Regular Bozo readers will know he is a baseball fan.
They will also know he is a great admirer of the management skills of Joe Maddon - the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays - and has quoted him and his wisdom on this blog in the past. Well I have no quote from Joe today but it is time to give him another accolade.
Last year everyone said was the Rays last big chance to win something. Many of their stars had contracts expiring and they would all walk off into the sunset to get big contracts that Tampa could not afford to give them. That the team would be broken up, that it was back to square one for Maddon and Tampa, if not square zero.
The first nine games seemed to prove that was true. The team did indeed lose almost all of its best position players. Most of its relievers and was 1-8. Bottom of the division after nine games on April 10th.
Since then...poor denuded undermanned Tampa has won 22 and lost only 8.
They are now 23-16.
They are now top of their division ahead of the biggest salaried teams in Baseball (The Yankees are second, two winw behind, and the big spending Red Sox remain under .500 and still flirt with bottom of the division).
To my mind this is all about Joe Maddon's knowledge. Both of the game, and of management.
There are some big similarities between sport and business. Key people get paid a lot, sometimes they get paid so much that managing them becomes hard.
When i was trading it was always the case that managers in a trading room had to be great traders or no one would respect them.
It's kind of understandable.
it;s also utter cods.
If you look at great sporting managers and ask them to show their player's medals, you can be disappointed.
Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho... no great success as players
Joe Maddon, no great success as a player.
But they can manage, They understand their jobs intellectually.
And they know how to create a winning team.
And guess what... unlike the other names I mentioned, Joe Maddon's winning team isn't the highest paid team in their sport.
This makes Maddon superior (in my mind) to Fergsuon and Mourinho by far.
The question for you folks in business is this.
What sort of manager are you?
A cheque book manager?
Or a good manager?
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