VENTURES AFRICA - The
most important stakeholder in any business are the customers and in
football the fans, but fans do not win games, managers do and when the
team loses, they bear the brunt, most of the time ALONE. It is therefore
important to have the right character to ensure a balance in your
relationship as a manager with the management of the team, fans and the
players. It’s a tough job, but when done right and tactics gotten
straight, voila! the team enjoys success and everyone is happy.
Football is now more than just a game, it’s now an industry worth
over $1 trillion. If you can therefore manage a football team well, you
stand a great chance of managing a multi-million dollar business right.
There are therefore a thousand and one business lessons executives
can learn from football managers, and in Africa, we consider five of
those lessons that can be learnt from one of Africa’s most successful
coaches in recent times, Stephen Keshi.
Always seek to maximize potential
When Keshi took over the Super Eagles in
2011, the team he inherited had seemingly come to the end of their time
with the national team. Perhaps more worrying than the prospect of
losing a number of internationals to early retirement was the fact that
there was very little talent coming through. Yet, Stephen Keshi took the
road less traveled and set about assembling a team that comprised of
local league and little known players. With his team in place, Keshi
ensured that everyone made up for an obvious lack of stellar quality
with commitment.
Simply put, he squeezed out every drop of
the ability and barely 18 months after first taking the job, he
delivered a first AFCON title in 19 years. Like Keshi, many
entrepreneurs and business persons are faced with some deficiencies in
their teams. While there can be no substitute for competence, the Keshi
example has proven that getting the most out of a team can deliver
exemplary results. One person might not be good enough but when
complimented by others, the team can not only prevail but can
accomplish.
Play to your strengths
A consistent rhetoric when describing
Keshi’s team was that they were ‘difficult to beat’. Keshi never tried
to imitate Spain’s tiki-taka or Dutch Total Football. He played to his
strengths and as a consequence, he won-and lost- on his own terms.
Playing to your strengths will always be a better alternative as opposed
to being the second best of an imitation. Attempting to be another
company or start-up means unconsciously playing a game of catch-up.
Instead, building a business on the pillars of the strength of your team
is the best way to go.
Manage difficult relationships
Keshi’s love-hate relationship with his
employers, the Nigerian Football Federation is public knowledge. Almost
every step of the way, the NFF second guessed Keshi and questioned his
decisions- sometimes openly. The truth is that the NFF will probably
behave the same way with any other boss but Keshi deserves immense
credit for managing what was, without question, a hardly conducive work
environment. In business, people skills are key and excellent
relationships within and outside companies and businesses go a long way
in ensuring critical success. Managing them well can yield many great
results and managing those relationships is a skill that must be
perfected over the years.
Optimize positions of strength
After winning the AFCON in February 2013,
Keshi announced his resignation from the post. He was later reinstated
but only after being convinced and given much needed reassurances by
none other than the President of Nigeria. Keshi probably did not want to
resign but his calculated risk ensured that his hand was stronger and
his political capital at an all time high. Calculated risks such as this
are part and parcel of business but executing them poorly or at the
wrong time can see fingers burned. To strengthen your hand in a deal,
maximize the moment when you’re in a position of power. Do it right and
you will be even stronger.
Manage expectations
Somehow, Stephen Keshi has perfected the
method of under-promising but over delivering. Starting with the 2013
AFCON when he took a team of 23, sixteen of whom were debutants to the
tournament only to return with the title. And then months later with a
debut Nigeria performance at the CHAN tourney when he took a team of
local based Eagles all the way to the semi-finals of a tournament they
had tried and failed to qualify for the event in all previous occasions.
And then to the World Cup in South Africa when he became the first
African manager to lead a team to the Round of 16. All these
achievements pale when compared to more illustrious names in football
but, in terms of Nigerian football, Keshi is a resounding success mainly
because he managed expectations excellently. For people in leading
business positions, under-promising and over-delivering is a win-win
because more often than not, the sole way to achieve this is to get a
focused team working with a uniform goal in mind, undeterred by the
weight of expectations from the public.
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