Ok I’ll admit I’m a fan of the English football team – it’s really not my fault though. I grew up there and had no choice!

After another inglorious exit from the World Cup I duly joined the national handwringing and then got to thinking about why there is such constant underachievement from what should be one of the teams regularly competing for honors. As I pondered this topic (while at the same time drooling over how Germany, Spain, Uruguay, Ghana and many others were playing) it dawned on me that the issue was very similar to one we have addressed here at Saba: Understanding how one organization is better able to outperform another, better define a new product category, or better adapt to changing circumstances quicker. World Cup (and English football history) made me think about the most successful organizations and why are they fundamentally different from what has gone before.

In this context I see three key Issues with English football:

1. English Football is Organized for the 20th Century and not the 21st

The most basic problem with English football is that it is not organized for international success and not capable of making the changes needed. The FA (Football Association) and the EPL (English Premier League) are organised for the 20th century (and that is being very generous to the FA!). These organizations are hierarchical; bureaucratic; siloed; not adaptive to change. The FA is an old boys club that consists of patronage appointments driven by ego and prestige. The EPL is driven by revenue alone and is simply a marketing machine with no greater purpose or mission. Grass roots football in England is inevitably modeled by these imperatives, and as such has not been able to deliver the new generation of players or tactics that are needed to compete on the world stage.

In a business context, the analogy that comes to mind is the American automotive industry. That industry cannot thrive by simply doing the old things with redoubled efficiency and lower costs and needs to dramatically rethink its 20th century organizational models and related assumptions. They were still working to fulfill the imperative of the dying industrial age: optimizing the supply chain; reducing costs; delivering bland products that no-one really wanted while the competition, especially the Japanese and Europeans, were focused on driving innovation and creativity.

The organization of English football needs a fundamental overhaul (from the top down and from the bottom up) – the national team needs to become a priority and driven by objectives that transcend those of the FA and EPL. The time has come for the EPL to release players for proper international preparation; to take a mid-winter break (like most other European countries) and to understand that international success drives the brand.

No Innovation and Creativity Please…We’re English!

Innovation and creativity are the building blocks of the new economy and of knowledge age organizations. As I have contended before, 20th century organizations were focused on supply change optimization; do more with less; squeeze margins; redouble efficiency; lower costs, etc. These are the exact same values that we English admire in our players although we use different words and phrases such as work rate; passion; strength; effort; heart; etc. The new economy does not work this way, organizations that understand this achieve something that we at Saba call the People Multiplier Effect. That is to say that English football is like a lumbering industrial age company, linear (or Route 1), siloed, hierarchical, slow, predictable, planned, etc. The modern football teams are fundamentally different in that they value mobility; connectedness, networking, grace, skill, speed and above all adaptability.

In English football we don’t, at a very basic level, value these attributes in our young players and in fact take steps to coach it out of them. In Brazil, for example, there is little competitive football played under the age of thirteen. Just last week José Luis Astiazarán, the head of La Liga explained that all La Liga clubs have academies and many have a holistic strategy that offers education and pastoral care to their young footballers . “At six to eight years old there is no competitive football in the academies, only coaching. Then from eight to 10, in some areas of Spain, they will play matches with controls. Only after this, do they start to play more competitively.” Oh and for those who did not know, La Liga is the Spanish League and Spain just won the World Cup.

Terry Venables (former manager of England and one of the most innovative and creative coaches of the last 30 years) was talking about this very issue 15 years ago – his argument was that we should ban competitive football below a certain age and allow our youth to play for fun and build their skills and creativity. Did the FA listen? Of course not.

Net Net, English football is structured to kill creativity. This reminds me of the remarkable; inspiring; and downright funny presentation that Sir Ken Robinson delivered at Ted.com in 2006 where he spoke about how schools kill creativity. If you have not seen this I urge you to invest 20 minutes and watch it.

English Football Does Not Invest in Talent

Germany has approximately the same number of registered football players as England, yet in 2008 Germany had 34,970 UEFA (The Union of European Football Associations) registered coaches while England had just 2,769. At the same time Italy had 29,240 and Spain had 23,995.  I have nothing but respect for the parents who devote their weekends to coaching football and keeping the system working but they cannot provide the guidance and growth that our children need. We need to invest in professionals who can nurture; inspire; grow and develop the talent that we undoubtedly have. Until we do this we will always be watching from the sidelines as others gather the plaudits and garlands.

The next World Cup is in 2014 in Brazil. I am not hopeful that the English experience will be any more rewarding unless we make the big changes needed today to drag it out of the 20th Century and into the 21st.

Many organizations (both public and private sector) find themselves in the same situation as English football. Globalization, hyper-competition, workforce diversity, workforce mobility, changing regulatory environments, and increased levels of scrutiny have fundamentally changed the rules of the game and these organizations must rapidly adapt if they are to thrive. The ability to thrive comes from achieving a people multiplier effect, simply put, your team must be able to outperform the competition. Investing in your most important assets, your people, is the way to achieve this success.

At Saba we are focused on delivering people systems that generate this people multiplier effect. To find out how some of the largest and most successful organizations are doing this please check out www.saba.com.

Amar Dhaliwal
SVP Product Operations Group
adhaliwal@saba.com
On Twitter @adhaliwal