TORC

Brian Clough and team before the 1974 Leeds-Liverpool Charity Shield game

The story of Brian Clough’s infamous 44 days in charge of Leeds United is well dramatised in the 2009 movie, Damned United. 

The movie begins with Don Revie, the club’s then manager for 13 years, in a press conference announcing his resignation, on being offered the job of managing the national team. His words were to prove a hostage to fortune: 

“I’d like to think I’ve built the club into a family. Now, there must be sadness when anyone leaves the family. However, when one man leaves, another man steps into his place, I know whom I think that man should be, the person to replace me. And, I’ve made my feelings clear to the board of directors”. 

Revie’s family persists at Leeds
Revie wanted his mid-field general, John Giles, to replace him and keep continuity in the formula that had brought the club two First Division League titles, as well as an FA Cup, League Cup and Charity Shield. 

The board, in choosing Brian Clough instead, were obviously hoping that a fresh voice in the dressing room would propel them on to even greater success, in the form of a European Cup, which had eluded them under Revie.  

However, the cohesive family that Revie had built did not take kindly to Clough and after the team chalked up 5 early defeats, the Leeds’ board terminated his contract.  

Strategy and culture
Clough’s strategy was simple, as he revealed in the now famous TV interview that he did in the company of Revie for ITV within hours of being sacked. 

He reasoned that to really achieve greatness, the players would have to give up on the Revie playbook, characterised by a very methodical, and at times overly physical approach and go full out to play the beautiful game with flair and panache. 

Unfortunately, he had completely underestimated and neglected to manage the resistance that inevitably sprang from the players’ strong bonds with the former boss – a particular case in point being his failure to recognise their comforting attachment to Revie as a father figure and to the ritual preparations and innocent superstitutions that he used employ. 

Clough had met the enemy and it was the Leeds’ culture. 

Organisational culture & business
The same issue confronts business leaders whenever change is called for. 

Several studies confirm that a clash of cultures between the partners is often the biggest challenge to be overcome in making a merger & acquisition work. 

One type of union that seems particularly problematic is that between entities having radically different control philosophies – where the entrepreneurial and the conservative inevitably make for troublesome bedfellows. 

Culture & the AOL-Time Warner merger
The doomed  AOL-Time Warner merger is a clear example, as Time Magazine’s  Josh Quittner explained in 2009: 

“I blame the company’s curious entrepreneurial culture — curious because, while entrepreneurship is highly prized here, the jefes who run the big operating units still prefer the safety and comfort of a large corporation …. And that creates powerful fiefdoms where divisions don’t cooperate with each other and synergy becomes a bad word”.

It took AOL’s Steve Case 6 years to see the writing on the wall and recommend a split-up as the only way out of the cultural differences being encountered.    

Culture & the Daimler-Chrysler merger
On the other hand, cultural misunderstandings more than differences appear to have been at the heart of the equally noteworthy Daimler-Chrysler fiasco.

This 1998 transatlantic union, billed as ‘an historic merger of mass with class’, was expected to provide Daimler with a entrepreneurial partner that could move nimbly to respond to consumer tastes in the small car segment.

However, Daimler had failed to recognise that the key individuals responsible for Chrysler’s entrepreneurial culture had chosen to walk away rather than be part of the merger.

This misunderstanding led to 2 years of drift at Chrysler – the weakened Chrysler leadership waiting for Daimler to take the reins and the Daimler side restraining themselves from interfering, lest they spoil the culture they thought they had bought.

In 2001, Daimler’s CEO, Jergen Schrempp finally woke up to what was happening with a frustrating cry (quoted in a Dartmouth case study):

“What happened to the dynamic, can-do cowboy culture I bought?”

Strategy & culture entwined
Yes, indeed, when it comes to organisational change, strategy and culture are inextricably entwined.

Unfortunately, culture can often be the forgotten strand; even, if ultimately, it’s the invisible hand that proves most decisive.

Peter Drucker probably put it best in one of his characteristically vivid mantras: 

“culture eats strategy for breakfast”.

His choice of breakfast (over lunch) being particularly powerful – it being the most important meal in the day, after all!

PS. To see a related case study, please click here.