Small Steps and Broken Stones

Warning: This post uses an extended use of sport as a metaphor for business improvement, which some readers may find tedious.

Sir Alex Ferguson has been the manager of Manchester United for 23 years, an unprecedented and unmatched tenure in modern football. Great football teams do not burn brightly for too long, as players find title-winning form difficult to sustain against the pressures of fame, fortune, expectation and the deterioration of their physical gifts. Even the greatest sides the sport has seen have had a limited lifepsan of around say, two to four seasons. The vagaries are just too formidable. And once a great team begins to lose its way, to splinter and disintegrate, how does the manager summon the energy to start over, nurturing a fresh wave of talent and staying competitive? Very few of the all-time greats have managed that, but Ferguson has done it three times.

1992-1997: four league titles, two FA Cups
1999-2001: three league titles, one FA Cup & the European Cup
2006-2009: three league titles & the European Cup

Along the way, the way the team is structured has changed from 4-4-2 to 4-4-1-1 to 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3 and then back to 4-4-2. There’s also been a shift in outlook, with the all-out attacking nature of the early nineties vintage replaced by the more patient, but no less easy on the eye style you will now encounter at Old Trafford.

Everything changes then. Great players move on, tactics evolve, new owners arrive and leave, but Ferguson keeps on building great teams.

Every organisation could learn something from three principles  which I would argue form the bedrock of this man’s ability to build great teams. These are they:

1. Let the team evolve.
After tearing opposition defences apart for two seasons, Andrei Kanchelskis’s form dipped and Ferguson wasted no time in selling him to Everton in 1995. Kanchelskis was a classic winger: fast, direct and tricky. He was a fan favourite and seen as an integral part of that first great Ferguson side. His replacement in the team could not have been more different in style. No tricks, no pace, but in possession of incredible stamina and one of the most accurate right feet the game has seen - David Beckham.

Ferguson has never recruited like for like. He identifies great players, brings them to the club, makes them better and then adapts the shape and style of the team to suit their particular strengths. When Beckham left for Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo took his place in the team and once again this saw a consequent shift in the shape and style of the team. Constant evolution.

Too many organisations think about the role first and the individual second. There’s obviously a balance to be struck, but I would always come down on the side of recruiting the best talent and adapting their role and the shape of the team to fit their strengths.

2. Develop talent from within.
Alan Hansen said that you’d never win anything with kids, but Neville (Gary), Butt, Neville (Phil), Scholes, Giggs and Beckham certainly proved him wrong on that. Ferguson believes passionately in giving young players a chance to deliver and continues to have his faith in youth repaid. Not enough organisations are brave enough to follow his lead, despite the fact that talent management initiatives and succession polices are all the rage.

This isn’t about keeping recruiting costs down, it’s about keeping alive what it is that makes your organisation special. Seeing Eric Cantona put himself through extra training sessions had a profound effect on the likes of Scholes and Beckham, helping them understand what it took to be a great player. Individuals who have through the ranks of your organisation will understand its values and what makes it special - they deserve to be given the chance to deliver.

3. Recruit people with hunger
Ferguson very very rarely buys players from clubs similar in shape and stature to Manchester United and when he does (Laurent Blanc, Seba Veron), it hasn’t worked. He has however, had a great deal of success in bringing in players from smaller clubs who have something still to prove, who want to get better and who he will work with (and be patient with) to help them get to the desired level.

Why recruit people to your organisation who have nothing left to prove? Where will the motivation come from? Experience will help you maintain the status quo, but you need hunger and determination to get you to the next level. And I would stress that this is nothing to do with age, this is about giving people a new stage in their career and making sure they have the tools, resources and learning opportunities they will need to develop and perform.

Obviously there is a lot more to Ferguson’s ongoing success than these three principles, but they certainly stood out for me when I was thinking about how he has succeeded in continually building outstanding teams. We have a lot to learn from the great man. Your comments are welcome.