Alex Ferguson on building success:

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From news.com.au

Yes, the Harvard Business Review. In a way that makes sense. 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

And when you get something right, by all means give yourself a round of applause.

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.

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*cough* BMac *cough*

[Remi Moses]

I vividly recall back then the campaign from United fans to oust Fergie.
There were banners at OT( long before the prawn sandwich theatre goers took over)
He had to win a cup tie in 90 to keep his job( he did) the rest is history.
The first big decision was to rid united of its drinking image, which meant some fan favs got the flick.
I'm afraid in this generation of social media and the media saturation, Fergie wouldn't have lasted more than a season or two.

[always right]

Feguson left out the most important bit...."be manager at a club whose immense riches you can use to buy the best players already developed by other clubs".

[Remi Moses]

Feguson left out the most important bit...."be manager at a club whose immense riches you can use to buy the best players already developed by other clubs".

Not always the case .

[westdog54]

Feguson left out the most important bit...."be manager at a club whose immense riches you can use to buy the best players already developed by other clubs".

Simplistic in the the extreme.

Without Sir Alex's influence Man U would be at best mid table battlers.

[chef]

Simplistic in the the extreme.

Without Sir Alex's influence Man U would be at best mid table battlers.

Not sure about mid table, but they wouldn't have been as dominant.

[bulldogtragic]

Feguson left out the most important bit...."be manager at a club whose immense riches you can use to buy the best players already developed by other clubs".

But you need club leaders to generate a winning culture, that generates members, which generates sponsors to get riches to get the players.

[chef]

But you need club leaders to generate a winning culture, that generates members, which generates sponsors to get riches to get the players.

You need to buy very good players(and get them to gel) to get a winning culture, which generates ticket sales and sponsors which allows you to keep on buying the players you need to stay at the top.

Plus you also need owners who want to win trophies over making profits.

[Remi Moses]

Simplistic in the the extreme.

Without Sir Alex's influence Man U would be at best mid table battlers.

Very true . Culture started with the kids like, Giggs, Beckham ( licence to print money world wide for the club) The Neville brothers, scholes, and got in great leadership and pros like Bruce, Pallister, and Keane. Cantona was the cream on top( a gift really).
It's a simplistic view and just simply wrong to assume "money" has generated the success, and i think you'll find other clubs have spent more for no success in the last decade .