Lord Sebastian Coe: "For a company too, it's a question of performing well under pressure".

As part of the "Monaco Economic Conferences" organised by the Monaco Economic Board and held in English, Lord Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics (the international athletics federation), gave an original view of the different aspects of the sport, which has both links and a certain resemblance to the world of business. CFM Indosuez, the event's exclusive partner, made this fascinating insight possible.

MEB members were invited to a rather exceptional conference on Thursday 11 April at the Monaco Yacht Club. Lord Sebastian Coe, double Olympic champion in the 1500m in 1980 and 1984, Member of the British Parliament from 1992 to 1997, Chairman of the Organising Committee for the 2012 London Olympic Games, and since 2015, President of World Athletics, the international athletics federation based in the Principality, played the part of a relaxed conference, in the form of a 'Fireside Chat', led by Justin Highman, Deputy Managing Director of the MEB. 

The discussion revolved around the links and similarities between business and sport, and according to the former top-level athlete, there are many: "A well-run business performs because it operates on the principle of day-to-day commitment, just as in sport. The principle is to stay focused on your objective and to be able to perform while under pressure. Whether in sport or business, nothing good can be achieved overnight; it requires a great deal of dedication and even sacrifice."

Reflecting on his beginnings and his vision of the world at the time, Lord Coe notes the evolution of this approach by today's youth: "People of my generation who wanted to change things got involved in associations or politics, but many young people today think they can do so through business, and I find it very interesting that business can also play this role. 

According to Lord Coe, the relationship between sport and sponsors has changed over the last twenty years, at a time when reputation has become paramount. "The companies that sponsor us demand much higher levels of governance than they used to, and the reverse is also true, with the heads of sporting bodies looking much more closely at the ethics of their sponsors (...) When partnerships fail, it is rarely for financial reasons; it is often because of a revelation that makes the headlines".

With just over 100 days to go until the Paris Olympics, the chief organiser of the London Olympics looked back on this extraordinary experience: "As a body, World Athletics chooses cities that have four years to organise world championships. The Olympic Games are twenty-eight simultaneous world championships in the same city, concentrated over two weeks. You can't imagine all that's involved. This presents a twofold challenge, with the Paralympic Games following just two weeks later. And Sebastian Coe has a few words of advice for his successors in the run-up to the Games: "Keep your good humour, take care of each other within the organisation, but also test, test and test each venue again, each piece of equipment, each situation."

Lord Coe was full of anecdotes and in-depth analyses of the place of sport in today's world, and he clearly enjoyed answering questions from the audience. It was a most inspiring experience for the audience of entrepreneurs who came to listen to the words of a man who has certainly not finished surprising us.