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Below is a list of trophies won by Sir Alex Ferguson as Manager of Manchester United Football Club in the last 21 years since 1990.
Premier League (11): 1992–93, 1993–94, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09
FA Cup (5): 1989–90, 1993–94, 1995–96, 1998–99, 2003–04 League Cup (4): 1991–92, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2009–10 FA Charity/Community Shield (9): 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010
UEFA Champions League (2): 1998–99, 2007–08
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1990–91
UEFA Super Cup (1): 1991
Intercontinental Cup (1): 1999
FIFA Club World Cup (1): 2008
That is an amazing 35 Major trophies won in 21 years and ….. With a little luck 2 more to add to that list in a few weeks’ time!
Quite simply there has never been a more successful football manager in the long and distinguished history of British football. I suggest there has never been a more successful manager anywhere in world football.
When business authors look for successful people to use as examples of how management and leadership can be perfected I suggest they take a look at Sir Alex rather than the usual suspects from the traditional, boring, stuffy world of business.
I’ve been lucky enough to communicate directly three times in my life with Sir Alex and on each of those three occasions I found him to be a wonderful man who made me feel special. There was no pretentiousness or self-importance we see in some high profile people. Quite the opposite in fact, Sir Alex was genuine, humble, obliging and very kind.
Sir Alex is now approaching 70 years old and has been in charge at Old Trafford, home of my beloved Manchester United since 1986 and shows no signs of losing his competitiveness.
Long may Sir Alex reign at the Theatre of Dreams.
Ever have mad moments of thinking about what might have been? After a Twitter exchange with my friend Tom Asacker from the US this evening I got to thinking about what might have been if UK Business Schools had as their leaders for the last 30 years, people like Sir Richard Branson and the late great Dame Anita Roddick. These two cage rattling, rebellious, unconventional business icons are - I suggest - the greatest entrepreneurs by a million miles that the UK has seen in the last 50 years. One thing they have in common is the complete lack of traditional or formal management training. I for one would love to have attended the fictitious “Virgin Business School” or “The Body Shop Business School” safe in the knowledge that the person leading and pulling the strings was Branson or Roddick. Instead we persist in a traditional UK model of teaching management from a formal, institutional and stuffy perspective rooted in past times as if it were the Holy Grail …. And then we wonder why the UK is no longer a leader in ANYTHING to do with management or leadership on the world stage; whilst younger, less traditional and less stuffy academic institutions elsewhere in the world innovate and lead. As someone once said ….. “If you always do what you always did you'll always get what you always got.”
Albert Einstein of course was not commenting on Britain in 2011 but he could have been. This was the great man writing in his book “Why Socialism?” in 1949 just 6 years from the end of his illustrious and iconic life. Here is Einstein’s argument against what he calls the grave evils of Capitalism: “I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils [capitalism], namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.” Thanks - I’m with you Albert!
In one of my regular e mail discussions with one of my greatest mentors he gave me a wonderful insight about how people can be abused in the modern world of management. I have his permission to reproduce his comments on my Simplicity Blog and for me it is an absolute honour. I have learned a lot from this man – his opinions are ALWAYS worth listening to.
Here goes – By the way I’ve changed names and initials to protect identities:
“I've just had a very sad conversation with Jane. She, just like you and I were in those far off days before regime change, is absolutely passionate about this place and getting it right for the patient.
It looks very much as if she is being side-lined and seconded to some non-post.
Ever since JC left and successor appointed, this organisation has been slipping backwards to the behaviour and ethics that prevailed in the short fat bloke's reign that you and I remember so well - nothing so overt or aggressive just insidious undermining dishonesty/uncertainty/lack of trust. Jane is not the first that it has happened to and no doubt won't be the last.
It got me thinking about how much we take our cues from our leaders and the impact, either direct or by implication they have on our work no matter how diligent we are.
Jane was postulating about what she actually achieved and might it be better, or at least no worse, should she not be around. But like any leader I tried to reassure her that she sets the tone; its intangible, its unwritten, unquantifiable. An organisation reflects its leader's behaviour, standards, pace and direction.
JC, for all his faults, brought a different and more agreeable feel to this organisation after the short fat bloke was ousted. I don't really have to tell you that. Just wanted a rant at the injustice of it but again, as I've told Shelly, you and I both ended up in a far better place.”
Thank you Mr Mentor!
Below is a list of trophies won by Sir Alex Ferguson as Manager of Manchester United Football Club in the last 21 years since 1990. 
