Integra Accounting Outsourcing

It is Mr. Alex Fergusson, the proud scot, the manager and his addiction to winning. What is so fascinating is, he is deeply rooted in tradition while always thinking ahead of times.  Players come and go, but he keeps winning with the players at his disposal and invariably make them stars. How does he manage that ? What makes him so special? What can we learn from him?

Bryan Robson, Beckham, VanNistel Rooy, Keane were special players for many years at United.  But when he thought their time is up or their heart is no longer there, he replaced all of them. Though it was ridiculed at that time, all those decisions proved right because, club did improve after they had left – Every one in this world is replacable even if they are very special.

Sold established stars and replaced them with youth team players and went on to win many trophies for years, bought a talented high-maintenance failure called Eric Cantona and turned him into an all time United great. All this decisions were made fun of at that time – Sometimes, trust your gut instinct and it can prove to be an inspired move.

He badly wanted to buy Alan Shearer an english star and when it dot materialise, he moved on and bought a little known norwegian player ole gunnar solskjaer who scored the winning goal in european final to win the trophy after 30 years- Move on when you don’t get what you want

It took him almost 5 years before he started seeing sucess. In those years, he had to identify the problem areas, rectify them and then improve it.  But everyone could see him build in those lean years.  After achieving the first success, he doubly made it up for all those lost years.  - Everyone need TIME to achieve success even if they are very talented

When he sold Jaap Staam the solid defender it took him many years to find the right replacement.  He then thought that Jaap had lost his pace and would not be good anymore, but later it was proved wrong. Fergusson admitted it as his biggest mistake to date  - Admit your mistakes even if it was made in good faith

Identifed the talent of golden generation footballers Beckham, Scholes, Giggs, Butt, Neville when they were in their teens. He let them play early and they went on to win several trophies- Spot the talent early in your organisation and let them play important role

Made ordinary players like John O shea and Fletcher feel important, though they did not have talent like Beckham, Ronaldo or Rooney.  They all played major roles in several title winning campaigns and helped United come through tough times when bigger players were injured. You need both special talents and ordinary hard-working people to make a winning combination.

Sir Alex became even better manager in later years after getting to confront new age manager  Jose Mourinho, the self styled “special one”.  Facing this the new raw talent in the form of Mourinho, made him realise that he needed to improve further. You need tough competetion to measure against and make yourself better.

These are some of the things that can be easily adopted by senior management in Integra.