We often hear complaints among school sports leaders that we lack the means to compete in the marketplace against the “big boys,” be they major college and professional sports or huge media conglomerates.  I’ve been one of those complainers.

Even knowing that the charm of school sports and the niche that it enjoys is in being different from over-hyped major college and professional sports, I nevertheless will get frustrated on occasion when school sports is obscured by all the glitz and glamour of the mega-sports enterprise.

Perhaps we should take to heart some of the advice of Blake Mycoskie, founder of the upstart TOMS Shoes.  Newsweek asked Mycoskie for some management tips (this is the company that donates a pair of shoes for every pair it sells!).  Mycoskie had these ideas:

• You don’t need a perfect solution to begin bringing long-term help to a problem.
• Take small steps to test big ideas.
• Help your customers help you.
• Don’t reinvent what is working well.

For organizations of modest means (like school sports), those are some pretty good operating principles.