inspired countless other opticians. We have a community of over 100 independent practices from all across the world.

So in order to keep bettering ourselves and innovating for our amazing clients at Jones And Co. I would like to share my latest hair-brained scheme with you – all in the name of providing you with an incredible customer experience.

I have hired Sir Clive Woodward to join the team. He had a good CV for starters and good references. As head coach, Sir Clive led the England rugby team to their historic 2003 World Cup Victory in Australia. He then joined the British Olympic Association as Team GB’s Director of Sport, culminating in London 2012 which was Team GB’s most successful Olympic Games.

Yesterday we closed early for a couple of hours and we had our first session with Sir Clive which was amazing. The whole Jones And Co. team are taking part (along with our Optical Success Academy members) and Clive will be working with us closely for the next six months on becoming a high performing team.

As with achieving anything in your life, the most important area is the area between your ears. That’s where Clive will be focused with us.

When Clive started his work with the England rugby team, he was brilliantly creative and innovative. The game had just become professional, so he was on a tight budget to achieve success. He wanted to make the changing rooms at Twickenham inspiring for the team but there was no money for a refurbishment, so he called the TV show “Changing Rooms” and offered them the chance to makeover Twickenham and film it all, in return for doing the work for free. Problem solved.

Clive noticed that his fastest player, Jason Robinson, kept getting past the opposition only for them to grab onto his baggy shirt and bring him down. So he called Nike, who were a sponsor and asked them to come up with a skin-tight rugby shirt for them. Now everyone wears them, but Clive was first.

Clive noticed that in the heat of the game, his players would sometimes not see all their teammates and miss the right pass. He had heard about a South African ex-hockey player who was doing some interesting work in the field of visual awareness so he hired her as a full-time member of the team to improve the visual awareness and peripheral vision of the players. Again, this is commonplace today but Clive was the first and always searching for weird and wonderful ways to help his team become the best in the world.

He also took the whole team for a couple of days combat training with the Royal Marines to help them think clearly under pressure. He asked the Royal Marines to NOT go easy on them but to treat them like fellow marines. So who knows what we’ll get up to working with Sir Clive?

Some of us may add some muscle. Gareth’s tackling may improve. I might start wearing skin-tight tops. But all that would only a be happy side effect to the real objective of delivering the best eyewear experience in the world.

It feels like a once in a lifetime opportunity to be coached by someone of Sir Clive’s calibre and the team and I are very excited. Watch this space.

Conor