We might have all heard about F.C Barcelona on one occasion or another, or their stars Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi and, if you’re an old fan, the impregnable Puyol. Being a Real Madrid fan who has been losing to this team for quite some time (years) it sort of got me thinking.
F.C Barcelona in particular has become over the past 5 years and more the world sensation not just in sports but in Media in general, with all their victories and success stories.
So it’s interesting here to ask the question why does F.C Barcelona Win? And most importantly how do they continue to win?
To tackle that question properly we should take the club and divide it into 3 parts that actually do create a club, which are:
- The management
- The Team/Coach
- The individual
So let’s get started…
- Management:
To understand a bit about the management, go and take a walk down the halls of FCB (F.C. Barcelona) hallways to see what sort of environment the management has created for its players. That’s just for starters.
- A proper and well-developed place, that shows that these managers invest in providing a good working environment.
- A focus on the history that allows the players to know who they are playing for and build a sense of pride.
- A focus on the victories to show the players their track record and what they should look forward to. Pretty simple, ha?
It might seem too superficial but these things do affect human beings in general, directly and indirectly. Imagine you are a non-motivated person and you enter a place that’s entirely motivated either you will catch the bug or you just won’t fit!
Now back to FCB, the management knows it has to invest and get new players either by training juniors in their 2nd and 3rd grade teams or by buying them.
In Buying players you have a lot of challenges as there are hundreds of thousands of excellet and impeccable players out there with tremendous breathtaking skills and it’s not just FCB that is after them but an army of clubs from all over the globe. However some questions remain to be asked: Can that player fit in this place? It’s not just about picking the skills, there’s a character, can his character fit? Can it fit to the rules and regulations of the club? Can he get along with the other players? Can he add to the harmony or create a distortion? A lot of questions have to be asked, the question is not about just spending millions on x,y,z of players but getting the right fit of players. It’s about knowing what fits FCB in particular since it’s a unique working environment even if it has a lot of common things with other clubs but it still has its own character.
So management’s role is to make sure this huge organization is moving correctly, well-marketed for, well-presented and given every tool to perform. You never read or heard of an article saying ‘FCB management will no longer pay the employees, or pays them 50% of what they actually deserve’, the question to management here should not just be: “Am I (the employee) worthy of working for your company?” but also “Is your company an FCB or not?” Do you invest in the right areas, for the right purposes? If you see your company as an FCB then you will do what it takes to win, you will not come up with excuses such as it’s not worth it, they’re not worth it, etc…
- The Team & Coach:
The coach and the team are the heart of the club and the reason of happiness of millions in your case (Your company stakeholders – yes I know you might be looking at them as people in ivory towers making money, BUT they’re still your crowd, and you should make them happy).
The coach is someone who has to have the vision and understanding of his team and creates harmony among them. The coach could be a team on his own since he has assistants, fitness trainers, scouts, doctors and more. His role involves directing and orchestrating the team, coming up with new strategies, finding the right and fitting players, and basically telling management what he sees is best for the team, while actually managing the team. The coach could be the general manager and his team consists of the finance & HR personnel and other operational bodies.
The team on the other hand are the players, the employees, they go out every week to show the fans what they’re made of, how they can entertain them and bring them happiness, just as how the employees of a company can create success stories for the stakeholders and upper management. The team is all the employees on the pitch and in reserve, they put the strategies into action and they are the reason why the company wins or loses.
P.S: I know it’s an older picture and that Neymar & Suarez are missing.
But let us all pause for a moment here and ask what happens if the coach and players do not collaborate properly? The answer is instant failure.
But while we are here I want us to take the understanding of the team to a new level. If you’ve watched a game for FCB before you will understand, if you haven’t, then you have to do, soccer fan or not, because what you will see on the pitch is an amazing spirit of team work that is unprecedented and very difficult to create, but not impossible. It’s a team that goes out on a crusade every game, every single one, to make the fans happy; every time you see the same spirit, the same enthusiasm, the will and determination to win, you can see it and feel it even if you’re sitting thousands of miles away.
The end result of this is the mega hype you see around this club. And it is not fake, it’s earned the hard way, and has created millions of converters for them who ditched their clubs to follow them and gave them their respect from among all their opponents.
There’s no ‘I’ in team and FCB puts it to perfection, every player is a star. Every single player and the coaches behind them and the management make sure it is put this way.
Last but not least…
- The individual:
You, the employee or the soccer player. Everyone dreams of getting a certain job, maybe in a specific company or even in his own business. And normally they will see this job as their FCB, their dream, and you should do the same to create your own internal drive for success. But you also have to ask yourself, am I ready to play for such a team? Give what it takes? Or do I want it but I don’t want to fight for it? If you can or will not deliver what it takes then leave the spot for someone who does. That’s what companies want and lack, unfortunately. As an individual and a person you need to have the self-drive and professionalism to set your expectations and the expectations of the place you will work for.
FCB will look at you normally as an asset to their team and they will ask you to join once they know that you are not just a player of skill but also will mesh nicely with the team and bring more coherence and will not harm the existing performance. You have to fit in the environment and with the people and understand this is how they do things. It won’t be perfect, I am sure there’s no perfect environment anywhere in the world, there will always be a ‘but’ stuck somewhere, in the end it’s FCB. They have a preset expectation for what they want from a player and if that player will not be giving them what they will need first he will be benched to give other players a chance or put on transfer.
Take a look at how someone like Messi deals with his team mates being the top star of the team and take a look then at how other members who might not be at the same level of skill but have been placed on the same stardom pedestal because of their performance as a team players and their work together. You will find that none, Messi or any of the other players, look at each other in a demeaning way or play as such. They will work together to get the win for the team, for the management and the fans.
If you want the golden boot, you have to closely watch someone like Messi and you will begin to understand what you need to do to achieve what he has achieved.
In the end I’d like to add that while FCB is indeed a phenomenon, but we do have the opportunity to re-create them if we decide to think like FCB.
By: Tarek Hassan Refaat
Cover Picture Source: cronkiteuro12.files.wordpress.com
EDITOR: Sarah Shalaby