Its old news. Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down from the
leadership of Manchester United last week after 26 years at the helm. His
career at the club is unparalleled in sports history, not only for its
longevity but for the consistency of success – on average he won a premiership
title every other year.
With such staying power the memorable moments are many. That
night in May 1999, in Barcelona has to be up there with the best. The Champion’s
League final. Manchester United had been
on the backfoot all night smothered by a Bayern Munich side captained by Lothar
Mathieus. Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer put the Germans to the
sword in extra time to give United their first Champion’s League trophy under
Ferguson.
The match gave new meaning to the phrase snatching victory
from the jaws of defeat.
The moments of brilliance have been many and not far apart,
blending into the most consistent performance of the any English team ever.
Forbes last week estimated that $386m (sh962b) of the club’s
current value can be directly attributed to the Scotsman.
The club is currently valued at $3.5b.
“Ferguson accomplished this feat by consistently winning on
the pitch and leading with class, which enabled Manchester United to build one
of the most valuable brands in sports. The strong brand, in turn, has fueled
revenue growth superior to Manchester United’s English rivals,” Forbes’ Mike
Ozanian wrote.
The clubs revenues have risen 13-fold to $502m last season
from $39m in 1992 the first season of the Premier League. To further underline
the stature of the man, the club accounts for 13.4% of the 19-team league’s
total $3.76b revenues.
Businesses are the vehicle through which value and therefore
wealth are created. Ferguson was the face of management but obviously there was
an administrative structure behind the man that took care of the business end
while Ferguson worked at creating a winning brand.
We would not expect any of our business to build a
multi-billion dollar enterprise soon but there are lessons to be learnt from
the Sir Alex reign.
Three lessons come to mind.
Underpinning his success was his stated mission to build
Manchester United in to a club not just a team. He understood that for long
term success it was not only about the 11-odd players on the pitch but the
whole business needed to be viable to sustain his long term goal, which stated
less charitably, was to knock then giants Liverpool of their vaunted perch.
A mission also meant Sir Alex never succumbed to the
trappings of success, blunted his desire for more and more success or made him
get too big for his boots.
For a long time Manchester United was the moneybags of the
premiership and accused of being able to buy any player they chose. In latter
years however Chelsea and then Manchester City have muscled United, but this
has not stopped Ferguson making key buys and keeping the winning ways going.
People might have attributed supernatural powers to his
ability to buy players who clicked almost immediately, but the answer may lie
in more mundane places. That he had a strategy and vision of the kind of soccer
he wanted and picked players who would fit into his vision. It should be the
same for our businesses. Blessed with a windfall our businessmen are more
likely to upgrade to a bigger four wheel drive car than buy assets that can
advance the company’s fortunes. In fact when I see a new businessman buying a
bigger car I start counting down to the eventual demise of his business.
Beyond picking them Sir Alex was known as a great motivator.
With experience he seemed to have perfected the delicate art of knowing when to praise or criticize his
wards; when to dismiss their excesses or
when to wield a stick and never ever to criticize his men in public. The
ultimate man manager.
Businessmen pay lip service to the importance of their
workforce but maybe because of the nature of his profession Sir Alex couldn’t
afford that luxury. He couldn’t afford to imagine that the stadium or pitch
were the club’s biggest asset. Our businessmen need to pay as much attention to
their workers than they do their machinery or buildings, because it’s the
workers who extract value from the plant and machinery. You can have a business
without plant and machinery but you can’t have a business without workers.
The fans and the market – United’s share price shed 5% on
the news, may have reacted to the departure of the gaffer but there is no
suggestion that the team will come crumbling down in the wake of his exit.
While Sir Alex was the one constant at the club for the last
26 years clearly a structure was built around him to ensure success. The
consistency of the success regardless of which players left or came in, is
testament to more than structure.
Maybe that will be the final test of his time at Manchester
United, whether he built a credible enough structure to carry on from where he
left off.
