AFTER THE BELL: Springboks, Shoprite CEO understand the power of making supporters feel part of the team

About once a year, I’ve been lucky enough to get myself to the site of an actual physical Springbok rugby match. Actually been able to be in the same stadium as all of the people my YouTube sends my way so often.This year two things happened that made it special.The first is was that it was against the All Blacks. Not for nothing was their tour called Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.Second, it was at FNB Stadium, and my whole family was with me (along with two busloads of very good friends).There is something so fundamental to our sense of self about singing the anthem along with a stadium full of people, in this case precisely 85,975 other people, that simply cannot be altered.It almost doesn’t matter what happens after that; you’ve got what you paid for.Yesterday morning, after coming to the realisation that I was the only person in the house who was awake, and that this was likely to continue for some time, I found myself in sole possession of the big TV in the lounge.Again, an annual event. Obviously, I did what any sane father in my position would have done. I watched the post-match press conference of Siya and Rassie.At about 14 minutes in, Siya was asked how it felt to be the Springbok captain with the most wins under his belt (in case you’d forgotten, he’s sitting on 55). [They call it the winningest across the Atlantic, as in “he is the winningest Springbok captain” – Lindsey].At that moment, Rassie did something both audacious and smart. He took a sip of his beer. Which just happened to be a Castle (which may, in case you hadn’t noticed, be the sponsor of the series…).But Siya did something even more interesting.Instead of answering how it felt for him, he immediately pivoted to speaking about the team, how many leaders there are in the team and how grateful he is for the chance to do it.And then he did what Siya does so often. He spoke about the privilege of representing the country, the people of Soweto who couldn’t afford to come and watch the team play, and how important it was to give people hope.It’s probably unlikely that he had time to read the Sens statement from Shoprite last week, but it was uncanny how similar his comments were to that.There, the current champions of retail in Mzansi spoke about their results, the hard numbers and, then, under a special heading, made the point that “Execution is a team sport”.In the past, when I’ve spoken to their CEO, Pieter Engelbrecht, he’s always spoken about the importance of teams and leaders. And, a lot like Siya, he’s also been quick to thank the supporters – in his case, the customers – of Shoprite in the past.Problem-solverI think this approach solves all sorts of problems.Firstly, if you’re the CEO of a big company or the captain of a national team, talking about yourself is always a little uncomfortable. You might just squirm a little bit, especially if you’re really not keen on talking about your family or your personal life.Moving the conversation on to the team and the supporters might well just feel a lot more comfortable.And it’s also interesting to see how much time both spend talking about their supporters. In the past, it was unlikely that a Springbok rugby captain or the CEO of a a JSE-listed company would have done something like that. There might have been a comment somewhere, but certainly not as routinely as it happens now.For Shoprite to keep making this point might well be a bit like those moments when the Springbok team walk around the entire stadium at the end of a game.It feels like they’re trying to wave to every person in the stadium, to say thank you and to just have some kind of personal moment, or a connection, with as many people as possible.More and more in our increasingly jaded society, that personal moment, that direct link between you and the team, or the supermarket you shop at, is priceless.Not even the biggest flypast ever can buy that kind of marketing. However, it only works if it’s entirely genuine.I have no idea whether Engelbrecht is 100% genuine when he talks about his customers and his teams. I have never met the man and, from what I understand, he’s very careful about who he meets and when.GratitudeBut I’m sure he does feel some gratitude to his customers for the sheer amount of money his group is making and for how successful it’s been.The same, of course, is absolutely true for Siya. Through all of the ups and downs of his captaincy, no one could ever have accused him of not being genuine.Shoprite and the Springboks have a lot in common. Both have been incredibly consistent in their success, both have had difficult times before this current period. And both are becoming more and more valuable in terms of turnover and brand-value.And the people behind the success have an incredibly deep understanding of our society, and why we feel like we do.It’s their ability to harness that feeling that makes them better at winning. DM