足球教练与企业老板哪个更难做?

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.”

利兹联队(Leeds United)前主教练霍华德•威尔金森(Howard Wilkinson)明白什么是压力：“我无意冒犯企业界的领袖们，但即便是富时100指数(FTSE 100)成分股企业的董事长，也能推迟董事会会议。而足球俱乐部的主教练是不能推迟比赛的。每场比赛都是一次股东大会，（有时）要面对8.8万人。”

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.

威尔金森的话还着重指出了很多企业高管（这些高管为其体育偶像传授的深刻见解所倾倒）往往会忽视的东西：领导一家企业与领导一支球队是不同的。

In fact, it is much harder.

实际上，前者的难度要大的多。

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.

处在这两个领域的最顶端肯定都很艰难。威尔金森是在《主教练》(The Manager)一书的发布会上发表上述言论的。这本书讲述了一些最优秀足球主教练的管理见解，切尔西队(Chelsea)的若泽•穆里尼奥(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.

在英格兰，职业足球主教练的平均任期为16个月。其中逾一半的人永远不会有第二次机会出任主教练。他们短暂的任期是在聚光灯下度过的，无孔不入的媒体、狂热的球迷、反复无常的老板、以及薪资过高且有时不服管教的球员，都会让他们成为公众关注的焦点。

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.

但足球主教练角色的纯粹性和专注性在企业界是不多见的。很少有什么工作（真的）像这样足球主教练这样以目标为导向、受规则约束且不必考虑利润。足球俱乐部老板创办的企业所赚的钱，通常会比俱乐部本身赚的钱多得多。主教练有时会承担更广泛的职责，曼彻斯特联队(Manchester United)的亚历克斯•弗格森爵士(Sir Alex Ferguson)就是这样一位主教练，但这种情况在足球界属于例外，在企业界则属于常规。

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.

哈佛商学院(Harvard Business School)针对亚历克斯爵士的情况编写了一项案例研究。该研究的一位作者阿妮塔•埃尔贝斯(Anita Elberse)写道，亚历克斯爵士的成功和长期掌权“值得研究”，但企业不应强行采用他的方式。就连酷爱足球的咨询师、《主教练》一书作者迈克•卡森(Mike Carson)也写道，穆里尼奥及其同行传授给我们的经验，更多的是关于领导力而非管理。

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.

不过，这些经验只在最高层级才适用，而在那个层级，它们可能只能算是一些不言而喻的道理。足球主教练和企业领导人都需要与人打交道，都需要应对“人才大战”，他们的辛勤工作和坚定决心都会得到回报。

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.

更有趣的是这两种角色的不同之处。领导一支球队真的像咨询师和学者认为的那样复杂吗？足球主教练自己往往会回归简单，即与单一对手比赛的胜、负、平三种结果。

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.

将其与苹果(Apple)最近在推出新款iPhone上所做的关键决定做个对比吧。苹果首席执行官蒂姆•库克(Tim Cook)必须在一个充满竞争对手（其中一些对手他甚至还无法辨识出来）、不断变化的市场中综合考虑定价、创新、品牌和设计因素。如果他只关注比如说三星(Samsung)构成的威胁，他将很快被其他竞争对手超越。

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.

足球主教练的计划侧重战术，与短期内的下一场赛事联系更为紧密。思维缜密的阿森纳队(Arsenal)主教练阿尔赛纳•温格(Arsène Wenger)告诉卡森，“每周五早晨舍弃14名球员（因为他要选定周末比赛的阵容）、然后周一再把他们招回来”是一件很棘手的事。主教练选不出正确的阵容可能会断送自己的职业生涯，失败的首席执行官有时却能保住自己的位子。不过，足球运动关注短期结果的这一特点，也让主教练能够迅速东山再起；而企业领导人在人员或产品方面犯下的重大战略错误，却能对一家企业造成多年的拖累。英特尔(Intel)承认，该公司错过了智能手机芯片革命。最近，该公司新任首席执行官布赖恩•克尔扎尼奇(Brian Krzanich)将公司的未来押注于用于可穿戴设备的微型芯片，试图以此来在竞争中实现跨越式赶超。这个决定可比在赛季前调整阵容重大得多。

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.

卡森认为，企业领导人和球队主教练夜不能寐的绝大部分原因与人员管理有关。足球主教练的激励能力、对工作的真正热爱（正如穆里尼奥在最近新书发布会上指出的那样，这远远抵消了这项工作带来的压力）、以及他们对自己所做工作的那种令人吃惊的谦逊，都值得人们效仿。但如果你认为穆里尼奥或弗格森的方式适用于你的广告文案撰稿人或会计师团队，那么你可能是被误导了。在你应当操心战略的时候采用他们那种适用范围狭窄、往往侧重战术的方式，甚至可能给你带来危险。在你物色合适的人选来经营一家富时100指数成分股企业时，你应该寻觅的是在球场之外磨练出来的领导潜力。