Recently, I was pouring over the pages of Jim Collins’ classic business book “Good to Great.”
The book is considered an essential for business owners and entrepreneurs.
The book examines several companies that went from “good to great” over the course of 15 years and sustained the growth.
When I was reading it, something struck me about the criteria for being good versus great. This book was describing my favorite sports team, The Atlanta Braves.
I texted my brother and said “hey, you’ve got to read this. This is what’s wrong with our team.”
Admittedly, I was attempting to trick my brother into reading the book for his own professional good, but I also wanted to get his opinion on the matter as well.
What struck me the most was the descriptions of all of the CEOs who led their organizations to immense financial success over a short period of time and those companies that fell off when those CEOs either retired or passed away.
These “good’ CEOs were more often than not geniuses, but they paid little mind to who would eventually succeed them at the company, which meant that when they were gone, they took most of their genius with them, leaving the replacement to try and only replicate the success of the past.
Atlanta’s legendary general manager, John Shuerholz and manager Bobby Cox, are both in the Hall of Fame now. There’s no denying their genius when it came to building successful ball clubs.
And the main reason they are candidates for “Good to Great” is that they are one of the few sports teams in history to have sustained steady growth over 15 seasons. They won 14 consecutive division titles and appeared in five World Series throughout the 1990s.
But like so many of the “good” organizations out there, Shuerholz and Cox obviously did not think too much about the future of the ball club after their respective retirements.
That is why they are both still there, with Shuerholz at Vice Chairman and Bobby Cox at special assistant to the general manager.
When Shuerholz initially called it quits, the team promoted from within, hiring Frank Wren as the manager. Wren subsequently blew the Braves and its owner Liberty Media’s money on players that never lived up to expectations.
At one time under Wren, the Braves were paying Dan Uggla, Melvin Upton Jr. and Justin Upton $14 million each. Uggla and Upton Jr. consistently batted around .200, while Justin Upton was the standout, albeit very streaky.
These bad business decisions led to Wren’s firing and the complete demolition of the Major League roster as now-GM John Coppolella tries to rebuild.
When Cox retired, the team hired Fredi Gonzalez. Again, he turned out to be a disaster. While Gonzalez will be known as a man who won some games during his time as manager, he will always be remembered as the man whose teams collapsed in August and September.
If you look at the Braves front office today, the team employs seven special assistants to the general manager. No other team in baseball has the level of bureaucracy the Braves employ.
In fact, if you look at who they employ, it seems they are more concerned with giving both their Braves family and their literal family jobs than putting together a successful team.
For instance, the Braves employ Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones and Fred McGriff as special assistants to baseball operations. What does that even mean? What do they do?
To make matters worse, Shuerholz’ son Jonathan serves as assistant director, player development.
In what other scenario, other than pure nepotism, would the younger Shuerholz have a job after the flurry of prospects who failed to develop at both the Minor League and at the Major League levels?
The Braves have hit some business home runs. Don’t’ get me wrong.
They bet big on Cobb County and the $1 billion stadium/mixed-use project that opened this year, and I do think that will pay off for the team in the long run, but if management is rife with nepotism and bureaucracy, then no amount of money can turn them into winners.
The Braves have been solidified as one of the greatest franchises in the modern era, but when you stack them up against other organizations, in other industries, they come across as just another good company.
