A tiny Indiana high school, a coach the town wants gone, and a team that wins the state final by doing the basics better than anyone else. Hoosiers is a basketball film, and the best argument there is for getting the fundamentals of a Business Central implementation right before anyone asks for flashy features.
In Hoosiers, Gene Hackman plays Norman Dale, a coach with a past who arrives in Hickory, Indiana, a farming town with a high school so small it can barely field a team. The town loves basketball and has opinions about how it should be played. Dale has other ideas. He drills passing, defence and discipline until the players are sick of it, and the town tries to vote him out.
Then the team starts winning, and keeps winning, all the way to the state final against a school many times its size. Not with flair. With fundamentals. That's the best lesson there is for a Business Central implementation.
Hickory has a handful of players. Their opponents have bigger squads, bigger budgets and bigger arenas.
For your project: most businesses implementing Business Central aren't enterprises with a programme office and a forty-person team. They're a finance manager, a warehouse supervisor and a few super users who also have day jobs. That's fine. A small team that's well drilled beats a big one that isn't, which is also why a boutique partner can outperform a large one. (See big is not always best.)
Dale's rule is that the ball has to be passed four times before anyone takes a shot. The players hate it. They want to shoot. But it's what turns five individuals into a team.
For your project: the fundamentals come before the features. The chart of accounts, posting groups, dimensions, number series, clean master data and standard processes. They're dull, and everyone wants to skip to the Copilot demo, the Power BI dashboard and the clever extension. But if the basics are wrong, every flashy feature on top of them is wrong too. Pass the ball first. (See the setup that decides everything.)
Halfway through the season, results are mixed and the town holds a meeting to get rid of the coach. They want the old way back.
For your project: there's always a point, usually in the middle of Development when nothing visible is happening, where the business loses patience. "It's taking too long." "The old system did this fine." That's when the sponsor has to hold the line, explain what's being built and why, and keep the team's time protected. (See business as usual comes first.)
Dale benches a player who ignores his instructions, even when it leaves the team short on court. The rules apply to everyone or they don't work.
For your project: the same goes for the new processes. If the MD keeps a private spreadsheet, or one salesperson is allowed to raise orders the old way, everyone else notices and the workarounds spread. The process applies to everyone, including the people at the top.
The town's best player, Jimmy, won't play at first. Dale doesn't force him. When Jimmy does join, it's because he's chosen to, and the team is transformed.
For your project: your most influential users can't be forced to adopt a system. They have to be brought in: involved in design, listened to, given a reason. When the person everyone respects says the new system works, the rest follow. (See change management.)
When the team walks into the huge state final arena, they're overwhelmed. Dale gets out a tape measure and has them check the height of the basket and the distance to the free-throw line. Same as their tiny gym at home.
For your project: that's what rehearsal is for. If you've run the migration twice in the sandbox, run UAT on real data and timed every step of the cut-over, then go-live weekend is the same court with more people watching. The basket is the same height. (See the go-live weekend, hour by hour.)
In the last seconds of the final, the team doesn't improvise. They run a play they've practised all season, and it works.
For your project: on go-live weekend, follow the cut-over plan you rehearsed. Not a new idea at 2am on Saturday, not a shortcut because things are running late. The drilled play wins.
Small teams can win. Fundamentals before features. Hold your nerve when the town wants the old way back. The process applies to everyone. Bring your key players in by choice. Rehearse until the big day feels familiar. And run the play you've practised.
Want to get the fundamentals right before you build anything clever? Our health check is where to start, or book a 30-minute call.
