“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime.” Babe Ruth
It feels like we've been here before with Real Madrid, but the football world was stunned this morning when a whopping £80 million bid for World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo was accepted by his club Manchester United. If the deal goes ahead if marks the second time this week that Real have broken the world transfer record, after splashing out over £50 million on Brazilian star Kaka earlier in the week. Both moves follow a similar pattern adopted by returning club president Florentino Perez, the building magnate that presided over the club in the early 00's. That period was made famous for the club signing a Galacticos each summer, starting with (another) record signing of Zinedine Zidane and followed up with the signings of Ronaldo, Luis Figo and of course David Beckham.
But does this strategy actually work?
And perhaps more importantly, are there lessons that can be learnt from it? If you look back at the first Galacticos era the answer is quite probably no. Whilst the club won the Champions League in Zidane's first season, and La Liga in his second, they failed to win either of these trophies again until 2006 when they won La Liga with a team minus Zidane, Figo and with Ronaldo and Beckham playing minor roles. Starkly the team have not won the Champions League since 2001 and last season were thrashed by Liverpool.
Yet Perez feels justified in replicating the strategy and has drawn up a shopping list of the world's best players in an attempt to bring the glory days back to the club. Contrast this approach however with their fierce rivals Barcelona, a team who swept all before them last year, winning La Liga, the Spanish Cup and the Champions League, winning plaudits from all corners for the style of their play. The side that Barcelona put out in the Champions League final contained 7 players that had come through the youth academy at the club.
Using the Barcelona model for managing your talent
Untapped talent is wasted talent. Where no effective talent management process exists, an organisation runs the risk of losing people with potential. Professional development is something that motivates and empowers an individual, leading to increased productivity and ultimately, a desire to stay put in the long term. There are numerous fine examples of this practice in place in the workplace.
Perhaps the most well known is at GE. Their leadership training centre at Crotonville, recently renamed after former CEO Jack Welch, is at the leading edge of leadership development and allows the company to take a long-term approach at developing its people to be the best. When Jack Welch announced his plan to retire they had the system in place to enable them to recruit his successor internally having groomed several candidates for the position.
How you can create a winning talent management strategy
- Formulate a long term plan - A Talent Management System needs to be put in place and embedded into a long-term business plan in order for organisations to successfully select, develop and retain talented employees.
- Work collaboratively - Your talent management system needs support from the very top and HR needs to be given a big priority within the business. Jack Welch compared the HR manager with the coach of a football team and the analogy is worthwhile when assigning priority to the department.
- Develop a culture and recruit within this - Barcelona are famous for their style of play and every player at every level of the club plays in the same style. The same is true of business. Your company has a style, a culture that underpins the way it operates. Recruit with this in mind and develop people to grow through your company.
- Become an attractive employer - Your culture will attract people to you. The very best companies have huge waiting lists for vacancies and the same is true for football clubs. Developing a culture that resonates and treating your staff well will help you to both attract and nurture the best. We live in a social age where people talk more readily and more widely than ever before. Marketing starts with your employees.
- Develop your stars - Identifying and nurturing stars is crucial to your business. Consider extensive training and development, give your stars responsibility, offer them a clear career strategy, provide mentoring and give them goals to aim for.
It's all about thinking in the long-term. Football is fortunate in the sense that it has plenty of fine examples to underpin this. Both Manchester United and Arsenal have achieved tremendous success by developing talent from within, both on the field and by allowing their managers time. Even my own team Everton (no sniggering at the back!) have achieved relative success by following this model. Contrast this with a side such as Newcastle who regularly chopped and changed personnel therefore developing a poor culture and a bad reputation as a club to go to. For me Real Madrid fall into this latter category and great doubt must be cast on whether they will achieve the success their president clearly hopes for.
So is your company a Real Madrid or a Barcelona?
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