Don’t scream but I think businesses can learn from election campaigns

Speed, consistency and data are all things from which to take inspiration

In the end, I couldn’t stop myself, and watched the leaders’ TV debate on Tuesday. I spent some of it wondering if this would be an effective way of choosing FTSE 100 CEOs. It is easy to knock our politicians in campaign mode, isn’t it? Missing a moment of national importance to do an interview? What was he thinking. A photo opportunity on a windsurfing board? Of course they were going to fall in. Or even worse, being accused of being too bland to make any errors.

So as the UK general election campaign kicks into high gear, I want to suggest something surprising. Maybe there are valuable lessons businesses can take from how political parties operate and market themselves? And not just from the inevitable gaffes, but from the parts that go right. In the spirit of consensus building and bi-partisanship, here are three lessons that I have learnt watching the campaigns.

Firstly, they are speedy. I have never met a business leader who actively wants their important projects to go more slowly, so the pace with which a campaign has to get going and keep up momentum is impressive. For any politician, a surprise early election means you have to ramp up the funding, support network, on the ground organising, messaging and media presence at immensely short notice. For any party, they have to lock in and vet the hundreds of candidates needed for every seat.

And before you scream, it is not lost on me how we cannot seem to deliver major infrastructure projects in any reasonable timeframe or to budget, and yet many of the same personalities responsible can gear up so effectively for their own election. Clearly personal accountability matters. I wouldn’t suggest the jeopardy of everyone losing their jobs in order to emulate this pace in your own business, but having a finite timeline and incredibly clear expectation of the project goal really does help. It can however be tricky to achieve.

Secondly, campaigns work hard on their clear, concise messaging. If you’re anything like me, you never want to hear “take back control, build back better, stop the boats, strong and stable or let’s get Britain’s future back” again but there is no denying how consistency works. There is a real discipline needed to ensure this, especially in our complex landscape of social media soundbites and constant surveillance of an MP’s every move.

Strict messaging keeps everyone aligned and resonates more powerfully. Whether you are raising finance, taking a company public, restructuring, acquiring something or rebranding, it is essential to both stay on message and to over communicate. In my experience, even if you feel you have said something 50times, your team might only have heard it once. It’s unusual to be a leader that doesn’t tire of spouting the same talking points repeatedly for months, although that is often what is needed. If you are deeply bored of them, you are probably just beginning to say them enough.

Thirdly, campaigns use data in a more sophisticated way than many businesses. We witnessed the power of putting data analytics at the centre stage of the Leave campaign during the Brexit referendum. And during this current election, we know all the parties are spending significant time and money on data science. Yet many businesses still find it tough to get positive results or see a return on investment from their data strategies. What is so different about the two environments?

Campaigns often segment their audience more precisely than businesses. They use data to understand voter preferences, behaviours, and demographics, enabling highly targeted and personalised messaging that resonates with specific voter groups. This is partly due to the quality of data they use, or pay for, and the analytics and tools campaigns invest in. It is striking that in 2024, non-cloud based software investment by companies in the UKis flat and yet the power of having modern tools has never been more impactful. (what’s the source of the cloud computing stat?)

But it’s not just about the tools they use, campaigns typically have a centralised command structure. This hierarchy allows for more cohesive data-driven decision-making and quicker implementation of data insights compared to many businesses with more complex organisational structures. They also build real-world feedback loops – obsessively polling to test narratives, gauge sentiments, and course-correct strategies. This is resonant of the best start-up digital companies which are built from the beginning to react and iterate in a similar way.

There are of course stark differences as well. Political campaigns are time-boxed events with binary outcomes, while businesses operate on more open-ended cycles. It is rare – thankfully – that the stakes are as high. Campaigns are overtly adversarial, while companies should ideally avoid combative tactics. And the ethics, sadly, are very different too. As we have seen this week with the £2,000 tax claim debacle, deception and personal attacks are increasingly common. Neither behaviour should ever have a place in business.

We have four weeks of wall-to-wall election coverage to look forward to, so rather than becoming infuriated by it, perhaps observing the mechanics of the election could provide some ideas for how to sharpen your competitive edge. At the very least it reminds me how lucky I am to be in a job where a photo with a collapsing bacon sandwich or a microphone left on a bit too long is unlikely to be my undoing.