The 90-minute Manager: Business Lessons from the Dugout

"This book makes a convincing case that there are good management lessons to be learned "from the dugout".... The lessons go well beyond team-building and motivation, to include the management of stress, dealing with mavericks, attention to detail, enthusiasm, recruitment and, of course, luck." 
Management Today magazine

What does it take to become a talent manager of premiership standard?

Football managers lead high-talent teams under intensely stressful conditions, where every action is open to scrutiny. Just like today's business environment. Time to learn the lessons from the best and the worst at the ultimate talent-management game.

In 90-minute Manager, Bolchover and Brady analyse the characteristics of the very best of football managers, past and present, to uncover exactly what it is that makes them so exceptional and what modern business leaders can learn from their style and methodology.  From Herbert Chapman’s triumphs in the 1930s, through the highs of Don Revie, Jock Stein, Matt Busby and Bill Shankly, through to the modern day masters including Arsene Wenger, Gerard Houllier, Alex Ferguson, Martin O'Neill, Fabio Capello and Sven-Goran Eriksson.  Strengths and weaknesses, strategies and tactics are examined to answer classic modern management questions, such as:

- do the best managers have to be both great strategists and inspirational motivators?
- what makes top talent want to work for a particular manager?
- how important is the 'right-hand' man and what qualities make the very best pairing?
- should a team ever be built around a single outstanding individual?
- what are the key personality characteristics that define a great talent manager?
- is the ideal manager for a winning team a different man from that for a struggling team?

Football truly is the management of independence, which is also the cornerstone of modern information-rich organisations.   Managers everywhere can learn from football's best strategists, talent-managers and motivators as they steer the ultimate flexible teams to consistently successful peformance.

Whether you are a business person looking for improved performance, a passionate follower of the beautiful game, or both, you'll find The 90-minute Manager as insightful as it is entertaining.

 

David Bolchover is a writer, speaker and independent consultant on management and leadership issues within the business and football worlds. He contributes regularly to The Times, Financial Times and specialist publications. Previously, he worked for twelve years in the City of London within the international insurance market. He holds an MBA from Cass Business School and a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics.

Chris Brady is currently an Associate Dean at the City University Business School with responsibility for MBA programmes. He is also head of business coaching at Cape Consulting, an adviser on business strategy to WebPerform Group Ltd, an on-line performance management company and Sportingbet, an on-line gambling company.

As an officer in the Royal Navy he previously served in an intelligence role in the Falklands, Gulf and Balkan conflicts. He also worked in the construction and automotive industries, including a spell with Chryslers in Detroit during his teens.

Chris Brady is an 'A' licence UEFA coach and played and coached at semi-professional level throughout his working life. He has published on topics as varied as US foreign policy, Cabinet government, teamwork, intelligence failures and peacekeeping with the United Nations.

Chris Brady is also visiting lecturer on decision making at the British and Kuwaiti military staff colleges.