BEING BUSINESSLIKE

by John Clements

I think it is a generally accepted fact that pigeons clubs have to be more businesslike if they are to improve their service, their status and their chance of survival. Businesslike, as the name suggests, means imitating or copying existing commercial practice. It also means competition, so, direct competition between existing clubs is in order if clubs are to arrive at being top quality and businesslike.

The Midlands National for example could quite easily extend its existing boundary southwards to the coast and become much bigger, more efficient and a more important club but it refrains from doing so on the basis that by extending its boundary it would spread the existing prizes more thinly and those who are currently doing well in the MNFC would probably fight such a move.

What we have to do is offset this idea against the aim of being a bigger and more efficient club whose top pigeons would be of greater value. There is also another unconscious factor - the MNFC are reluctant to take on the NFC. They have a breakaway mindset that prevents them from thinking of such a thing but to stay put where they are is in business terms a illustration of limited ambition, of not wanting to grow and not wanting to increase turnover. Limited ambition in the business world usually signifies wanting a safe life. A safe life usually turns out not so safe at all.

In most British clubs a compromise exists. There is a kind of standoff that accepts the fact that clubs have to exist yet do not want to be aggressive and take on other clubs in a commercial competitive way so they get the worst of both worlds – a shrinking club that finds it hard to imagine growth. 

This is also one of the reasons British pigeon clubs have not grown in the same way as continental clubs have grown. Continental clubs are fewer but larger. They are more efficient and have greater status. They are never short of secretaries or imaginative administration. They are able to stage races with big numbers and in the case of Belgium, in two languages. In the UK we do not have a club that can come close to the likes of the International Barcelona or the International Perpignan and God forbid if we had to publish our rules or instructions in two languages; we would faint at the very thought of it!

Our best national clubs are about eight or nine times smaller than similar clubs on the continent. It is for this reason the Chinese do not buy from us; they buy from them. It is a ‘Golden Rule’ that big publicity from big races outshines little publicity from small races so Continental clubs do all they can (including bringing in other competing countries) to stage big important races. It is all very simple and Belgian clubs know it. But their pigeons are no better than ours - the course they fly is easier than ours. And they do not have the advantage of a world language. Yet, in spite of it all, they do better and sell more pigeons than we do. I suppose they just have better ideas and know how to think big.