dude
12.09.2008, 12:18
"Thanks on behalf of our athletes for all the kind feedback on the amazing results of teamtbb of last Sunday 7th of Sept.
Reading some of the feedback on what teamtbb athletes pay or receive, I think it’s fair to provide the ST readers some clarity on these matters.
My name is Alex Bok and founder of The Bike Boutique lifestyle companies. It’s my mission to establish a unique bike lifestyle company that promotes biking to work, open bike stores that will reinvent the bike retail industry and at the same time be socially responsible by providing hope and opportunity to under privileged youth though sport.
This dream was definitely a size too big, so we needed time to grow into it. While our mission was clearly established during 2006 we ‘hopped on a bus’ for hopefully an amazing journey.
We did not know how exactly we would achieve our goals but we did know we needed great people who believed in this mission and were willing to simply commit to it.
I had heard of the social projects that Brett Sutton had been involved with in Brazil and was intrigued. We started talking in July 2006 and quickly identified lots of common ground in our mission. Brett is a very practical man that is much focussed on producing results. We initially never spoke of a triathlon team and I hired Brett as a business consultant to my holding company end 2006.
Yes, I did my homework and Google searches and took 3 months of research and serious soul searching of how this decision could affect my business in a positive or negative way. I have spoke in various magazines on this topic before, so no need to focus on this matter here. I’m willing to have a separate discussion on this matter with anyone that feels like it, but I think that 20 years later and zero repeat offences, we really don’t have to further focus on ‘that offence’ instead of the hundreds of people that Brett has supported.
The ability to forgive and forget those that are truly sorry and have paid their dues, will heal people and victims much better than trying to hold on to that pain and the past...
Brett joined my company and provided an immediate and amazing impact and insights on how we could get our social programs of the ground, what ways we could further improve our retail stores to make them unique and innovative and to market our total value proposition across the world.
But we soon realized there was a competing interest for the skills of Brett Sutton, namely a whole group of ex- Sutton athletes who also requested his time and coaching skills to make them better athletes and often even better people.
Brett and I talked and tried to find a solution that could serve both sides, being our business and his formal athletes.
This led to the birth of teamtbb in January 2007 but had a very different purpose than ‘just’ creating World Champions.
Our mission for the team was well thought through during 2 day meetings with a group of representatives from the corporate world, coaches, medical and sports doctors, pro athletes and managers from our TBB business.
Our mission was defined as:
“teamTBB is a professional organization for triathlon and bike related sports that nurtures a unique culture to provide hope and opportunity for under privileged youth.”
We will achieve our mission by:
o introducing the bike lifestyle to people and communities to improve their physical, emotional and social health;
o providing role models (world class athletes), education and information for every performance level from recreational up to high performance athletes.
When our mission was defined, every athlete was “checked at the door” for being interested in our complete mission and not just about winning race.
The selection criteria used for teamtbb athletes are:
1. The desire to support our social programs and to be a role model and mentor for the youth we support.
2. To be part of the creation of a new online triathlon experience where anyone can simply ‘talk’ with our pro athletes.
3. To be the best athlete they can be.
We had no sponsors; we had no cash or deep pockets as we were a start up business, we simply believed in our mission and that we would find ways to achieve them.
To further add clarity about our team's mission, we defined a teamtbb brand print structure that provided clarity about:
Our values and convictions:
Our passion for our sports and team work is the fuel that keeps us motivated. We believe that life fulfils when we are able to contribute beyond ourselves. Never-ending personal growth collected through being a member of this team is one of the intangible benefits. We will celebrate success.
Our integrity is what keeps us together. This means having respect for all partners of the team and to be able to trust each other under all circumstances. That implies honesty among all team members “on and off the pitch”. We will maintain the highest ethical standards.
Our commitment to excellence means that every member of the team will strive to be the best they can be. Team TBB defines success through performance and the ability to overcome adversity in daily life situations for all team partners.
Our communication is the glue of our team. How we communicate with each other will be the measure of our success as a team. Our communication will be open, honest and transparent between all partners in good and challenging times.
Our consistency of execution will determine not only the sporting achievements, but provide the legacy of long term win-win partnerships with our sponsors that will sustain our vision long past the founding partners.
Our offer to all involved in teamtbb:
Platform: Connect people to the bike lifestyle through community events.
Inspiration: Deliver a world class coaching structure and role models.
Insight: Provide physical, psychological and mechanical information.
Care: Support for family and community team partners.
Service: Provide advice to team partners on sponsorship negotiation and financial
management.
Brett Sutton was and remains paid by my business for his consultancy services and hence I thought it would be a good start to support the newly selected teamtbb athletes by providing them with free coaching from Brett (previously they would pay a monthly coaching fee) and that they would only pay teamtbb a % of their best 3 race results at the end of each year.
Other than that I simply could not offer them anything else, so they had to either win races or provide themselves with product sponsors.
The % that the athletes were paying teamtbb was and still is split equally between Brett, teamtbb and our social programs.
We then tried to find sponsors who wanted to support this unique team and vision, but was soon introduced to the realities of triathlon and it still hurts me to see how pro athletes (other than the top 10 – 15 in the world) are struggling for survival while giving it everything they have!
As an ex-banker overlooking budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars, I thought it would be really easy to just knock on a few doors and collect some solid sponsorship dollars for our team. Well again the reality of the sport of triathlon kicked in pretty fast again!
I’m grateful for the two sponsors that understood our dream and vision and decided to support us at a very early stage of our team’s existence in July 2007.
Gerard Vroomen & Phil White from Cervelo Cycles and Anne & Steve Hed from HED Cycling believed in our team and social vision and became sponsors of this newly formed team. It could have gone either way for them, but 4 months later we booked our first Ironman wins to then have all our jaws drop wide open in October 2007 (except Brett’s) when Chrissie won the IM Hawaii World Championship. We thank our sponsors for their support!
But while some said “Wow you guys just started and have already achieved what some would call a life dream in the world of triathlon”, Brett and I have always responded that Chrissie’s IM Hawaii win was just the beginning of our team’s journey. We were over the moon about Chrissie’s win, but our team mission was and is bigger than ‘just’ winning IM titles:
We want to make a difference in the lives of under privileged youth through sport.
We now support 3 social programs across Brazil, Thailand and The Philippines. The Brazil program was started by Brazilian coach Cali Amaral and soon supported by Brett Sutton. When it started in 1997, it included 5 boys and 5 girls (including one young fellow called Reinaldo Colucci who just last month attended the Beijing Olympics) and now some years later it includes 470 kids that receive schooling, food and swim & run training. Bikes can’t be afforded.
Our second and third social program was started in Thailand during our 2007 teamtbb heat training camps.
Melvin Fausto heads up our teamtbb social project in The Philippines and has just recently selected 10 under privileged children that will receive training and at times train with our teamtbb athletes. Each of these 10 kids will be ‘connected’ with one of our teamtbb pro athletes, who will become the mentor or role model for these kids.
I’m still grateful to Chrissie Wellington who 3 days after winning her IM Hawaii world title was swimming in the pool in Thailand with 4 Filipino girls behind her who thought this was unreal. That is the core essence of this team! The simple desire to make a difference in the lives of others that just need that little bit of hope and have that small opportunity to see that nothing is impossible!
Thank you Chrissie and all other team athletes for your support in our social projects! We still have a long way to go, but the start has been made.
I hope that this explains why teamtbb trains and works in these countries instead of some absurd remarks made by some people on the ST forum for selecting these countries.
We train in these countries because our social work and the further development of the triathlon sport will make a big difference. Secondly these countries are having ever increasing environmental challenges due to the fast economic growth, so what better way than to get as many of people in urban Asia to bike to work? Thirdly, The Bike Boutique is opening bike lifestyle stores across these countries and can benefit from the branding effects of teamtbb athletes living and training in these countries.
It is my hope that this very long reply on this forum provides some insights into why our team was started, where we are heading, and what we hope to provide people and communities.
Thank you for your time.
Alex Bok
Teamtbb Manager "
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=1976810;sb=post_latest_reply;so=AS C;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;page=last;#last
Reading some of the feedback on what teamtbb athletes pay or receive, I think it’s fair to provide the ST readers some clarity on these matters.
My name is Alex Bok and founder of The Bike Boutique lifestyle companies. It’s my mission to establish a unique bike lifestyle company that promotes biking to work, open bike stores that will reinvent the bike retail industry and at the same time be socially responsible by providing hope and opportunity to under privileged youth though sport.
This dream was definitely a size too big, so we needed time to grow into it. While our mission was clearly established during 2006 we ‘hopped on a bus’ for hopefully an amazing journey.
We did not know how exactly we would achieve our goals but we did know we needed great people who believed in this mission and were willing to simply commit to it.
I had heard of the social projects that Brett Sutton had been involved with in Brazil and was intrigued. We started talking in July 2006 and quickly identified lots of common ground in our mission. Brett is a very practical man that is much focussed on producing results. We initially never spoke of a triathlon team and I hired Brett as a business consultant to my holding company end 2006.
Yes, I did my homework and Google searches and took 3 months of research and serious soul searching of how this decision could affect my business in a positive or negative way. I have spoke in various magazines on this topic before, so no need to focus on this matter here. I’m willing to have a separate discussion on this matter with anyone that feels like it, but I think that 20 years later and zero repeat offences, we really don’t have to further focus on ‘that offence’ instead of the hundreds of people that Brett has supported.
The ability to forgive and forget those that are truly sorry and have paid their dues, will heal people and victims much better than trying to hold on to that pain and the past...
Brett joined my company and provided an immediate and amazing impact and insights on how we could get our social programs of the ground, what ways we could further improve our retail stores to make them unique and innovative and to market our total value proposition across the world.
But we soon realized there was a competing interest for the skills of Brett Sutton, namely a whole group of ex- Sutton athletes who also requested his time and coaching skills to make them better athletes and often even better people.
Brett and I talked and tried to find a solution that could serve both sides, being our business and his formal athletes.
This led to the birth of teamtbb in January 2007 but had a very different purpose than ‘just’ creating World Champions.
Our mission for the team was well thought through during 2 day meetings with a group of representatives from the corporate world, coaches, medical and sports doctors, pro athletes and managers from our TBB business.
Our mission was defined as:
“teamTBB is a professional organization for triathlon and bike related sports that nurtures a unique culture to provide hope and opportunity for under privileged youth.”
We will achieve our mission by:
o introducing the bike lifestyle to people and communities to improve their physical, emotional and social health;
o providing role models (world class athletes), education and information for every performance level from recreational up to high performance athletes.
When our mission was defined, every athlete was “checked at the door” for being interested in our complete mission and not just about winning race.
The selection criteria used for teamtbb athletes are:
1. The desire to support our social programs and to be a role model and mentor for the youth we support.
2. To be part of the creation of a new online triathlon experience where anyone can simply ‘talk’ with our pro athletes.
3. To be the best athlete they can be.
We had no sponsors; we had no cash or deep pockets as we were a start up business, we simply believed in our mission and that we would find ways to achieve them.
To further add clarity about our team's mission, we defined a teamtbb brand print structure that provided clarity about:
Our values and convictions:
Our passion for our sports and team work is the fuel that keeps us motivated. We believe that life fulfils when we are able to contribute beyond ourselves. Never-ending personal growth collected through being a member of this team is one of the intangible benefits. We will celebrate success.
Our integrity is what keeps us together. This means having respect for all partners of the team and to be able to trust each other under all circumstances. That implies honesty among all team members “on and off the pitch”. We will maintain the highest ethical standards.
Our commitment to excellence means that every member of the team will strive to be the best they can be. Team TBB defines success through performance and the ability to overcome adversity in daily life situations for all team partners.
Our communication is the glue of our team. How we communicate with each other will be the measure of our success as a team. Our communication will be open, honest and transparent between all partners in good and challenging times.
Our consistency of execution will determine not only the sporting achievements, but provide the legacy of long term win-win partnerships with our sponsors that will sustain our vision long past the founding partners.
Our offer to all involved in teamtbb:
Platform: Connect people to the bike lifestyle through community events.
Inspiration: Deliver a world class coaching structure and role models.
Insight: Provide physical, psychological and mechanical information.
Care: Support for family and community team partners.
Service: Provide advice to team partners on sponsorship negotiation and financial
management.
Brett Sutton was and remains paid by my business for his consultancy services and hence I thought it would be a good start to support the newly selected teamtbb athletes by providing them with free coaching from Brett (previously they would pay a monthly coaching fee) and that they would only pay teamtbb a % of their best 3 race results at the end of each year.
Other than that I simply could not offer them anything else, so they had to either win races or provide themselves with product sponsors.
The % that the athletes were paying teamtbb was and still is split equally between Brett, teamtbb and our social programs.
We then tried to find sponsors who wanted to support this unique team and vision, but was soon introduced to the realities of triathlon and it still hurts me to see how pro athletes (other than the top 10 – 15 in the world) are struggling for survival while giving it everything they have!
As an ex-banker overlooking budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars, I thought it would be really easy to just knock on a few doors and collect some solid sponsorship dollars for our team. Well again the reality of the sport of triathlon kicked in pretty fast again!
I’m grateful for the two sponsors that understood our dream and vision and decided to support us at a very early stage of our team’s existence in July 2007.
Gerard Vroomen & Phil White from Cervelo Cycles and Anne & Steve Hed from HED Cycling believed in our team and social vision and became sponsors of this newly formed team. It could have gone either way for them, but 4 months later we booked our first Ironman wins to then have all our jaws drop wide open in October 2007 (except Brett’s) when Chrissie won the IM Hawaii World Championship. We thank our sponsors for their support!
But while some said “Wow you guys just started and have already achieved what some would call a life dream in the world of triathlon”, Brett and I have always responded that Chrissie’s IM Hawaii win was just the beginning of our team’s journey. We were over the moon about Chrissie’s win, but our team mission was and is bigger than ‘just’ winning IM titles:
We want to make a difference in the lives of under privileged youth through sport.
We now support 3 social programs across Brazil, Thailand and The Philippines. The Brazil program was started by Brazilian coach Cali Amaral and soon supported by Brett Sutton. When it started in 1997, it included 5 boys and 5 girls (including one young fellow called Reinaldo Colucci who just last month attended the Beijing Olympics) and now some years later it includes 470 kids that receive schooling, food and swim & run training. Bikes can’t be afforded.
Our second and third social program was started in Thailand during our 2007 teamtbb heat training camps.
Melvin Fausto heads up our teamtbb social project in The Philippines and has just recently selected 10 under privileged children that will receive training and at times train with our teamtbb athletes. Each of these 10 kids will be ‘connected’ with one of our teamtbb pro athletes, who will become the mentor or role model for these kids.
I’m still grateful to Chrissie Wellington who 3 days after winning her IM Hawaii world title was swimming in the pool in Thailand with 4 Filipino girls behind her who thought this was unreal. That is the core essence of this team! The simple desire to make a difference in the lives of others that just need that little bit of hope and have that small opportunity to see that nothing is impossible!
Thank you Chrissie and all other team athletes for your support in our social projects! We still have a long way to go, but the start has been made.
I hope that this explains why teamtbb trains and works in these countries instead of some absurd remarks made by some people on the ST forum for selecting these countries.
We train in these countries because our social work and the further development of the triathlon sport will make a big difference. Secondly these countries are having ever increasing environmental challenges due to the fast economic growth, so what better way than to get as many of people in urban Asia to bike to work? Thirdly, The Bike Boutique is opening bike lifestyle stores across these countries and can benefit from the branding effects of teamtbb athletes living and training in these countries.
It is my hope that this very long reply on this forum provides some insights into why our team was started, where we are heading, and what we hope to provide people and communities.
Thank you for your time.
Alex Bok
Teamtbb Manager "
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=1976810;sb=post_latest_reply;so=AS C;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;page=last;#last