足球教練與企業老闆哪個更難做?大綱

Howard Wilkinson, former manager of Leeds United, knows about pressure: “No offence to captains of industry but even a FTSE 100 chairman can postpone a board meeting. A manager can’t postpone a football match and every match is a shareholder meeting, [sometimes] in front of 88,000 people.”
利茲聯隊(Leeds United)前主教練霍華德•威爾金森(Howard Wilkinson)明白什麼是壓力：“我無意冒犯企業界的領袖們，但即便是富時100指數(FTSE 100)成分股企業的董事長，也能推遲董事會會議。而足球俱樂部的主教練是不能推遲比賽的。每場比賽都是一次股東大會，（有時）要面對8.8萬人。”

Mr Wilkinson’s comment also underlines what plenty of corporate executives – dazzled by insights imparted by their sporting idols – tend to forget. Leading a business is not like leading a sports team.
威爾金森的話還着重指出了很多企業高管（這些高管爲其體育偶像傳授的深刻見解所傾倒）往往會忽視的東西：領導一家企業與領導一支球隊是不同的。

In fact, it is much harder.
實際上，前者的難度要大的多。

It is certainly tough at the top of both worlds. Mr Wilkinson was speaking at the launch of The Manager, a book of management insights from top football coaches such as Chelsea’s José Mourinho.
處在這兩個領域的最頂端肯定都很艱難。威爾金森是在《主教練》(The Manager)一書的發佈會上發表上述言論的。這本書講述了一些最優秀足球主教練的管理見解，切爾西隊(Chelsea)的若澤•穆里尼奧(José Mourinho)就是其中之一。

In England, professional managers last on average 16 months. More than half never get a second chance. Their short tenure is lived under a spotlight controlled by voracious media, obsessive fans, capricious owners and overpaid and sometimes unruly players.
在英格蘭，職業足球主教練的平均任期爲16個月。其中逾一半的人永遠不會有第二次機會出任主教練。他們短暫的任期是在聚光燈下度過的，無孔不入的媒體、狂熱的球迷、反覆無常的老闆、以及薪資過高且有時不服管教的球員，都會讓他們成爲公衆關注的焦點。

But there is a purity and focus to the football manager’s role that is rare in business. Few jobs are (literally) as goal-oriented, as bounded by rules and as divorced from the profit motive. Companies built by the owners of football clubs often turn over far more money than the clubs themselves. Coaches sometimes win broader responsibility – Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United was one – but that is the exception in football, the rule at companies.
但足球主教練角色的純粹性和專注性在企業界是不多見的。很少有什麼工作（真的）像這樣足球主教練這樣以目標爲導向、受規則約束且不必考慮利潤。足球俱樂部老闆創辦的企業所賺的錢，通常會比俱樂部本身賺的錢多得多。主教練有時會承擔更廣泛的職責，曼徹斯特聯隊(Manchester United)的亞歷克斯•弗格森爵士(Sir Alex Ferguson)就是這樣一位主教練，但這種情況在足球界屬於例外，在企業界則屬於常規。

Anita Elberse, co-author of a Harvard Business School case study about Sir Alex, has written that his success and staying power “demand study” but that companies should not push the application of his approach to business too hard. Even football-mad consultant Mike Carson, author of The Manager, writes that lessons taught by Mr Mourinho and his peers are more about leadership than management.
哈佛商學院(Harvard Business School)針對亞歷克斯爵士的情況編寫了一項案例研究。該研究的一位作者阿妮塔•埃爾貝斯(Anita Elberse)寫道，亞歷克斯爵士的成功和長期掌權“值得研究”，但企業不應強行採用他的方式。就連酷愛足球的諮詢師、《主教練》一書作者邁克•卡森(Mike Carson)也寫道，穆里尼奧及其同行傳授給我們的經驗，更多的是關於領導力而非管理。

Such lessons are valid only at the highest level, though, where they risk being mere truisms. Football and business leaders all need to handle human beings. All take up arms in a “war for talent”. All are repaid for hard work and determination.
不過，這些經驗只在最高層級才適用，而在那個層級，它們可能只能算是一些不言而喻的道理。足球主教練和企業領導人都需要與人打交道，都需要應對“人才大戰”，他們的辛勤工作和堅定決心都會得到回報。More interesting is where the roles differ. Is leading a sports team really as complicated as consultants and academics believe? Football managers themselves often come back to the simplicity of the win-lose-or-draw outcomes of matches against single opponents.
更有趣的是這兩種角色的不同之處。領導一支球隊真的像諮詢師和學者認爲的那樣複雜嗎？足球主教練自己往往會迴歸簡單，即與單一對手比賽的勝、負、平三種結果。

Compare this to Apple’s critical decision last week on the launch of new iPhone models. Tim Cook, chief executive, had to align pricing, innovation, brand and design considerations in a shifting market crowded with rivals, some of which he cannot even identify yet. If he concentrated only on the threat posed by, say, Samsung, he would be quickly outflanked by others.
將其與蘋果(Apple)最近在推出新款iPhone上所做的關鍵決定做個對比吧。蘋果首席執行官蒂姆•庫克(Tim Cook)必須在一個充滿競爭對手（其中一些對手他甚至還無法辨識出來）、不斷變化的市場中綜合考慮定價、創新、品牌和設計因素。如果他只關注比如說三星(Samsung)構成的威脅，他將很快被其他競爭對手超越。

Football managers’ plans are more tactical and are tied more closely to the next short-term challenge. The thoughtful Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger tells Mr Carson how hard it is to “sack 14 people every Friday morning [when he selects a team for the weekend] and then re-employ them on a Monday”. Failure to get this team selection right can doom managers’ careers, while failing chief executives can sometimes cling on. But football’s short-term focus also allows its leaders to recover swiftly, whereas corporate leaders’ big strategic mistakes, on people or product, can blight a company for years. Intel admits it missed the smartphone chip revolution. Last week Brian Krzanich, the new chief executive, staked its future on leapfrogging the competition with tiny chips for wearable devices. That is a far bigger call than a preseason squad reshuffle.
足球主教練的計劃側重戰術，與短期內的下一場賽事聯繫更爲緊密。思維縝密的阿森納隊(Arsenal)主教練阿爾賽納•溫格(Arsène Wenger)告訴卡森，“每週五早晨捨棄14名球員（因爲他要選定週末比賽的陣容）、然後週一再把他們招回來”是一件很棘手的事。主教練選不出正確的陣容可能會斷送自己的職業生涯，失敗的首席執行官有時卻能保住自己的位子。不過，足球運動關注短期結果的這一特點，也讓主教練能夠迅速東山再起；而企業領導人在人員或產品方面犯下的重大戰略錯誤，卻能對一家企業造成多年的拖累。英特爾(Intel)承認，該公司錯過了智能手機芯片革命。最近，該公司新任首席執行官布賴恩•克爾扎尼奇(Brian Krzanich)將公司的未來押注於用於可穿戴設備的微型芯片，試圖以此來在競爭中實現跨越式趕超。這個決定可比在賽季前調整陣容重大得多。

Mr Carson reckons the vast majority of what keeps business and sporting leaders awake at night relates to people management. Football managers’ motivational skills, their genuine love of the job (which far offsets the pressures, as Mr Mourinho pointed out at last week’s book launch), and their surprising humility about what they do, are worth copying. But to assume the Mourinho or Ferguson way would work for your own team of copywriters or accountants could be misleading. To take their narrow, often tactical approach when you should be worrying about strategy might even be dangerous. And when seeking the right candidate to run a FTSE 100 company, you should look for leadership potential honed outside the stadium.
卡森認爲，企業領導人和球隊主教練夜不能寐的絕大部分原因與人員管理有關。足球主教練的激勵能力、對工作的真正熱愛（正如穆里尼奧在最近新書發佈會上指出的那樣，這遠遠抵消了這項工作帶來的壓力）、以及他們對自己所做工作的那種令人吃驚的謙遜，都值得人們效仿。但如果你認爲穆里尼奧或弗格森的方式適用於你的廣告文案撰稿人或會計師團隊，那麼你可能是被誤導了。在你應當操心戰略的時候採用他們那種適用範圍狹窄、往往側重戰術的方式，甚至可能給你帶來危險。在你物色合適的人選來經營一家富時100指數成分股企業時，你應該尋覓的是在球場之外磨練出來的領導潛力。