A BLACKBURN company is tapping into techniques used by Britain’s Olympic athletes in a bid to boost the performance of its employees.

Philips Components, Philips Road, has embraced the concept of Visualisation - a form of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) which claims to help people visualise what winning is like.

An expert in the concept, Sonia Saxton, has worked with some of Europe’s leading companies and believes that NLP could help British companies compete with international rivals.

She said: “Our athletes have always had the ability, but they did not truly believe they could win.

"The Americans and the Russians have always been better at dreaming and fulfilling those dreams. Now we have caught them up.

"If an athlete can visualise winning and what it is like to hear the crowd as they cross the winning line and what it feels like to win, it becomes a reality to them and their mind shifts its perception of what is possible and enhances their performance.

"If you apply that to a business or sales team, for example, visualising gaining a sale or winning a contract you can see how beneficial it can be to a company."