Sir Alex Ferguson’s Talent Strategy: How to Build a Successful Team

The Opus team is inspired by sporting success, and the walls of our HQ are adorned with iconic images of true greats, such as Michael Jordan, Paula Radcliffe and Tiger Woods.

Reaching the height of your game requires total commitment, passion and belief, as well as an endless enthusiasm to learn and a strategic ability to outsmart the opposition.

The legends listed above demonstrated these qualities in abundance, so it’s clear to see why they remain such motivational figures for fans all over the world. We certainly get fired up whenever we assemble in the Muhammad Ali meeting room, making plans with confidence, clarity and clout.

Another champion that should particularly resonate with those in the world of recruitment is former Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson.

This is particularly hard to swallow as a Liverpool fan but during his 27-year reign at the helm of Old Trafford, ‘Fergie’ implemented a talent strategy that saw him become the most decorated football manager of all-time, winning 38 trophies and earning universal respect.

Much can be learned from his management style, so here are a few lessons all business leaders should take note of:

Talent acquisition

When Ferguson arrived in Manchester in 1986, the club had been waiting 19 years for a league title; a sleeping giant that dreamed of recapturing past glories.

 It took four years for the Scot to win his first trophy - the 1990 FA Cup - and despite subsequent success in other cup competitions, the pressure was on to deliver the championship.

After finishing runners-up in 1992, Fergie identified Eric Cantona as the missing piece of his jigsaw. The mercurial Frenchman had just inspired Leeds to the title, and the United boss was confident he could do the same at Old Trafford.   

The rest, as they say, is history, and ‘King Eric’ helped Ferguson win four Premier League titles over the next five years, not to mention two FA Cups and three Charity Shields.

This is a great lesson in recruitment; know what you need to make the team click and set out a vision that your prime target will buy into.

Ferguson promised to build the team around Cantona, playing to the Frenchman’s strengths (as well as his ego), resulting in a mutual respect that paid dividends.

Fergie repeated this trick time and again over the coming years, signing 18-year-old rough diamonds Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, promising to give them the perfect platform to realise their full potential.

He also brought in established big-hitters, such as Ruud van Nistelrooy and Robin van Persie, making them the focal point of attacks that bagged goals aplenty and secured silverware.

Lesson: If you’re missing a certain skill set, it’s important to recruit wisely, selling yourself to attract star talent and getting them excited about your shared future.

Nurturing the next generation

Fergie first made a name for himself north of the border, guiding unfashionable Aberdeen to unprecedented success, notably beating Real Madrid 2-1 to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1983, becoming only the third Scottish outfit to lift a European trophy.

With no money and limited resources, Ferguson built his success by investing in youth, coaching young players to become world beaters, instilling his winning mentality within them.

He continued this philosophy in Manchester, culminating in the famous ‘Class of ’92’ - the FA Youth Cup-winning squad that featured a host of future international stars, namely David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes, and the Neville brothers - Gary and Phil.

By the start of the 1995-96 season, ‘Fergie’s Fledglings’, as they were also known, were an integral part of the team, but many pundits dismissed this a naive move. Alan Hansen infamously stated, “You can’t win anything with kids,” after United’s opening day defeat.

Undeterred, Ferguson showed great belief in his young players and - alongside experienced heads such as Peter Schmeichel in goal - they rewarded his faith by winning ‘The Double’ (Premier League and FA Cup) that very same season.

In the years that followed, the youngsters matured into the backbone of the team and were instrumental in ‘The Treble’ success of 1999, when Ferguson finally landed the biggest prize in club football, the European Champions League.

 Lesson: If you’re serious about sustained success, it’s imperative to have a succession plan that empowers young talents to become future leaders.

Performance management

It wasn’t all smiles during the Ferguson years, and former players often recall tales of the half-time ‘hairdryer treatment’, where he’d bellow so forcefully you could feel the heat of his breath. 

We certainly wouldn’t advocate such behaviour in normal working environments, but in the fast-paced sporting world, such displays of raw emotion can inspire action.

What’s more telling is that Fergie would reserve the ‘hairdryer’ for players he knew could take it, treating others differently, perhaps offering a few quiet words of encouragement.

Additionally, if he ever felt individuals had become disruptive influences, he swiftly showed them the door.

In 2003, he felt David Beckham prioritised the world of celebrity over football, so shipped him off to Madrid. Two years later, club captain Roy Keane was openly critical of the manager and his teammates, so Fergie paved the way for him to join Celtic on a free transfer.

Ferguson always set high standards and expected his charges to follow his lead. If they didn’t, he would do something about it.

Lesson: To get the best out of your workforce, it’s crucial to treat them as individuals and establish performance management programmes that are guaranteed to motivate. However, if people get too big for their boots, they need to be dealt with to maintain the collective spirit.

Evolution

The nature of sport means you have to constantly adapt, or else opponents will figure you out.

After missing out on the league title to Arsenal in 2002, Ferguson recruited the highly-regarded Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz as his new assistant. United duly regained the championship that season, prompting Queiroz to be head-hunted by Real Madrid.

However, after just one season in Spain, Queiroz returned to Manchester, and his tactical nous helped United to further league titles in 2007 and 2008.

Indeed, Queiroz is credited with implementing the 4-3-3 system that brought the best out of Rooney, Ronaldo, Giggs and Scholes, and this new formation saw the Reds regain the Champions League in 2008, much to Ferguson’s eternal delight.

Lesson: Sometimes you have to adapt to the marketplace and shake things up to regain your competitive edge. Strategic recruitment can set you on the road to success.

Talent retention

Few players ever expressed a desire to leave United during Ferguson’s tenure; he almost guaranteed success, so the top players naturally wanted to stay put.

Indeed, Giggs, Scholes and Gary Neville played their whole careers at Old Trafford, clocking up thousands of games between them.

However, on the rare occasions that players wanted out, Sir Alex had a way of diffusing the situation in a manner that worked to the club’s advantage.

In 2010, Wayne Rooney’s head had been turned by the riches on offer at wealthy neighbours Manchester City. He refused to sign a new contract and stated he wanted to leave.

Ferguson stepped in to calm the situation, outlining his plans to reassure his most prized asset, and convincing the board to make him the club’s highest-paid player in a deal reportedly worth ￡180,000-a-week.

Rooney backed down, signed the contract and went on to become United’s record goalscorer.

Among his 253 strikes was this memorable winner against City, just a few months after he seemed destined to join them:

Ferguson and Rooney went on to win the Premier League twice more before the Scot retired in 2013, justifying the intervention and avoiding an embarrassing own goal of losing his star player to a close rival.

Lesson: For continual growth, you have to take care of top talent, so forming a staff retention strategy should be central to your plans.

Legacy

It’s hard to imagine anyone repeating Sir Alex’s achievements ever again.

In the cutthroat world of modern football management, not many clubs would allow a period of four years before any sign of progress. Indeed, perhaps one criticism of Ferguson’s reign is the failure of his successor, David Moyes.

The fellow Scot had been hand-picked by Ferguson, but Moyes was sacked after just 10 months in charge when the club failed to qualify for the Champions League.

Ferguson continually reinvented his team to bring the next generation through, but the succession plan for himself didn’t go according to plan, and the team has since struggled to keep pace with their ‘noisy neighbours’, as he often referred to City.

Nonetheless, Fergie’s legacy lives on, and these days he’s making a mark in the business world, lecturing at Harvard Business School.

At Opus, we take a 360-degree view of the whole talent lifecycle, from attraction and recruitment, through to performance management, retention and future planning.

Sir Alex Ferguson had a similar approach and built a fantastic team that enjoyed prolonged success. Whether you’re a football fan or not, and even if you can’t stand Manchester United, you have to respect his commitment to getting the very best out of his staff, and every business leader should embrace that mentality.

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