I nonetheless do not forget that American Novice Baseball Congress (AABC) championship recreation the place, with the scoreboard studying 1-1 within the last inning, a floor ball shot towards me and every thing slowed down. The essential double-play required absolute precision – one fraction of an inch off, and our season would finish. We executed flawlessly, organising the game-winning residence run moments later. Years later at Lawrence Stadium in Wichita, Kansas, I discovered myself in a good larger highlight – the NBC World Collection with 16,000 followers making a wall of sound, the vitality electrical as we battled by 9 intense innings with each fan on their ft for the dramatic conclusion.
These epic video games taught me one thing I’ve carried into enterprise: in high-stakes conditions, the margin for error is vanishingly small. Groups that succeed aren’t simply gifted — they’re exactly calibrated machines the place each part works in excellent concord to ship outcomes that matter.
Whereas my experiences come from baseball, these ideas of teamwork, preparation, and execution apply throughout all sports activities and aggressive endeavors, whether or not it’s soccer (soccer) groups coordinating intricate performs, biking groups working collectively within the Tour de France, or cricket gamers executing beneath strain. The common classes of elite sports activities transcend the precise recreation.
Rising up in a baseball household formed my strategy to enterprise technique. From following my father Luis Pujols as he coached the Montreal Expos to spending numerous hours in clubhouses watching Corridor of Famers put together, sports activities knowledge has influenced how I work with our companions at Cisco to create distinctive buyer experiences.
As we put together for the Cisco 360 Companion Program launch in February 2026, I see clear parallels between sports activities coaching and customer-focused companion enablement. Each are about preparation, assessing capabilities, and making obligatory changes to ship successful outcomes.
The Best Staff That By no means Was
Within the early Nineties, my father was the bench coach for what many contemplate “the best staff that by no means was” – the Montreal Expos squad stacked with future Corridor of Famers like Pedro Martinez, Larry Walker, and Vladimir Guerrero. This wasn’t only a good staff; it was a traditionally nice assortment of expertise poised to win a World Collection.
Then the 1994 MLB strike occurred, slicing the season quick and shattering these hopes. I skilled this firsthand, transferring between Houston, Montreal, and Florida as my father’s profession dictated our household geography.
Like that Expos staff, our companions have assembled spectacular capabilities. However not like that staff, we gained’t let exterior elements derail our momentum. The Cisco 360 Companion Program represents our window of alternative – an opportunity to align our enterprise mannequin with buyer wants in ways in which generate measurable worth for them whereas creating sustainable development for our total ecosystem.
The Psychological Sport: Creating Buyer Worth
What most individuals don’t perceive about sports activities on the highest stage is that it’s primarily psychological. The delicate changes, anticipation, and strategic considering separate good gamers from nice ones.
I used to be reminded of this when an outdated teammate visited. As we watched a recreation collectively, my spouse listened to our dialog about catcher positioning to shave valuable tenths of a second off throw occasions and different delicate changes invisible to most viewers. She was shocked at this hidden layer of the sport taking place proper earlier than her eyes.
Equally, the Cisco 360 Companion Program isn’t nearly altering incentive buildings – it’s about reworking how we collectively create worth for patrons. By rewarding companions throughout your entire buyer lifecycle – from land to undertake, develop, and renew – we’re incentivizing the exact behaviors that result in superior buyer outcomes. The companions who succeed can be those that perceive how these delicate changes of their strategy ship the experiences clients must thrive of their digital transformation.
Dedication, Consistency, and Braveness in Buyer Success
Throughout my teenage years, I spent numerous hours at Olympic Stadium training the identical transfer repeatedly. Sooner or later, annoyed by the monotony, I complained about doing the identical drill for weeks on finish.
A veteran participant overheard me and walked over. “You’re complaining about doing this for days and weeks,” Larry Walker mentioned, trying me straight within the eyes. “I’ve been doing it for 20 years. That’s what it takes to be nice: dedication, consistency, and braveness.”
These phrases modified my strategy perpetually. All through highschool and school, I wrote “CCC” beneath the brim of my baseball cap as a reminder that greatness requires these three components.
For our companions navigating the transition to the Cisco 360 Companion Program, this similar “CCC” precept applies to buyer success: Dedication to understanding their enterprise challenges, consistency in delivering dependable experiences, and braveness to evolve your service mannequin to satisfy their altering wants. These qualities separate companions who create transformative buyer worth from those that merely fulfill transactions.
Respecting the Technique of Transformation
Studying to respect the method of transformation got here to me the arduous approach. After one recreation, I made a careless determination to swing an chubby bat that I had no enterprise utilizing. The end result was a torn rotator cuff that sidelined me for a yr and a half.
Compelled to look at others play the sport I liked, I mirrored on my mistake. I hadn’t correctly ready my physique for that transition. Transformation requires a full dedication – your total system must be prepared for change.
The lesson applies on to our clients and companions as we speak. Digital transformation requires systematic preparation and holistic change. Our clients want companions who perceive this journey and might information them by it safely. With the Cisco 360 Companion Program, we’re enabling companions to develop the capabilities wanted to attenuate buyer danger whereas accelerating their transformation outcomes.
The Excessive-Efficiency Routine
One among my most vivid recollections is watching Pedro Martinez – all 150 kilos of him – in his post-workout routine. Whereas I might practically match his weightlifting numbers as a younger participant, what separated Pedro was his meticulous strategy to physique upkeep, diet, and restoration.
For our companions navigating the transition to the Cisco 360 Companion Program, there’s an identical mindset required for delivering buyer worth. Success isn’t nearly making the large performs when the highlight is on – it’s concerning the constant, usually unglamorous work of constructing capabilities, understanding applied sciences, and growing repeatable processes that create distinctive buyer experiences each single day.
The Buyer-Targeted Ecosystem
What made nice sports activities groups particular wasn’t simply particular person expertise – it was how these skills complemented one another inside a system designed to win. Every participant had a task, and the entire grew to become larger than the sum of its elements.
That’s precisely what we’re constructing with the Cisco 360 Companion Program. Transferring past transactional relationships to customer-centric worth creation requires specialised capabilities and cross-industry experience. Simply as a staff wants gamers with distinct expertise, our ecosystem wants companions who excel in several areas – managed providers, lifecycle assist, vertical options, and extra – all working collectively to ship full options that tackle our clients’ most advanced challenges.
Prepared for the Buyer-Targeted Future
As we strategy February 2026, we’re in our preparation part. It’s our time to construct capabilities, perceive the place we have to enhance, and make investments earlier than the brand new program launches.
Once I suppose again to that Montreal Expos staff that by no means obtained its shot at a championship, I’m reminded that we are able to’t take alternatives as a right. With the Cisco 360 Companion Program, we now have an opportunity to align our companion economics with buyer success in methods that may drive mutual development for years to return.
The query is: Will you be able to ship the transformative buyer worth that may outline our shared success?
Earlier than his expertise profession, Alex Pujols performed Division 1 baseball (the best stage of U.S. collegiate athletics) as a catcher and third baseman. He’s the son of former Main League Baseball participant and coach Luis Pujols, who’s cousin to Albert Pujols, considered one of baseball’s biggest hitters of all time.
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