Ask a cross section of football supporters of a certain era 'what was the best international football team you ever saw?' and it's likely two teams will feature large among the responses - Brazil 1970 and the great Dutch team that featured Cruyff and Neeskens. The interesting thing is that while Brazil were successful in the 1970 World Cup the Dutch side reached two finals but never lifted the trophy.

That's the nature of international football, you only get a world cup every four years, and any team can have an off day. These days there are official rankings, but everyone knows that doesn't guarantee you success when it comes to crunch matches.

Looked at another way you could at least say that winning a world cup involved a degree of consistency, except for the hosts (with three hosts that will be interesting in 2026). Teams will have played a number of games before even qualifying for the finals. Yes, in a one-off game, form can sometimes overcome class but just think of the problems facing competitors in individual sports. Four years hard work can be ruined if you are not fit on the day. Not fair you might say. Someone who is best on the day is Olympic champion for four years and will always be known for that race. In the UK alone, we can think of athletes who led the world for a long period but never peaked at an Olympic Games - Colin Jackson and Steve Cram come to mind, no one would argue that at some time they were the best in the world.

How do we determine 'the best' in other areas? Every company has good and bad days. There will be fantastic wins and disappointing losses, but what makes you the best? I think there are at least two factors - consistency and international coverage. Like a football team, winning at home isn't enough, you sometimes have to win in hostile competitive markets.

For companies like GLORY four good weeks is not enough. After every win (or loss) you have to get up and start again, knowing that every market and every customer is different. Success can only really be judged on cumulative performance.

In January this year Glory was confirmed as a global leader in retail cash recycling solutions by strategic research and consultancy firm RBR, with a 41 percent share of the market. This follows a similar 2017 study from RBR that confirmed our position as a global leader in Teller Automation Solutions with 57 percent market share.

How do we achieve this? As with any strategy, ours has multiple dimensions.

1. Always focus on understanding and solving our customers challenges with solutions of the highest quality.
2. Offer flexibility in our solutions. Different customers have different requirements, so breadth of portfolio is critical. One size does not fit all
3. Deliver tangible return on investment. Whether that’s increased efficiency, enhanced security or releasing resources to focus on the customer experience.

Who'll win in four weeks time? Who knows? Which is the best team? We'll all have (sometimes biased) opinions. Thankfully, business is less unpredictable, but we never take it for granted. To stay on top, we must keep delivering results for our customers.