London 2012′s soothing sponsorship rules
Halfway through my evening at Wembley Stadium on Sunday I realised why watching Olympic football – or any Olympic sport for that matter – feels strange: it’s the absence of advertising. A stadium...
View ArticleFT column: NBC shows perfect logic but a prime time farce
This weekend, NBC kicked off its expensive coverage of the London Olympics by cutting out the part of the opening ceremony that commemorated the victims of the July 7, 2005 bombings, in favour of a...
View Article“Shoot for Mars” is not a strategy
The euphoria at Nasa over the successful landing of Curiosity on Mars is infectious. The public seems to have joined the scientists’ celebrations with a fervour similar to that shown by the British for...
View ArticleLike Olympics, most companies come to an end
I wrote in July about the management lessons to be drawn from organising the Olympics and one point that particularly struck me was that the London 2012 organisers’ job continues well into 2013. First...
View ArticleBe careful what you wish for with IPO rule changes
Britain is “considering new rules” to make the London Stock Exchange more attractive to start-ups, according to Bloomberg, using the US “Jumpstart our Business Startups” Act as the model. Careful. The...
View ArticleAnschutz, AEG and when to sell
If I were a 72-year-old billionaire with interests in three Los Angeles sports teams and venues from the Californian city’s Staples Center to London’s O2 Arena, I might be inclined to relax, put my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Short-termism and shorter tempers at Chelsea FC
Roberto Di Matteo. Image by Getty Chief executives who fret about the short-termist demands of their companies’ shareholders should spare a thought for Roberto Di Matteo, ditched as manager of Chelsea...
View ArticleLet Australia’s manager manage
Pat Howard is getting some undeserved flak for suspending four players from Australia’s national cricket team. The manager was once chief operating officer of a listed company, but never in his...
View ArticleThe Pope, the Queen, the Sage and the football manager
Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement as manager of Manchester United gives the management world another example of how to bow out when you are, frankly, getting a bit elderly. On this topic, we now have four...
View ArticleMachiavelli and the Ashes
The Ashes is regularly described as “one of the oldest rivalries in sport” – a phrase to get the blood running for English and Australian cricket fans as the latest series gets under way. But could the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why do Olympic heads and chief rabbis last longer than CEOs?
Thomas Bach, the new president of the International Olympic Committee, is the ninth person to hold the position since it was established in 1894. The election of Mr Bach, once an Olympic gold medal...
View ArticleFT column: Get off the pitch for ideas in the boardroom
Howard Wilkinson, former manager of Leeds United, knows about pressure: “No offence to captains of industry but even a FTSE 100 chairman can postpone a board meeting. A manager can’t postpone a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Di Canio Way: four lessons from Sunderland’s ex-boss
Di Canio confronts fans; a day later he lost his job as Sunderland manager With Harvard Business School professors analysing Sir Alex Ferguson’s management style, and consultants drawing parallels...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why has Sir Alex Ferguson spilt the beans on life inside Manchester United?
There is one question I’ve been struggling to figure out about Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to release his second memoir: why now? Of course, he has retired but for a manager renowned for protecting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fans are more than a match for brands when naming stadiums
EE is the descendant of one of the most ridiculous brands in corporate history – Everything Everywhere, which turned out to mean Nothing Anywhere – so I feared the worst when I saw the UK digital...
View ArticleFive lessons from Manchester United’s Professor Moyes
Good morning and welcome to the new Harvard MBA module on sports management. I’m assistant professor David Moyes. You were probably looking forward to listening to Professor Sir Alex Ferguson. He is...
View ArticleFT column: The football disaster that conquered the world of sport
Welcome to the World Cup in Brazil, brought to you by Fifa, a corporate governance disaster that is also one of the most successful multinational enterprises on earth.Continue reading: FT column: The...
View ArticleWhy most employees are nothing like Suárez
If you bit someone at work – as Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez appeared to on Tuesday night – would you get sacked? It seems likely. Glenn Hayes, employment law partner at British law firm Irwin...
View ArticleMurdoch offers money – but not control – for Time Warner
Rupert Murdoch is not exactly putting his money where his mouth is with 21st Century Fox’s unsolicited $80bn offer for Time Warner. By offering non-voting Fox shares as part of the cash-and-stock bid...
View Article
