Can a system of fostering development and a team culture beat buying talent and bringing in expertise? Img: Dakinho.
What’s the best way to create success?
I’ve been wondering this week about whether or not it’s better to build a culture and a system, or to establish yourself with the best and brightest brought in as hitmen to create value.
We’re spoilt, because this is about to play out in front of our eyes in the football world.
Even if you’re not a fan of soccer, you would’ve probably heard about this week’s latest developments: Real Madrid have bought three of the best players in the world, Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo and David Villa for a money is no object fortune of around US$300m.
That’s big bikkies. Ridiculous sums of money. That much would just about be enough to buy all the players from the other teams and tell them not to show up when Madrid is playing their team!
So what gives? The spending spree is a clear signal that Madrid intend to take back the mantle of the best football team in the world from their local rivals in the Spanish La Liga, FC Barcelona (I’ll relegate Manchester United here after they were torn apart by Barca in the Champions League final).
Real Madrid have focused on buying the biggest and the best. The club is more than football – it is an entertainment brand. And it sells well. David Beckham’s arrival in 2003 led to a 137% increase in shirt sales, and similar returns can be expected. It seems that talent management will be all that is required to guide Real to further wins.
This current action is in retaliation to Barcelona’s recent triumphs including winning La Liga with a thrashing of Real Madrid 6-2, and becoming Champions of Europe.
Barcelona’s recent success has come from 7 of their 11 starting players being prodigies of their youth academy – including Lionel Messi. From as young as 12, future stars are taught ‘Total Football’. “Receive, pass, offer, receive, pass, offer,” is how Andres Iniesta tells of his youth academy education. The manager is a former Barca midfielder and one-time ballboy, again a homegrown talent. Barca have established themselves under their motto: ‘More Than A Club‘ and with success born from within. The culture and system established by Barca is envied by all football clubs.
Who will prevail?
Will it be a return to the days of the Los Galacticos when a rampaging Madrid, bulging at the seams with superstars including Beckham and Zinedine Zidane, rocketed to immediate success with multiple trophies? Or will the quick success wither and indeed implode similar to the post-galácticos period where Real failed to win any trophy for three seasons following their 2003 league title? In that same period, Barcelona won the 2006 Champions League and successive La Liga titles.
With underdog status going firmly to Barcelona, the new Spanish season will be fascinating to watch both for football, and for those of us who are curious to see if culture, philosophy and homegrown talent can beat the purchased superstars.
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#1 by Mark Foo | TheBigDreamer.com on June 18, 2009 - 6:52 pm
Hi Tristan,
This has been one of the biggest debates in the world of football and it’s definitely something worth taking note of. It is indeed insane of Real Madrid to be paying US$300 Million for three players when they’re still in a mountain of debt totalling 400 Million pounds.
For me, I’d definitely go for Barcelona any day. And I think Cristiano Ronaldo has been overhyped. No doubt he’s an excellent player, but he doesn’t deserve to be crowned as the world’s best footballer. I have to say Lionel Messi is a much more exciting player to watch even though I’m not a Messi fan.
There’s never been a time when I thought there’s a ‘best’ team in the world. But the current Barcelona does indeed look like the ‘best’ team in the world.
Cheers~
Mark
#2 by Tristan Rayner on June 18, 2009 - 7:10 pm
Good comment Mark – I think it’s fairly easy to tell that I’d prefer the underdog to win as Barca are shaping up to be
I’m becoming more sure, and had some good feedback through Twitter that building a system is the best way to go to ensure longevity.
#3 by russds on June 24, 2009 - 3:39 am
Good question. It reminds me of Bill Gates, who bought the DOS system for 50,000 back in the day vs. Steve Jobs who built his company almost brick by brick. Both came out as history makers at the end, but by different means.
#4 by Ehsan on December 5, 2009 - 5:48 pm
A quote I read from The Guardian a few days ago regarding the match last week…
“Real Madrid are a machine, expensively assembled, finely honed, separate parts each with their function, expertly put together, but Barcelona are an organism, an entity, a seamless whole, intuitive actions and shared DNA. Go organism!”