Why Apple and Manchester United have the same huge problem
Two of the world’s most famous and successful brands, who over the last 20 years have both redefined themselves as true world leaders in their categories, now find themselves dealing with the same issue.
Steve Jobs and Sir Alex Ferguson were 'irreplacable'
It might seem strange considering one is a team who kicks some leather around a grassy field and the other is a tech company famous for making beautiful silver boxes. Surely Manchester United and Apple don’t have much in common? Well, maybe not, apart from the single but monstrous fact that they have both been driven to incredible heights by the once in a lifetime leadership of a single person who is now no longer there. They both have a gaping hole at the top.
How do you manage after the exit of a single all-dominating leader – perhaps even dictator – who personified everything that brand stood for and is utterly irreplaceable? Or to be specific, what do you do after Steve Jobs and Sir Alex Ferguson have exited their respective jobs and everyone is wondering what next? Who is going to scream at someone for having the wrong tone of voice in the small print in a prize promotion in Egypt or kick a football boot into David Beckham’s head?
In his recent interview in the Sunday Times, Apple’s design chief Sir Jony Ive talked beautifully about Steve Jobs’ ideas being so big and bold that they would suck the air out of the room. The Manchester United team that won the Premier league last year are languishing seventh this season, which makes another massive statement of the personality and aura of Ferguson to get extraordinary things from an ordinary team.
What do you do now if you are Tim Cook or David Moyes, trying to replace the irreplaceable? The answer is not bother. Don’t waste a single ounce of energy on it because these people really are irreplaceable. Accept the fact that the share price will drop or that you will have a bad season or two. Those things were inevitable whoever took over. Spend no energy on worrying about those things that you can’t affect.
You can’t fill the vacuum of their personalities because you are not them; but you can fill the vacuum of pure and unrelenting leadership. Jobs and Ferguson were both inspired but also courageous in spades and utterly committed to their vision. They didn’t just adopt some tactics that would gain them a few short-term wins; they stuck to their deep-seated beliefs about what was the right way and the winning way through the good and the bad.
It was a bumpy path. Jobs got fired, Ferguson nearly got fired. They had to make high profile difficult choices about people. Jobs chose Ive over Jon Rubinstein, Ferguson let go generation after generation of loyal servants and famous names. It was at times beautiful but also at times messy, ugly and personal. None of which made any difference to these two men’s unswerving focus on the vision of the type of company or club they knew they had to create.
That’s what Cook and Moyes have to do now. Get a real vision and get it done.
Do the simple stuff. Tell people what the goal is in the next three to five years. Make it dripping with excitement and so bold that even Neil Amstrong would have broken a light sweat over it. Make sure it is beyond anything that had been done before and that it will stretch everyone in that organisation out of their comfort zones. Get the next generation of hungry leaders under you who have a point to prove and get the fat successful cats from the previous generation either hungry or out.
Value loyalty but not the expense of the task. Break it up if it needs breaking up. And lead by example. Spend your time with the engineers or on the training ground with the players and show them what you want them to do. And finally, get on with it.
The question is whether or not Cook and Moyes can lay out a vision much bigger than they have so far done. The answer though, despite popular myth, is never at the end of their noses but in their hearts.