A little help goes a long way for Fergie
With his unbeatable mix of charisma, originality and success, Jobs was the CEO other CEOs dream of being. Thousands of them bought the book hoping to discover the secret of Jobs’ success.
The book makes it plain that Steve Jobs was not the world’s nicest man. You could say that he was unwilling to compromise the purity of his vision. He could be harshly abusive even towards long-time, trusted colleagues. His default mode of getting from A to B was to storm there.
Many reviewers remarked that it was a shame Jobs sometimes acted like such an asshole, since wannabes all over the world might now think that being an asshole would make them more like Steve Jobs.
Isaacson told Wired magazine that he felt a little guilty about that, since his book had publicised many of the stories that provided ammunition for Jobs’ critics. Writing in the Harvard Business Review last April, he said that there had been “too much focus on the rough edges of his personality,” and that Jobs’ “petulance and impatience were part and parcel of his perfectionism.”
We don’t know whether Alex Ferguson subscribes to the Harvard Business Review, but lately he too has become the focus of interest in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Professor Anita Elberse and Tom Dye of Harvard Business School have published a study of Ferguson’s methods in which Ferguson expounds on what has made him so successful.
Ferguson told the academics that “for a player — and any human being — there’s nothing better than hearing ‘Well done’. Those are the two best words ever invented in sports. You don’t need to use superlatives”.
You probably learn more about Fergie from watching him in action than from hearing him talk about himself. The week leading up to his 71st birthday has been a lot of fun. His team are out in front at the top of the league, while Ferguson himself has been dominating the opposition as usual.
Last Wednesday, with United trailing 2-1 against Newcastle at half-time, Ferguson spent the minutes before the restart arguing with the referee Mike Dean and then his assistant Jake Collin. He flapped his arms theatrically as he ranted at Collin, and by the time the second half began the United crowd was whipped into a frenzy.
It’s hard to know to what extent Ferguson premeditates such outbursts. Sometimes they seem crafty, and sometimes they look like they erupt from a part of him he can’t control. Nobody can say whether the failure of the officials to send off Antonio Valencia for a heavy foul on Vurnon Anita had anything to do with their memories of the verbal thrashing they had taken from Ferguson in the shadow of the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand.
It seems likely that such behaviour encourages thousands of mini-Fergies to abuse amateur officials on park pitches all around the world, but Ferguson has never seemed overly bothered by that.
It was strange that Mike Dean did not step in to protect Collin from Ferguson’s tirade — and when that question was put to Newcastle’s manager Alan Pardew, he agreed.
“I think Mike Dean might feel slightly disappointed he didn’t do something about it. I think the pressure that was on him was tough for a referee to take.”
Ferguson’s response probably revealed more about his methods than the Harvard study did. “Alan Pardew has come out and criticised me,” he said. “Alan Pardew is the worst at haranguing referees... he was at it the whole game on Wednesday. He shoved the [assistant] referee and makes a joke of it and he’s got the cheek to criticise me. It’s unbelievable. He forgets the help I gave him, by the way.”
He forgets the help I gave him. It sounds like Pardew might have exited the circle of trust. What had Ferguson ever done to make Pardew treat him so disrespectfully? Like any successful Godfather, Ferguson is sociable. He does favours. His status is such that the favours don’t have to be very big — Brian McDermott at Reading recently gushed about how grateful he was that Ferguson returned a phone call. He is scrupulous about sending letters of congratulation to fellow managers who do well (remember the two words that are the best any human being can hear). He is an active member of the League Managers’ Association. A good reference from Ferguson is the most valuable asset a young manager can have in the employment market of British football.
He punishes those who displease him, as when he recalled three young Manchester United players who were on loan at Preston after the club sacked his son Darren. The Stoke manager Tony Pulis then recalled two of his own players who were on loan at Preston. These may not have been the actions of a man who has not forgotten the help he has been given, but they sure looked like them.
The Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu, author of “The Art Of War”, is a giant in the world of management self-help literature. He wrote that “the greatest victory is not to destroy the enemy on the field of battle. The greatest victory is that which requires no battle”.
We all remember how lonely Rafael Benitez looked when he tried to take on Ferguson in 2009. Who knows how many managers agreed with him, but felt bound to silence by an invisible web of patronage and influence. Nobody wants to be the kind of ingrate who forgets the help he’s been given. Nobody came up to bat for Team Rafa. Maybe the lesson for Benitez was that he needs to spend less time analysing football videos, and more time talking to other managers.
When Dave Brailsford, the performance director of British Cycling, asked Ferguson the secret of his success, he replied: “Get rid of the c***s.”
Perhaps Ferguson was too modest to say that the true secret of his success has always been helping others.
