Nigel Travis > Quotes

“Unfortunately, as the season progressed, our winning record was dismal. We won only five out of nineteen games. Steve became so frustrated with his lack of results and so anxious to win that, as I saw it, he lost trust in his strategies.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“Our opponent was dominating. Steve then called for yet another formation. By the end of the game, which we lost, Steve had tried four or five completely different formations. The players looked confused, frustrated, angry, and demoralized.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“Organizations of every type, for profit and not for profit, need to develop the ability to reconsider and reset because conditions change and processes become moribund.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“The great irony is that, in 2002, we had the chance to purchase Netflix, our greatest nemesis and eventual obliterator, for the pocket-change price of $100 million. We passed.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“At Blockbuster, we clearly saw the rise of DVD delivery, vending, and online streaming, but even when those signals grew strong, they could not drown out the soothing mantra of the status quo: Nothing can ever replace the in-store video buying and renting experience. Until something did.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“That is why we regularly engage in a group exercise of anticipation that we call “define your demise.” We try to imagine and explore all the ways that the business could face serious, even existential, challenges.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“a neuroscientist who had looked into the brains of powerful people found that they lacked capacity for the neural process known as mirroring, which essentially enables people to understand and feel the emotions of others.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“As for people? Well, some were better workers than others. Training was necessary, yes, but it took time out of the day and could have a negative effect on short-term productivity. Development and continuous improvement of the human “asset”? They just didn’t think that way.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“The Patriots, by contrast, “have sold every ticket for every game that’s ever been played since we’ve owned the team. And we have a very, very, very long paid waiting list.” Let me repeat that: the Patriots have an unbroken sellout streak, starting in 1994, with the very first game played under Kraft ownership, and continuing as of this writing, in early 2018.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“A well-configured board will comprise people with a broad range of skills and experiences, probably from disciplines and professions not directly related to the mission of the organization itself. I know what that is like because on two boards I have been the one and only CEO of a public company. I was able to bring a perspective about growth, finance, organization structure, and regulation that no other director offered. At Dunkin’, we invited Carl Sparks to join the board in 2013 because he had deep expertise in digital marketing, thanks to his work with Expedia and Travelocity. When he came onboard, we were in the midst of a big push toward the launch of our DD Perks mobile app rewards program. Carl’s participation proved invaluable. As we’ve seen, outsiders and fresh voices are one of the most reliable sources of status quo questioning.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“It’s that through the team, through that group of incredibly talented people bumping up against each other, having arguments, having fights sometimes, making some noise, and working together they polish each other and they polish the ideas, and what comes out are these really beautiful stones.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“I also strongly believe in the importance of having fun, spending time with your friends and family, engaging in sports, and trying out new endeavors outside the business. Just like naps, all those things bring refreshment and revitalization. As Churchill put it, “Nature had not intended mankind to work from eight in the morning until midnight,” without refreshment. A nap. A soccer game. A walk. A meal with people you care about. These are the things that, in Churchill’s words, “renew all the vital forces.” The more refreshed you are, the more vital your forces are, the more able you will be to take on new challenges in new realms.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“I am also aware of the dangers that lurk everywhere, which is one reason I want skeptics on my team: they help me test my sunny predictions.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“not only do you need to communicate constantly, you want to communicate about your communication. You want people to know how much attention you’re paying, how much listening you’re doing, who you’re talking to, what you heard, and what it means to you.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“Leyton Orient Football Club (LOFC) acquisition and revitalization of, 81–82 assembling the management team and board of directors, 168–169 authoritarian culture, 157–158 engaging in dialogue, 118 English Football League system, 159–160 the history of, 158–159 long-term management planning, 166–167 overcommunication after the purchase of, 204–205 public criticism of management, 166 relegation, 163–164 sale and resale of, 160–168 team building after the acquisition, 212”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“The discussions screeched to a halt more than once, only to pick up again. Conducting due diligence on the elusive Italian billionaire proved tricky.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“Kent Teague, without whom we could not have saved Leyton Orient.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“For me, it is and has always been Leyton Orient. I can trace the roots of my passion to 1959, the year I went mad for football. I played, not very well, at my school, Buckhurst Hill County High.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“The more refreshed you are, the more vital your forces are, the more able you will be to take on new challenges in new realms. That’s what I discovered when I took on one of the craziest ventures of my life: purchasing a professional soccer team.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“I don’t know if I wanted to buy the English soccer team Leyton Orient Football Club (LOFC) because I loved it so much or because I was so distressed by how it was being managed”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback

“The negotiations were tough. Becchetti was mercurial and sometimes hard to reach. His listening skills, on a scale of one to ten, came in at about minus five.”
― Nigel Travis, The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback