10 inspiring sports reads

Leading

Alex Ferguson with Michael Moritz Hodder, £20

Our verdict

DURING his time in football, rival managers would have given anything to know what was going on inside Sir Alex Ferguson’s mind.

Now, to pick the brains of the most successful British manager ever, all they have to do is pick up a book.

In his latest offering, the man who won 49 trophies with Aberdeen and Manchester United gives an insight into what helped him succeed, interspersed with anecdotes about the big names he worked with.

Co-author Sir Michael Moritz, who has been hugely successful himself in the high-tech corporate world of America’s Silicon Valley, says Sir Alex’s roots in Govan made a major contribution to his record-breaking career.

“It’s part of his DNA,” Michael explained.

“You can’t take the boy out of the man. Those formative experiences of the first 10 or 15 years of life are with every individual throughout their life.

“For him the formative years were spent growing up in straitened circumstances as the son of a shipbuilder.”

So could he have succeeded in some other area?

“If he hadn’t discovered an obsession with the round ball aged seven or eight, and had circumstances been different, maybe he would have been a successful trade union leader or gone on to university and done something different. “He is a natural winner.” Michael says it was fascinating to see what made Sir Alex tick.

“I was curious about the characteristics of spectacular success.

“Very few organisations succeed for several decades and even fewer are run by the same individual. That’s what led me to Manchester United and Sir Alex.

“I’d read a lot about him but there was nothing that captured his thoughts about leadership and distilled everything he’d accumulated.”

Inevitably the book will appeal to a lot of people who are interested in football and can’t get enough of Sir Alex.

At a talk to launch the book in London, his arrival on stage was greeted with a standing ovation.

Sir Michael says the book should be of interest to leaders in any sphere.

“For people running, or aspiring to run, any organisation, the leadership principles which he espouses are useful.

“I don’t think it matters whether you are running a hospital, a Scout troop or a multi-national company.”

If you’re running the local Scout football team, this could just help you win a few games!