Proactive Consulting: Learning from Coach Van Gundy and Success in Sport

In the basketball world, Jeff Van Gundy was known as a hard-nosed, team-first coach. His passionate, animated antics cemented his reputation just as much as his coaching record. An outsized personality was merely a small piece of his larger approach, centered around intent, accountability, and transparency. One famed quote of his continues to resonate with me: “Don’t ignore in victory what you would focus on in defeat.”

This principle extends far beyond the sports world. It offers a winning mindset for leadership and organizational excellence – both in business and beyond.

In professional sports, winning teams never skip film review. After each game, they meticulously analyze both successes and failures, asking: What went right? What went wrong? Why did certain plays succeed or fail? But, strangely, this is rarely utilized in the business world.

When examining victories—whether a successful product launch, exceeded sales targets, or operational efficiencies—companies should consider: What specific factors contributed to this success? Can these elements be systematized? Are there aspects of even our best performances that could be enhanced?

Just as athletes review game footage frame-by-frame, businesses should deconstruct their wins to identify replicable patterns and hidden opportunities for improvement. This disciplined approach to success prevents complacency and forms a foundation for sustained excellence rather than fleeting victories.

This extends to my sport – consulting. Companies usually turn to consultants when they’re in the middle of a crisis. The symptoms are often familiar: rising costs, declining sales, missed deadlines, supply chain disruptions, and more. In these moments, consultants act as emergency responders, bringing fresh perspectives and expertise to help stabilize the situation.

But this approach differs for successful companies far too often. Good fortune can give the illusion of permanence, warping a firm’s preparedness and resulting in a suboptimal approach for the future. In these seemingly ideal circumstances, forward-thinking leaders recognize untapped potential. For me, this is where Van Gundy’s philosophy becomes especially relevant.

Just as great teams benefit from specialized coaches, successful businesses can gain value from outside perspectives. Forward-thinking companies are utilizing this approach by redefining how they engage with consultants.

Instead of viewing consultants solely as problem-solvers for struggling operations, businesses should utilize them as performance coaches, helping to analyze big wins and reach even greater heights. This approach promotes a more proactive culture and maintains momentum during successful periods. Firms that have embraced this approach include:

• Toyota, which regularly brings in outside experts to evaluate their decades-long, industry-leading production system.
• Microsoft, utilizing consultants to help expand cloud services offerings—despite already being at all-time profitability levels.
• Starbucks, employs consultants to reimagine their customer experience during periods of strong financial performance.

A few years ago, I saw this firsthand with a manufacturing client. After a six-month engagement in which we helped optimize their production processes, they achieved impressive results:

• 22% reduction in cycle time by improving maintenance practices and focusing on OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) a KPI that measures how effectively a manufacturing operation is utilizing its resources.
• 15% improvement in first-pass quality – a manufacturing metric that measures the percentage of products that meet quality standards the first time they are produced, without needing rework or repairs.
• 30% decrease in work-in-progress inventory, the cost of partially completed goods in the production cycle, between raw materials and finished goods.

During our last few weeks with the client, they asked about maintaining momentum after our approaching departure. Immediately, I thought of Coach Van Gundy’s quote and shared it with the leadership team. We then established a quarterly “success review” process where teams would critically examine their best-performing areas—not just problem spots—to identify further optimization opportunities.

Fast forward two years later, and the client continues to improve all key metrics without experiencing any performance plateaus that typically follow consulting engagements. That’s a slam dunk.