Douglas Orane | Jamaica’s source of competitive advantage in athletics

“How is it that Jamaican high school athletes go to the Penn Relays and consistently outperform North American teams that have vastly more financial resources?”

This was a question asked of me recently in a video docuseries being filmed for an upcoming series on Champs as a unique Jamaican institution.

I had very briefly mentioned in my interview Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter’s industry and country competitive model, colloquially called the “Five Forces” model. It gives a framework for a deeper understanding of what Jamaica has done to create its ongoing international competitive advantage in athletics.

Let’s start with a brief explanation of his work entitled the “Competitive Advantage of Nations”.

THE CORE ARGUMENT

Nations succeed in industries where local conditions help firms innovate, improve productivity, and compete globally. Porter argues national competitiveness comes less from cheap labour or natural resources and more from creating environments that push companies to improve. The central framework is the ‘Diamond Model’ with five interacting forces, namely:

– Demand Conditions (sophisticated local customers),

– Factor Conditions (skills, infrastructure, knowledge),

– Related and Supporting Industries (strong supplier networks),

– Government (policies, incentives, regulations)

– Chance (unexpected events)

You may ask, how does all this relate to athletics? Very relevantly, we have to look at athletics as an industry.

Jamaica has created the conditions in the five categories that create an ecosystem which continuously drives international competitiveness in athletics. Champs is one of the sources. Let’s explore the similarities between firm and country strategies and that of our “athletics industry”.

Demand conditions (sophisticated local customers).

Demand conditions (sophisticated local customers): Champs has the most demanding spectators at any high school meet in the world. As Usain Bolt said “If you’ve run at Champs the Olympics are a breeze!” This intense crucible of competition inoculates young athletes to withstand the pressures of future adult meets. A stadium filled with thousands of screaming fans, present students, alumni, and lovers of athletics who know the race times and field results of every up and coming athlete.

Factor conditions (Skills, infrastructure, knowledge): Knowledge of athletics is deeply embedded in our Jamaican culture. Although financial resources for infrastructure are limited, the 200 schools that participate in Champs manage to find the support systems for their young athletes to train over several months prior to Champs, culminating in a series of preparatory meets starting every January. The coordinating role of the Intersecondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) is an example of creating value in the sports ecosystem.

Related & supporting industries (strong supplier networks): Virtually every high school has a coach. The establishment of the GC Foster College decades ago has created a continuing and abundant source of coaches for the high school system. The emergence and innovation of professional track clubs which have produced some of the best coaches in the world has elevated this competitive advantage to an even higher level. The best high school athletes no longer have to go overseas to continue their adult training.

Government: The government has supported the country’s athletics programme mainly through the financing of the Jamaican public education system.

…and fifth, Chance: We are fortunate that five boys’ school headmasters got together in 1910 to start Champs. The driving force was a philosophy that high schools should produce rounded young people, not only in academics, but also in sports for future leadership of our country.

UNRELENTING FOCUS

The five forces now drive firm strategy, manifesting as the intensity of local competition. The Jamaican high school rivalry is unprecedented on the global stage, causing unrelenting focus on improvement of teams. The supporting role of incredibly loyal high school alumni is unique in Jamaican society. Jamaicans emotionally bond with their high schools in a magnetic way, probably because most were not able to transition to tertiary education through lack of opportunity. Many young people see their performances at Champs as a crucial stepping stone out of poverty.

In summary, Jamaica has created this world class ecosystem with multiple local supporting elements. Other countries may have one or more of these elements, but not all. Therefore Jamaica benefits from this, demonstrated as an internationally competitive edge.

THE FUTURE

To maintain our competitive edge, all contributing elements in the five forces above need to be continuously innovating to stay ahead of the competition. The world is full of examples where countries and industries gained competitive advantage and subsequently lost it within a few decades through inertia and sitting on their laurels. This is a warning for us to catalyse our own continuous improvements. Our work for the future is clear.

A final word – we can use the above methodology to make any Jamaican sporting ecosystem or industrial cluster internationally competitive. Are we ready? “Where there’s a will there’s a way”.

Douglas Orane is an avid sports enthusiast. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com