The Olympics – excitement and prudence in equal measure

In 50 days approximately (depending on when you are reading this blog it will almost certainly by now be fewer) the Games will commence. The statistics are impressive: nearly 9m tickets are available (I was actually surprised to be able to buy additional tickets for the table tennis today to supplement my original purchase in the ballot of the beach volleyball competition – about which I am absurdly excited!); over 30 venues will be in use (including most entertainingly Lord’s for the Archery and the Mall for Beach Volleyball itself); more than 200 countries will be represented (it’s still a surprise that there are more than 200 countries in the world!; and there will be approximately 10,500 athletes accommodated in the Olympic village, a figure potentially dwarfed however by the number of journalists said to be exceeding 20,000. London, always busy in the summer tourist season, is going to have to deal with an unprecedented influx of people and the already strained infrastructure (as a longstanding commuter into London Paddington on First Great Western no one will convince me that our capital’s transport system is not already full to the gills) is going to be placed under extreme pressure. However, the British approach to dealing with such adversity with self-deprecating humour and patience combined with the supreme pageantry of the occasion – surely our national core competence given our experience of the fabulous, recent Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations – will make the summer utterly memorable.

That said for companies based in the capital there are a number of challenges for which the “stiff upper lip” approach will not be an adequate response. For those employees who are simply unable to get to work in reasonable time – even allowing for flexi-time and new shift patterns – or by reasonable method, and assuming that not all can take the extended period as annual leave, then home-working is the only option. Some businesses are equipped already with unified communication solutions which allow employees to use “soft phones” so that they can create the virtual office at home; equally the challenge of allowing personal devices to be linked to the corporate network may be covered by “consumerisation” security technology (that is, managing security and anti-virus protection on the end-user’s device of choice). Others may only just be waking up to those potential issues of home-working today. It would be remiss of me to say anything other than SaintGroup can help even at this late notice! However, for those employees coming to work there’s a second challenge: how much Olympics coverage to allow for employees in the office? I used to work at a business in the same building as Betfair; what I really enjoyed about walking past their offices was the chance to watch the live sport across the world! Being encouraged to watch sport at work is surely a dream job! The alternative for most businesses is to try to restrict employees’ access based on concerns about productivity and focus. I actually believe in the approach which says trust should be given in the expectation it will not be abused – allowing free access to Olympics coverage in my view will increase employee engagement and consequently productivity. Whatever your response to the business challenge of the Olympics there is surely one point which on which all Englishman can agree and which will remain a fundamental source of absolute delight: they are taking place in London not Paris!