Leading, Ferguson style

The suave, handsome Bobby Moore, who wouldn’t have looked out of place on a James Bond movie set playing Ian Fleming’s iconic hero, was seated on the couch in the lounge outside hishotel room in Calcutta and sipping from a glass of lemon soda when this columnist asked him what it took to become a great football manager.

It was January 1984 and Moore had come to the eastern metropolis to give away the trophy at the end of the NehruGOLD Cup football tournament and we were talking about Sir Alf Ramsey, the English coach, who steered Moore’s team to victory in the 1966 World Cup at home.

Moore put down the glass, took a deep breath and then said, “Well, it takes a several attributes and the best ones have many of them. But ultimately it comes down to having a vision and getting your team members to share the vision and work towards a set goal.’’

Although Moore was talking about managerial qualities of a man — Alf Ramsey — who was sacked as England coach in 1974 with a laughable amount as pension and lived out the rest of his life away from the limelight in modest circumstances, this columnist thought that the tribute was easily applicable to a famous multi-millionaire manager of this era because I happened to be reading his latest book.

Leading succeeds Sir Alex Ferguson’s autobiography which was released soon after his surprise retirement from his Old Trafford job over two years ago. Written along with Sir Michael Moritz, his good friend, venture capitalist, author and philanthropist, the book (published by Hodder & Stoughton) is clearly the best among all the books Ferguson has written.

Clear winner

It is a clear winner not only because it is eminently readable and wonderfully insightful for a person who may or may not be a football maniac, but also because it shows us that leaders in several fields may differ here and there in the way they manage their teams, yet a few common threads run through all their stories.

Thought of as arrogant by a few and dubbed a control freak by a few more, Ferguson, one of the greatest club managers of all times in football — and a man whose legend is comparable to that of Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers in NFL or any other giant you can think of — comes across as a simple self-taught man who rose up the ranks through sheer hard work.

And Ferguson’s work ethic can be traced back to his roots. His father was a disciplinarian and a shipyard worker whose wages — seven pounds and 15 shillings a week in 1955 for 64 hours of sweat and toil, as Ferguson reminds us — were just about enough to manage a low-income family and his mother worked cleaning houses after the demise of her husband of cancer.

Coming from such a humble background, Ferguson, predictably, had a first-rate work ethic and took nothing for granted. He never believed he was entitled to anything although, deep inside, he was hugely ambitious and highly driven.

“Around the world, football attracts boys for whom further education is unlikely and who have no choice but to work very hard on acquiring and improving their footballing skills as the path towards a better life,’’ writes Ferguson.

Of course, it helps if the boy turns out to be one with Ferguson’s self-discipline and work habits.

“For me drive means a combination of a willingness to work hard, emotional fortitude, enormous powers of concentration and a refusal to admit defeat,’’ he writes.

It is this rare amalgam of virtues that saw Sir Alex win 38 trophies — 13 English league titles along with 25 other domestic and international pieces of silverware — in his 27 years as manager of the most famous club in the world.

He turned what was one of the top English clubs into a universal brand as readily recognisable in Kyoto as it is in Chennai or Oslo. As the celebrated American sports writer David Halberstam wrote of the Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio, Sir Alex “transcended the barriers of sports in terms of the breath of his fame.’’

Pearls of wisdom

And this is precisely why even readers who have no interest in football or perhaps sport itself might find several pearls of wisdom in the book’s 390 pages. From corporate head honchos to ambitious politicians, anybody who finds himself in a leadership role can benefit form reading Ferguson’s fourth — and perhaps last — book.

A few years ago, Anita Elberse, a professor at the Harvard Business School, spent considerable time with the great manager at practice and during games and then wrote an essay in the Harvard Business Review.

The essay, titled ‘Ferguson’s Formula’, spelled out eight secrets — the keys — to the success of the Manchester United manager.

In the order in which she wrote about them, the eight are: 1) Start with the foundation; 2) Dare rebuild your team; 3) Set high standard – and hold everyone to them; 4) Never, ever cede control; 5) Match the message to the moment; 6) Prepare to win; 7) Rely on the power of observation; 9) Never stop adapting.

As you make your way through Leading , it is no coincidence that Sir Alex dwells on each of these issues and their importance to him as the man at the helm of one of the greatest clubs in world football.

As for surprises, how about this: Sir Alex says, “In my book, there are only two world class players playing today — Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.”

Finally, the book is a compulsory read for everyone interested in the English Premier League, and lot of others who are not.

The legendary Manchester United manager had a first-rate work ethic and took nothing for granted