Leicester City has dazzled the sporting world by wrestling the English Premier League crown from the mega clubs with their star-studded teams. The tactics and style of the team's Italian manager, Claudio Ranieri, who is credited with catapulting Leicester from the bottom of the heap to the championship within 12 months, have been exhaustively analyzed and dissected.

The lesson learned from the club's amazing success story has not gone unnoticed by the business world. Of particular interest to the many startups in the technology industry is how a small fry like Leicester can take on the giants and beat each of them not just in a single knockout game, but in a grueling campaign spanning months.

Investment gurus say an important lesson to be learned from Leicester's triumph is to stay focused. The team had fared badly in other competitions but, unlike the big clubs, it did not have to worry about playing against foreign teams in the two major European tournaments. What it had to do was to concentrate its limited resources on winning the competition that mattered to it most - the Premier League.

The problem with some of Japan's biggest names in electronic manufacturing can be attributed to their overly diversified operations. Toshiba, for instance, has been shedding numerous subsidiaries to concentrate on what it can do best. Sony, too, sold its personal computer unit and has been talking of shedding other less-profitable businesses to help boost earnings.

In good times, it's tempting for large corporations to expand outside their core businesses to diversify their earnings bases. The rapid expansion of many Chinese mainland enterprises in the past decades was lauded by stock analysts and supported by investors. But the downturn in overseas demand and the slowdown in the domestic economy have prompted some enterprises to rethink their expansive strategies.

Most startups don't have that problem. But, they still have much to learn from Leicester City in setting their goals. Ranieri has said he avoids piling pressure on his players by setting only goals that can be achieved.

At the start of the season, the goal Ranieri had set for his players was to avoid relegation. It wasn't until the end of the season when the title was clearly within reach did he talk about the big prize.

Aspiring young entrepreneurs should take that lesson to heart. Be kind to yourself.

(HK Edition 05/11/2016 page7)