or score that vital try. When I say the right people I don't just mean the drivers or the players, I mean everyone; from the guy who cleans the factory floor to the head of design - each of them are an important link in the chain and when all working perfectly together, the results on the track, or the rugby pitch are clear to see.
As brand partnerships go, Formula One and energy drinks go pretty well together. Both are fast moving, full of energy and push the boundaries. So when Red Bull owner and founder Dietrich Mateschitz brought the old Jaguar Formula One team back in 2005, it was the start of the one of the most surprising success stories in the sports history. The Red Bull Formula One team have just won their 4th consecutive world championship, a record bettered only by the great Ferrari. The team is just 8 years old and what they have achieved in such a short time is astonishing. To put it in perspective, they (essentially a fizzy drinks company) are beating Ferrari, a team with years and years of motorsport heritage, pretty comprehensively every race. Poor Enzo Ferrari must be turning in his grave.
The first thing that strikes Sir Clive when he arrives at the Red Bull Racing factory in Milton Keynes is how ordinary it looks from the outside. It is positioned on a dull industrial estate and from the outside looks pretty uninspiring. Why would these world class engineers and mechanics choose to work in rainy Milton Keynes as opposed to the space age McLaren Technology Centre or the Ferrari Maranello base in Italy? This is the first question that Sir Clive puts to Christian Horner, the team principal of The Red Bull Formula One team. Christian talks about how the brand values of parent brand, Red Bull, are at the heart of the Formula One team. Staff members can come into work wearing jeans, the atmosphere is laid back and if you speak to anyone, they assume nothing. They have won so many trophies over the last 8 years that the trophy cabinet at the factory is overflowing, with trophies spilling onto the floor. Red Bull however will not buy another trophy cabinet until they can fill it. They assume nothing and take nothing for granted.
Christian repeatedly talks about how people are at the heart of their success - the right people in the right roles with shared values. Ultimately they love working for Red Bull and from the factory floor to the boardroom table, everyone wants the team to be successful - they share a common goal. Just recently, after Sebastian Vettel clinched their 4th title, Red Bull paid EVERY single member of staff £10,000 as a bonus, including the catering staff and cleaners as they are considered to be as important a link in the chain as the head designers. Amazing stuff that really sums up their team ethic and how important Red Bull consider their people to be.
Sir Clive is 'blown away' by the attention to detail that goes into the running of the company. Christian epitomises this obsessiveness and how, as a failed driver himself, he remains incredibly driven to keep succeeding. One of the mechanics tells how, in an average year, 3,000 of the cars 5,000 components will be removed from the car and improved in some way, whether that be making a part from a different material or a slight redesign of a panel. These small changes make almost minuscule improvements to a lap time but when you add them all up over the space of a season you can start to see the kind of advantage this kind of philosophy delivers.
Christian also tells the story about how he managed to attract Adrian Newey the most successful Formula One designer there has ever been to his start-up team back in 2005. Newey has designed championship winning cars for Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Damon Hill, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jaques Villeneuve, Mika Häkkinen and more recently Sebastion Vettel. He is quite clearly a genius when it comes to car design. Back in 2005 Newey was working for McLaren, a giant in the sport. He was working for the best team on the grid and undoubtedly earning big money but something was missing. Christian tells the story about how on the day Red Bull rocked up to their first Grand Prix, they erected the eye sore they call their ‘Energy Station’ - essentially a corporate entertainment building where you could drink Red Bull, hang out and experience the brand. Nothing could be further from the corporate straight laced world inhabited by McLaren. Intrigued by this monstrosity pumping out loud music, Newey got chatting to him and over the next year they became friends. Newey bought into what he was trying to do the the team and eventually joined Red Bull leaving a team in pole position for one at the back of the grid? Why? A new challenge is part of the answer but Newey ultimately believed in what Red Bull were trying to do. He brought into their vision and was drawn to the Red Bull culture and way of doing things.
Throughout the podcast Sir Clive talks about the similarities between managing a rugby team and a Formula One team - it's about the people. At The House we believe in the power that comes from having the right people at the heart of your business, with a big vision, a compelling purpose and shared values that everyone buys into to build a culture where people WANT to work for you. As Christian Horner says 'Its not just a job, its a way of life'.