Organisational Greatness Rests on the Shoulders of Great Leaders

Alex Ferguson and Steve Jobs

There is romance in the Manchester United story. And despair. You know it if you’re a Reds fan, for you dwell in an unforgiving universe where hope, glory and heartbreak are lifelong companions. Not least when you suffer the ignominy of languishing in 16th place in a league whose top spot was once synonymous with your name.

The good news is that you are not alone. Through the ages, from stadiums to boardrooms, stakeholders in teams that have seemingly inexplicably nose dived from long periods of high performance to longer eras of mediocrity, have asked themselves two fundamental questions - How, and Why Us? 

Man United is just one in that long list. And the answers, which straddle equally elite sports and iconic businesses, lie in the exploration of the link between the quality and actions of leadership, and an outcome that is a team’s high performance. 

The Architects of Empire: United’s Colossus’s Organisational Greatness

Manchester United’s history is punctuated by periods of sustained success, each anchored by a managerial colossus. Sir Matt Busby, rising from the ashes of the Munich air disaster (that wiped out one of the greatest teams the club had ever had, then on an eleven match winning streak), rebuilt United not just as a football club, but as a symbol of resilience. His tenure (1945–1969) yielded five league titles and the club’s first European Cup, a feat that redefined English football’s place on the continent. 

Inevitably, as night follows day, two decades of sporting drought parched the hearts of Reds fans. Then, in 1986, Sir Alex Ferguson arrived. He transformed United into a global juggernaut. 

Ferguson’s reign of 27 years saw the club amass 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League trophies, and a cabinet brimming with domestic and international silverware. His genius lay not just in tactical nous, but in his ability to regenerate squads, nurture youth, and impose a culture of relentless ambition. 

Old Trafford bidding farewell to Alex Ferguson

Between Busby and Ferguson, United’s most enduring successes were forged in the crucible of long-term vision and stable leadership.

Contrast this with the post-Ferguson era: a carousel of managers, each struggling to impose identity or continuity. The trophies have grown scarce, and notwithstanding its iconic brand, the club’s aura has dimmed. Its current ranking in the English Premier League, is proof positive that greatness is rarely the work of committees or short-term fixes. 

The Corporate Counterpart: Visionaries at the Helm Organisational Greatness

United, and indeed elite sport, is not alone in terms of stories of teams whose fortunes have turned on the vision of a singular leader. Business case studies abound, proving how leadership has been key to periods of sustainable high performance.  

Consider Apple. The company’s meteoric rise is inextricably linked to Steve Jobs. His return in 1997 to the helm of affairs at the company he founded, and was manoeuvred out of, transformed Apple from a floundering tech firm into the world’s most valuable company. Jobs’ successor, Tim Cook, has not only maintained but expanded Apple’s dominance, demonstrating how the right succession can preserve a culture of innovation.

IBM, on the other hand, was rescued from an existential crisis in the 1990s by Lou Gerstner. An outsider from RJR Nabisco, Gerstner pivoted IBM from hardware to services, saving it from an untimely demise and laying the foundation of the global giant we know today. Schneider Electric, under Jean-Pascal Tricoire, similarly reinvented itself as a sustainability leader, with Tricoire’s two-decade tenure marked by bold acquisitions and a cultural transformation.

These stories echo the United paradigm, that sustained success is seldom accidental. It is the product of vision, continuity, and the right leader at the right time.

Parallels in Leadership: The Anatomy of Sustained Success

There are four broad parallels between elite sports and businesses, in terms of how and why certain leaders and their styles of leadership facilitate long term success for their teams:

Vision and Longevity

Both elite sport and business reward those who can look beyond the immediate horizon. Ferguson’s United and Jobs’ Apple were built on long-term strategies, not quick fixes. Both leaders weathered early setbacks - Ferguson nearly sacked in 1990, Jobs ousted in 1985 - only to return stronger, armed with clarity of purpose.

Cultural Transformation

Great leaders are alchemists of culture. Ferguson’s “hairdryer” may be legendary, but his true genius was in fostering a winning mentality, much as Jobs instilled a culture of design and innovation at Apple, or Gerstner imposed urgency and customer focus at IBM. These cultures outlasted their architects, providing a blueprint for successors.

Succession and Continuity

If there is a cautionary tale, it is in the perils of succession. United’s struggles post-Ferguson mirror those of companies who flounder after a visionary departs. The best organizations, like Apple under Cook or Schneider Electric under Tricoire’s chosen successors, invest in leadership pipelines and cultural continuity. Those that don’t, crash and burn.

Adaptability and Renewal

Sport and business are both shaped by change - new competitors, shifting landscapes, technological revolutions. United’s ability to reinvent itself under Ferguson, or IBM’s pivot under Gerstner, exemplifies the necessity of adaptability. Long-serving leaders must balance continuity with renewal. A failure to do this ensures that yesterday’s winning formula becomes today’s recipe for disaster.

Contrasts: The Nature of the Game

And yet, there are differences. Sport is a theatre of immediate results, of instant gratification. A football  manager’s fate can turn on the bounce of a ball. Business, by contrast, often rewards patience, long-term investment, and risk management. The metrics of success differ of course - trophies and league positions versus profits and market share. The emotional intensity of sport is however matched by the strategic, sometimes cerebral, calculations of business.

Moreover, the power dynamics diverge. A football manager is often the undisputed leader, while a CEO must navigate boards, shareholders, and complex hierarchies. The pressure is different, but no less intense. In the contrasts lie their similarity. 

Why the Comparison Compels

The story of Manchester United and its managerial titans, mirrored in the boardrooms of Apple, IBM, and Schneider Electric, offers a universal lesson. Sustained success is a product of vision, stability, and leadership. It is the triumph of long-term thinking over short-term expediency, of culture over chaos.

The romance of elite sport and the drama of business may play out on different screens, but the script, at its heart, is the same. They tell the stories of individuals, who, for a time, bend the arc of history. They narrate stories of institutions that, if run wisely, build upon those foundations for generations to come.

In both worlds, the right leader can turn adversity into advantage, mediocrity into greatness. But as United’s recent travails and the stumbles of once-great corporations remind us, such leaders are rare, and when they do eventually march into the sunset, their absence is keenly felt. 

United will one day rise from the ashes. Apple will not defy gravity forever. And inspired leadership accompanied by visionary thinking and immaculate execution, or lack thereof, will be the keys to the path they traverse. As it always has, from stadiums to boardrooms, the sustainability of high performing teams will continue to rest on the shoulders of great leaders.