Watch the Birdie.

It's all our fault, the sun shone for two weeks, the public transport system didn't break down, no one got eaten by a shark and we put on the perfect Olympics. The best for decades, after the Munich kidnappings, the Moscow boycott and the Atlanta bombings, gave us pause for thinking the spirit of the games was but a hazy memory. No matter where athletes finished in Sydney, they smiled, they hugged, they competed the right way and all seemed right with the world for two weeks. The ambiance captured in Sydney was replicated over the next couple of Olympics and they became shining examples of doing the right thing, the distillation of the Olympic objectives. Even the most obscure sports were given the spot light for just a second and enjoyed their moment in the sun, no matter who was casting doubt on the sporting prowess of the competitors.

London looked like it would follow our lead but for all that London had to offer and had accomplished, it will always be remembered for the one tarnish, from here on in to be known as "Birdgate". The entire world of Badminton was turned upside down by winners not wanting to win, not wanting to win within a rules system in need of an update and never once playing within the spirit of the games and doing the right thing. Not since the Christmas BBQ incident, known as Uncle Harry's fall from grace, where he lightly tapped his partner, cousin Jean, on the bum with his racket after her astonishing return of aunt May's underhand service, has the badminton world seen such controversy. Like the badminton disciplinary committee's quick action against the offending teams, uncle Harry was banished to the BBQ pit, to preserve the integrity and credibility of the sport and to give aunt May recourse for a good talking to later on. Uncle Harry was able to redeem himself later on the day with a winning run at Monopoly and has the opportunity for more gold moments at the next family gathering, something the Chinese and Koreans will miss out on.

Comedic analogies aside, the defining moment was all about not doing the right thing and trying to gain advantage bypassing the paradigm of what the Olympics stand for. Having played sports my whole life I often try and bring the same motivation and correlations aligned to winning within a team environment to business and examples like "Birdgate" certainly become good bench marks for how not do business, even if you can avail yourself of a murky situation to gain advantage. Like sports, business runs best when a sense of the right way to do things is espoused by top management, not inherently different to the Olympic oath, where the athletes declare to compete "in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams" Learning how to gain magnanimity after not achieving the result you promised yourself and others, learning other competitors aren't the enemy but someone to bring out the best in you

There are always business lessons to be learnt from sports on a big stage and maybe London delivered more than we expected after all.