We are grateful to Jonathan Salisbury for this article. He was Captain of Boats in 1990, and later rowed and coached at Oxford Polytechnic.

I was in the normal rush hour scrummage in the tube the other evening, reading a selection of other passengers' newspapers. A picture caught my eye at the bottom left hand corner of the Evening Standard. Photographed were four oarsmen, precisely in time, reaching for the catch. The accompanying bold type read:

What has rowing got to do with finances of a business? .. or any aspect of business? It seems that the advertising consultant considered there to be some link, as the powerful image of rowing was used to capture a company's teamwork. Are there, then, any aspects of rowing which prove to be of value in business?

Quickly to explain a little about my situation and why I am writing this article: I was at Monkton until 1990 and rowed throughout my five years there. Oxford Poly was the next stop, where I studied Business (and rowed). I am now employed by Sainsbury's - buying soft drinks. I have found many aspects of rowing which I am now using and developing: JMB has asked me to note down some of them. I have chosen two in particular: teamwork and coping under pressure.

The teamwork parallel between rowing and business has already been drawn by the advertisement previously mentioned. An example from Sainsbury's will illustrate this further. At Monkton, it is customary that no member of a crew is recognised as having made a more significant contribution than the other eight; while each person may have different roles, the full effort of everyone is required to move the boat fast.

In the Sainsbury's buying office, no buyer receives a 'Buyer of the Year' award, or anything similar, such is the emphasis of teamwork in such a competitive environment. Teamwork was an aspect of rowing that I particularly valued at Monkton, and I am now enjoying at Sainsbury's. Learning to work hard alongside other characters (with equally strong opinions) is not always straightforward and cannot be taught in any classroom or lecture hall. I would, therefore, fully agree with the advertising consultant in his or her use of rowing to depict teamwork within a business.

'How well can you cope under pressure?' My two interviewers seemed to be using their questions to find out the answer to their own question. I can't remember which one asked, but they were waiting for a reply. It's one of those difficult questions, because you want to come across favourably without bragging. I decided to refer to experience and take the attention off myself. I blurted out something about the size of every man in the other boat waiting at the start, push tens and so on . . Rowing was the greatest experience of pressure that I had been involved in: the pressure of competition, my own expectations, others' expectations and often the event itself.

A crew is trained to give one hundred per cent physically and still be able to dominate and react to the competition. Food retailing is perhaps the most competitive of businesses. The whole operation is driven by competition as threats of new strategies, American discounters and recession force individuals and teams to respond. Every company wants to be the one taking the initiative, with successful results. In summary then, many business disciplines are to be found in membership of a rowing crew. For me, rowing has proved the most practical training ground for my present job. I hope others are able to put the skills learned at the river into practice beyond any boat, rudder or blade.