The last time Manchester United FC won the Premier League was in the 2012/2013 season under Sir Alex Ferguson. At the time, the football club was one of the most successful football clubs in Europe both on and off the pitch, particularly as a commercial business. However, it has since spent £1 billion in player transfers and appointed/fired several managers (David Moyes, Louis Van Gaal, José Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjær and, finally, Ralf Rangnick as an interim manager) and not won a single Premier League title.
The club, the organisation, has undoubtedly exhibited the typical signs of decline: stage 1 ‘Hubris’; stage 2 ‘Undisciplined pursuit of more’; stage 3 ‘Denial’; stage 4 ‘Grasping for salvation’; stage 5 ‘Capitulation to irrelevance or death’. For more information about the concept, refer to: https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/five-stages-of-decline.html.
I think MUFC started to exhibit stage 1 signs under Ferguson and the obsession of the club that Ferguson should bow out winning the league is where the decline set in. The subsequent appointment of Moyes was also a big strategic mistake since here you had a manager who did not fit, lived under the shadow of his predecessor and inherited an ageing squad with big egos.
The club then lost its way, forgot its principles and tried to buy itself out of trouble with the appointment of various managers and the buying/selling of players. I think the club now is at stage 4 of decline, and unless they restructure and reset, in a significant way, the club risks moving into stage 5.
One hopes that with the appointment of new football manager/coach Erik ten Hag, the club can now start to rebuild and restore greatness. This will take a lot of hard work, much patience and a series of tough painful decisions before success returns.
The reason for my interest in MUFC and its journey from greatness to decline is because I think business owners, managers and leaders can learn from this live case study. All organisations, whether they are a football club or a commercial entity, experience the same challenges when successful. The hard part of any business is the start-up phase, but then as it progresses through the lifecycle and achieves success or even greatness, the tricky bit is how to sustain success/greatness and not let decline set in.
All organisations, whether they are a football club or a commercial entity, experience the same challenges when successful… The tricky bit is how to sustain success/greatness and not let decline set in
In the words of Jim Collins, author of the bestselling book How the Mighty Fall And Why Some Companies Never Give In, “Every institution is vulnerable, no matter how great. There is no law of nature that the most powerful will inevitably remain at the top. Anyone can fall, and most eventually do.”
In my opinion, while most successful organisations experience decline, it is not inevitable. I repeat, decline is not inevitable! It is a question of being aware of tendencies and bad habits of successful organisations and knowing what to do when they start to creep in when everyone is drunk with success.
In management consultancy, we call it managing the S-curve. Successful organisations manage and transition from one S-curve to another; as soon as you reach the inflection point of the S-curve, you must jump onto a new S-curve. The trick is to recognise where your company is on the S-curve and take decisions accordingly to plan for a future point when you need to jump onto the new S-curve. This is how organisations achieve continued success or even sustained greatness.
To be able to manage the S-curve as described above and avoid decline setting in, you need to constantly plan for the future and take decisions today for future benefit; to patiently and courageously make investments now for future benefit; to think what type of a company, value proposition, shape of organisation and style of leadership will the company/organisation need at the inflection point and beyond.
This is not easy to do and you need the right type of ownership, board of directors and senior management team. All three must be aligned to the same vision and strategy. All must trust each other and support each other. All must constructively criticise and push in the right direction.
I think MUFC has with Ten Hag, possibly, turned a page and may have (finally) taken a decision to arrest the years of decline and rebuild for a brighter future. The question is will the owners be patient and supportive enough?
Ten Hag will first have to come in and clean the deck, which will be a painful process. He will then need to sell his vision to the players but also to the fans and implement his playing style and principles. Results will only come after a painful restructuring process and strong unwavering commitment to the vision. The make-or-break rests with the owners. My concern is that the owners are not aligned with the fans and will not have the patience to stick it through. I hope I am wrong.
The point of this article is that we can all learn from organisational decline as epitomised by MUFC, and Ten Hag might be worth watching closely from a business management point of view. The challenge is huge and the depths of decline equally so.