Since the resignation of Alex Ferguson in May last year, Manchester United football club has experienced a series of

setbacks, losing to West Brom, Manchester City and Liverpool, and drawing with Southampton, culminating in their
worst ever start to a Premier League season in over twenty years.
As such, press desks all over the world are unanimously attributing the success of the Red Devils to the leadership
of their steely former manager. A recent analysis published by the Harvard Business Review follows suit, including
an interview with the Scotsman on the six golden rules of winning (and winning consecutively, at that).
Nicknamed Furious Fergie by fans and footballers alike, Sir Alex is not a man to be trifled with. His 26-year-long
career at United demonstrates this, reading like a kind of soap opera, filled with highs and lows, blood bonds and
bust-ups. When Ferguson retired, wrote the BBC, United did not just lose a manager, they lost an aura, an air of
invincibility. As the headlines mourn Fergusons abdication, his new autobiography hits the high-street shelves,
claiming to reveal many of his secret strategies and the gory details of his run-ins with David Beckham and Roy
Keane.
So what was it that defined Fergusons leadership?

In his interview with the Review, Ferguson says that the root cause of his success was his fierce drive to win. To win,
first you have to really want to win, he asserts repeatedly.
To describe Alex Ferguson as competitive would be a gross understatement bloodthirsty better fits the bill.
Fergies obsession with winning not only shaped every aspect of his management approach but governed every
decision that he made for United. And this hunger to be the best was something that he deliberately and
painstakingly invested within each and every one of his players. I had to lift their expectations, he states.
They should never give in. I said that to them all the time. If you give in once, youll give in twice. Under Fergies
jurisdiction, his players were known to give everything they had, right up until the final whistle.
Their fear of losing was bound up with their fear of Ferguson himself - his wrath during angry rants infamously even
leading to (accidental) injury.
United's determination to come back from defeat made them famous; Harvard Review calculated that over ten recent
seasons, the team held a better record when tied at halftime and with 15 minutes to go than any other club in the
English League. After their heartbreaking loss on the final day of the 2011 League, Ferguson took his players into
the dressing room and said remember this feeling, because it will make you into winners. United came back to win
the League by a remarkable 15 points last year.
Ferguson's term 'the Man United way' has since become a metaphor for aggressive play - living proof that wanting to
win brings results.

Ferguson took responsibility for his teams and was consistently hands-on at every stage of their professional
development. Not only was he the first to arrive at every training session, he also carefully monitored each players
performance with the help of high-tech equipment. United even had its own hospital on site, so that players could be
watched over.
Ferguson's powerful investment in his teams won him their respect and loyalty. He boldly took on younger players
and built up their game through constant encouragement and attention. The job of a manager, like that of a
teacher, he told the Review, is to inspire people to be better. Give them better technical skills, make them
winnersand they can go anywhere in life. When you give young people a chance, you not only create a larger life
span for the team, you also create loyalty. This long-term investment in young talent paid off - as shown by the
remarkable career of Ryan Giggs, who Ferguson signed on his sixteenth birthday.

Though Ferguson's leadership contained paternal elements, he never lost control over his team. In fact, he was
ruthless in cutting out people who dissented in any way. His new book goes into detail about his fall-out with
Beckham, explaining that as soon as a player becomes bigger than the team, he has to go. According to reports,
whilst shouting at Beckham in the dressing room for letting a goal slip through the defence, Ferguson accidentally
kicked a boot into the striker's face. When Beckham leaked the story, he was quickly axed from United. A similar fate
befell star player, Roy Keane, after he publicly criticised the team to a press interviewer. Ferguson would not be
crossed, the United image would not be sullied, and this was something that was made very clear. You cant ever
lose control" he admits, " not when you are dealing with 30 top professionals who are all millionaires. Your
personality has to be bigger than theirs. That is vital.
Fergusons big personality got him everywhere - into the headlines, into his players' mindsets, even into the
preoccupations of fearful referees who awarded extra 'Fergie (injury) time' at the ends of matches when United
weren't winning. The manager's imposing presence, vigorously tapping his watch on the sidelines, is an image that is
scored into the memories of football spectators. Ferguson's control was all-encompassing - reigning over players,
referees, and the press. In 2011, the manager was caught on camera attempting to impose his own gagging order
on a reporter, muttering to his press officer: well get him. Ban him on Friday.
Though Ferguson can be hailed as an inspirational leader, then, this charisma was combined with strategic bullying
tactics that proved just as important a contribution towards United's ultimate success. Though legendary, the
Ferguson legacy is no fairytale, and many may decide to strike him off as a role model for that. What the darker
backstory does teach us, however, is that in many a successful business endeavour, with determination, there
comes grit - and these were traits that Ferguson had in ample measure.