What Sir Alex Ferguson Taught Me About Leading in Silicon Valley

The link between Old Trafford, home of Manchester United, and Sand Hill Road, the Menlo Park, California base of Sequoia Capital, might not seem immediately apparent.  But about ten years ago, when I was casting about looking for examples of organizations and leaders that had consistently excelled over many decades, I was drawn to this soccer club in the North of England and its Manager (English parlance for ‘Coach’), Sir Alex Ferguson – the man with the best record in the history of professional sports.

I was eager to find out what could be learned from Sir Alex that could be applied to the way in which Sequoia Capital was managed and that might also be pertinent for the Founders of many of the young companies in which we invest.  Sir Alex led United from 1986, when it had not won a major trophy in about twenty years, to 2013 – a period during which the Club out 38 pieces of silverware in its trophy cabinet.   For my part, I was on a mission to discover how Sequoia Capital, which was started in 1974 and has been the first major investor in companies now worth a combined $1.5 trillion, the most of any private investment firm, could continue our winning ways. 

Eventually, after we both found ourselves with more time on our hands – Sir Alex after retiring from United and me after stepping down in 2012 as the primus inter pares at Sequoia, we started to speak in earnest about collaborating on a book about leadership.   The result is LEADING – a distillation of Sir Alex’s recollections of the way in which he developed as a leader and the tools he employed while revivifying,  operating and, ceaselessly, tuning United over the course of four successive decades. 

The length of topics we discussed stretched the length of a soccer field and, while drawn from Sir Alex’s experiences of forty years of management, are germane to any field or organization. Among the topics we covered were: How did he find and develop talent?  How did he retain them?   How did he set targets?   How did he make people aspire to achieve the impossible?  When did he give up on youngsters?  How did he balance different levels of compensation?  How did he cope with distractions, mete out punishment and instill discipline? How did he bounce back from setbacks, deal with press criticism, cope with owners and stockholders and – in the midst of a seven day a week job - retain a connection with family and friends?  How did he think about competitors and deal with changes?  How did he set aside his personal feelings for particular individuals?  How did he prevent complacency setting in?  How did he prepare, plan and communicate?  How did he maintain his enthusiasm and hunger? 

But the essence of LEADING is an examination of the attributes of leadership and the vast gulf that separates good and dutiful managers from great and inspiring leaders.   It’s these differences that we hope LinkedIn members will enumerate as they select their nominees for the Sir Alex Ferguson Leadership Award. 

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Do you know the ultimate UK leader? If so, we want to hear their story. We're looking for the first recipient of the Sir Alex Ferguson Leadership Award. Write a long-form post on LinkedIn with the hashtag #SirAlexAward somewhere in the body of the post, and tell us why they deserve to win. The winners—both the post's author and their award nominee—will receive the Sir Alex Ferguson Leadership Award from Sir Alex himself at Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, on 21st September, at an intimate gathering before the global launch event for LEADING. 

Read more about #SirAlexAward here.