In the middle of February Chelsea wielded the axe once again and sacked then Manager Luis Filipe Scolari after a dismal run of results that included defeats at Manchester United and Liverpool and home draws against the likes of Southend and Newcastle. The last 12 results under Scolari read Won 5, Drawn 5 and Lost 2. The future looked worrying – the club had slipped to 4th in the Premiership, and the forthcoming Champions League tie against Juventus looked like a humiliation waiting to happen, whilst progress in the FA Cup looked far from assured.
So, Roman Abramovich wielded the axe once more and brought in svengali like Guus Hiddink as an Interim Manager until the end of May. What Hiddink has achieved is nothing short of remarkable – 6 wins and a draw (the draw being like a win as it was away to Juve and saw us win the tie) in his 7 games in charge. The club lies second in the Premiership and if Manchester United implode and Venus is is in Saturn on the third Monday of April, Chelsea could still win the Premiership. We now look forward to tomorrow’s Champions league QF draw, fearing a few but ready for anyone and an FA Cup Semi Final against Arsenal and spitting Cesc awaits. So hail the Interim Manager!!
I think this affair teaches us a couple of lessons for business. Compare Chelsea FC pre Guus to an under performing business. The component parts are all there but there is a management problem and the “company’s” performance is poor. So the Board decides to take a radical decision. It’s a decision with plenty of downsides (see my previous blog on Scolari and Employer Branding) and the long term consequences are still unknown, but the bottom line is that Senior Management showed leadership and acted decisively. That’s lesson one.
Lesson two – they brought in an Interim. An experienced Executive with a fresh perspective. He has got better results and performance from the same resources – it’s as simple as that. He has made Drogba a world beater again, Cech looks assured in goal again and clearly the communication between Coach and players is better because Guus is Dutch and therefore speaks superb English (better than Joe Cole, apparently!!). In short, the Interim Manager has turned performance from bad to good.
Times are tough, and there are no “silver bullets” to many of the problems which now beset businesses, but the Chelsea example can be viewed as an illustration of how radical and decisive action and the introduction of new management can turn performance around.
Rob Barklamb
