SIR Alex Ferguson, the man who guided Manchester United to about a
million trophies, has shared his wisdom.
While
Sir Alex coached many of the biggest names in football like Beckham, Cantona
and Giggs, he was a business leader as much as anything. In 26 seasons, Fergie
transformed Manchester United into a team worth nearly $2 billion with
literally hundreds of millions of fans.
Here,
in his own words, is how Sir Alex made that happen. It started in the dressing
room, but his influence went far beyond that.
Sir Alex Ferguson's 8 tips to building success from scratch
1. Sacrifice short-term pain for long-term gain
Fergie
wrote that from the moment he arrived he wanted to build from the bottom up.
"With this approach, the players all grow up together, producing a bond
that, in turn, creates a spirit," he said.
Just
one player was under 24 years of age when he arrived. But he knew that
rebuilding the youth structure was critical. "You could say it was brave,
but fortune favours the brave," he told The Review.
Interestingly,
Sir Alex said that he doesn't believe the ethos he first brought to United in
1986 would be acceptable today.
"Winning
a game is only a short-term gain - you can lose the next game," he said.
"Building a club brings stability and consistency. You don't ever want to
take your eyes off the first team, but our youth development efforts ended up
leading to our many successes in the 1990s and early 2000s."
Interestingly,
Sir Alex didn't claim his first Premier League crown until 1992/93. It's highly
unlikely his successor David Moyes will be granted a six year grace period.
2. Don't be afraid to rebuild
The Review used
plenty of business jargon in its Ferguson story, labelling him an excellent
"portfolio manager".
Ferguson
told The Review he believed a team needed refreshing every three or four years,
and he wasn't afraid to cut players unexpectedly. He said that his longevity at
the club became his greatest asset: the longer he stayed, the more people
expected him to stay and the more opportunity he had to do forward planning.
One
of Fergie's most celebrated protégés is Ryan Giggs, who has been at United for
24 seasons. If an older player like Giggs could still cut it, Fergie persisted
with him. But if an older player lost a little zing, he would ditch even the
most loyal clubman. That's how important success was.
3. Set the bar high
He
came to work early, he worked hard, he did little stuff right and the big stuff
too. But above all, he didn't settle for anything even faintly resembling a
half-hearted effort.
"We
never allowed a bad training session," he rather ominously told The Review.
"Every
training session was about quality. We didn't allow a lack of focus. It was
about intensity, concentration, speed - a high level of performance. That, we
hoped, made our players improve with each session.
4. Let them know who's boss
Sir
Alex was well aware that he was dealing with 30 egotistical millionaires. But
never did he ever let them step out of line and disrupt the power balance. If
they did, they were cut.
Sir
Alex was famously grumpy, but reading between the lines, you sense this may have
been a deliberate weapon as much as a reflection of his real personality. He
tole T he Review he knew his personality had to be
bigger than everyone else's. Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy and David
Beckham could attest to that. All were stars at United yet exited in their
prime under Sir Alex's tenure as manager.
5. Keep them guessing
Further
to the point about Sir Alex being portrayed as eternally grumpy, he actually
confided to The Review that he had many modes he employed when
dealing with players. Mindful that confidence can be a star player's greatest
weapon, he was always subtle and encouraging when informing a player he had
been dropped.
He
would also tell a player what the player had done wrong immediately after the
game rather than waiting for Monday morning. That way, the issue wouldn't
fester and both parties could move on.
6. Take risks
The Review didn't
just interview Fergie, but also did some interesting research of their own. And
what they found was the Manchester United had a better record of winning
matches where scores were tied late in the game than any other team.
The
secret was that under Ferguson, United practiced for different scenarios and
different moments in the game. The other secret, as Fergie himself said, is
that he was a gambler. He was prepared to take risks. If he was 1:2 down, he
didn't care if he lost 1:3. He would rather throw caution to the wind and bring
on an extra attacker.
7. Take a step back
You
often read about people who put "learn to delegate" at the top of
their lists of corporate wisdom, and Sir Alex is a leader who learned the
importance of that lesson. He used to hover over the shoulder of his assistants
early in his management career, but then he learned to trust them and to
concentrate on the bigger picture.
That's
not to say he took his eye off the minutiae. Quite the opposite. In fact, the
more he stepped back, the more his sense of perspective increased and the more
he saw. If a player was having issues, he might have missed that if all he was
watching was ball drills. But when by leaving his assistants in charge of
things like that, he was able to become not just a football manager but a man
manager without peer.
8. Don't be scared of change
The
1980s wee the dawning age of a thing called sports science, which was hitherto
mostly unknown. Fergie was a gruff Scot, but he embraced it. he got the team
into yoga before that was fashionable. He installed vitamin D booths in the
dressing rooms to make up for the cloudy Manchester weather. He insisted on the
best training facilities. And above all, his mind never stagnated, always
seeking new ways to improve his team.
