Business people talking about sports: Steven van Groningen & Catalin Cretu

Newsroom 14/02/2014 | 12:50

While the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi take the world by snowstorm, we at Business Review thought this would be the perfect time to combine the worlds of sports and business practices.

We went to some of the most prominent figures in the Romanian business landscape and asked them about the sports they practice and how those activities help them be better leaders in their field.

Steven van Groningen, President of Raiffeisen Bank Romania

Sports practiced: The president and CEO of Raiffeisen Bank Romania has a strong sports background as a former Olympian. He took part in the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics as a member of the Dutch men’s quadruple sculls team and also participated in two world championships. He is married to Valeria Racila, an Olympic Champion herself at the 1984 LA Olympics in the single sculls rowing.

Besides having run an Ironman in Austria, van Groningen has also done more than 15 marathons, most recently the Bucharest International Marathon. He has written on his personal blog that sport is an important part of his life, and urges more people to discover the benefits of exercise. The bank he runs is also one of the sponsors of the I’Velo project, a bike sharing program currently running in six cities around the country.

steven-van-groningenrunningCorrelation between business management and sport: On the topic of what sports can teach people about business, van Groningen outlines several things on his blog: the key to success is making small improvements; seeking feedback actively is important for future improvement, which is the goal, while winning is the side effect; a stronger member of a team should pull harder than the weaker members; a team needs team players; understand your strong and weak points; results are more rewarding if they are earned in an honest way; losing can teach you more than winning.

Catalin Cretu, Area manager, Romania & Croatia, growth & emerging markets, Visa Europe

Sports practiced: A tennis player who practices three times a week, always early in the morning, Cretu says he takes his sport very seriously, and doesn’t see it as “a prologue to having a beer with the guys.” He admires Roger Federer “for the beauty of his game, his calm demeanor regardless of what goes on on the court, the great variety of his game, and his gracious way of accepting defeat or celebrating victory.”

Correlation between business management and sport:Describing what he has learned from playing sport, he cites hard work and creativity. “You have to work hard and long hours – luck comes as an exception. You have to know yourself very well, you have to do your homework, have a plan and execute it. Don’t forget to improvise and be creative; you may win the other’s respect more with your creativity than with your tenacity. Enjoy it, regardless of whether you’re winning or losing,” Cretu says.

catalin-cretuAmong the sports takeaways that can be applied to business, Cretu mentions the importance of preparation and consistency with an outlined strategy. “Every match needs to be very well prepared in advance; it resembles an important business meeting. You need to know your strong and weak points very well and to have a well-established plan as to how you will compensate for these vulnerabilities. Similarly, you need to know as many things as possible about the person on the other side of the net. Once a game plan is set, it needs to be followed through. Sometimes it is difficult to follow the plan, if it doesn’t return immediate results, if the match doesn’t go as planned; you need to trust the strategy you chose, if you did your homework well.”

As for winning, Cretu says business allows for more opportunities, as it is not a zero-sum game. “Winning is good but winning in a way that you like is even better. Unlike the game of tennis, business is not a zero-sum game, so it should be easier to do business, as one can find win-win solutions. In tennis, someone has to lose the match.”

Also read: Business people talking about sports: Gabriel Biris and Ileana Tomescu

Oana Vasiliu

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