Game day challenge: building and maintaining leadership stability
Vancouver Canucks legend Trevor Linden downplayed the recent controversy over goalie Roberto Luongo’s team captaincy, but sports franchise owners and executives say leadership and continuity stability are as vital on the ice as they are in the boardroom.
When Linden announced on September 8 his plans to open Club 16 – Trevor Linden Fitness next January in Coquitlam, he told media that National Hockey League team leadership is often shared by several players and will be the case for the 2010-11 Canucks, regardless of who wears the “C.”
“Teams operate with leadership groups,” Linden said.
“I think Roberto is a great player and a great leader and whether or not he has the ‘C’ on his jersey, he’s going to be expected to be a leader in that locker room.”
But stability, especially at the top, is key to maintaining an organization’s winning edge.
Vancouver Giants owner Ron Toigo demonstrated his belief in that adage a week before Vancouver Whitecaps CEO Paul Barber and president Bob Lenarduzzi did the same thing.
Toigo signed Giants general manager Scott Bonner and head coach Don Hay to five-year contracts on August 26. The Whitecaps announced September 2 that Teitur Thordarson, who is coaching them in the United Soccer League (USL), will be the head coach when the Caps jump to more prestigious Major League Soccer in 2011.
“Why would we tempt fate?” asked Lenarduzzi at a September 2 press conference. “Teitur has been very successful with us.”
Barber acknowledged that the team did its due diligence and conducted a search to see if anyone was available, willing and more qualified.
“We came back to Teitur time and time again,” Barber said at the same press conference.
“He’s a quality guy. He has a fantastic rapport with the players, and he gets results. If you put all of those things together with integrity and respect from other people in the game, that’s a pretty good package.”
Toigo is not averse to recruiting top executives from outside his companies, which normally happens when a firm has expanded so quickly that managing continued growth requires a skill set honed in larger organizations.
For example, 10 years ago Toigo recruited the No. 2 executive from the beer giant that’s now Molson Coors Canada to be the president of his J.D. Sweid meat-processing company.
Toigo said J.D. Sweid had doubled in size in the three years preceding president Blair Shier’s arrival.
“The more continuity you can keep the better it is for everybody,” Toigo told Business in Vancouver September 9.
“People need to feel comfortable where they work and just focus on the task at hand without worrying about the security of their jobs or their families.”
He pointed to Warren Erhart, who has been president of Toigo-owned White Spot for 17 years.
The stability that this long tenure creates has helped the restaurant chain record the fastest growth in its 81-year history by adding 12 new restaurants to what was a total of 113 bistros one year ago.
Succession planning and having a No. 2 person ready to step in to the top job is vital to allaying fear among employees, investors and other stakeholders.
Hewlett Packard Co.’s board of directors realized this when CEO Mark Hurd resigned August 6.
Skittish investors subsequently saw the company as being rudderless, prompting the computer-maker’s stock (NYSE:HPQ) to nosedive.
“Perception is reality with a public company,” Toigo said. “Perception drives a lot of those stocks.”