What Pep Guardiola can Teach about Running a Business?

Before I go further, must admit I am a big Manchester United Fan therefore praising Pep is little tough for me. However, you have to give credit where it is due.

He has won titles with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and now Manchester City

The reason I am writing this article because I am fascinated the way his team Manchester City played 2017-2018 season. At times it seemed they were playing football from another planet.

 The whole process of winning the title was enjoyable for its players, fans and supporters across the globe.

Compare this with serial winner Jose Mourinho, Manchester United Current Coach; his philosophy is all about winning trophies at the cost of everything. Therefore he will first ensure not to lose the game. This way he plays the game defensively and makes the game very boring for its spectators.

Most of the time, when he wins the trophy there is no feeling of joy and excitement.

You feel there is “Something Missing”.

This typically happens when somebody achieves a big goal, there is always that lack of missing something. 

Let see what we can learn from Pep Guardiola Philosophy

• Define the Big Why: As Simon Sinek puts in his best-selling the book: “Start with Why” to achieve anything there must be a big purpose or mission. In Guardiola case he wanted to make Manchester city the best club in the world and he wanted to play a beautiful brand of Football. He wanted to do for his club’s fan and leave a lasting legacy.

So if you are running a business, the first thing you need to identify is the big mission of your company.

So in my case, it is to spread the importance of profitability far and wide and educate business owners “How to Increase Profitability without Increasing Sales” This fuels me and my company day and night.

• Freedom to Express: If you see the way Manchester city plays, even the defenders shift to attacking positions continuously, because Pep has given his team the freedom to express themselves on the pitch. This results in beautiful brand of football.

Similarly in business all the employees of the company should be able express their ideas or suggestion without fearing what management would think otherwise.

This is one of the reason Bridgewater Associates are so successful and one of the largest hedge funds. They have adopted the idea of meritocracy. Where any member of the firm can openly criticize or suggest any ideas to leadership team

In his best- selling book “Principles: Life and Work” Ray Dalio recalls a situation where he and his team had a client meeting. After the meeting, the team member openly wrote an email to Ray Dalio criticizing him for not preparing well for the meeting. He even rated his performance two out of five points

So if you are running the business, get the ego out of the way and create an environment so that employees can express themselves freely  

• Process is Everything: Pep’s team formation was clear from the outset. The whole objective was to attack and attack. This is the reason they won the games like 4-0, 5-0.

The mindset was to win the game offensively.

The same approach can be adopted in the business where the team needs to focus on the process and experience around achieving a big business goal. So once that goal is achieved there is sense of fulfillment and joy rather than a temporary moment of happiness