ITV goes for glory
As Sir Alex Ferguson announces he is to retire as manager of Manchester United, Raymond Snoddy argues there are lessons business leaders can learn. Indeed, it is not even too fanciful to see comparisons in the way that Peter Fincham, ITV’s director of television, has built up an improving roster of programmes and executives. And after poaching BBC Four controller Richard Klein this week, his team is only getting stronger…
The achievements of Sir Alex Ferguson, now retiring as manager of Manchester United, should receive attention far away from the world of football.
They were made possible, in part, by the stability of having the same manager in place for 27 years.
But it was more than that – it was also about the method; the slow and gradual putting together of a team – several teams in fact – over the years, teams that were balanced in both their skills, personalities and age profiles.
There was also an obvious element of ruthlessness, not least in banning every outlet of the BBC for years over a documentary that dealt with his son’s behaviour as a football agent. On the field there was no place in Manchester United for any player who tried to defy Ferguson or for anyone he considered no longer good enough for the most successful football team in the UK. They move on to lesser places.
The Manchester United manager always had money to spend on key players such as Robin van Persie, but it was never just about buying up players.
Daniel Finkelstein’s Fink Tank in The Times, which analyses the statistics of football, last Saturday published a study of Premiership managers plotting points gained against money spent.
On such a chart Sir Alex still managed to come out top with Queen’s Park Rangers, unsurprisingly, a long way adrift at the bottom.
There are lessons to be learnt by general business and even the media in the management methods of Sir Alex.
It is not too fanciful to see some comparisons in the way that Peter Fincham, ITV’s director of television, has gradually built up an improving roster of programmes and executives. Nothing too fancy, but just as chairman Archie Norman and chief executive Adam Crozier have lifted the share price under their five year plan so Fincham has quietly gone about his business.
Suddenly as a result of years of patient work ITV is once again an overnight success.
Downton Abbey was an early harbinger of dawn and such staples as X-Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and I’m a Celebrity kept the numbers rolling in and the media buyers happy.
The thriller Broadchurch could have been a flash in the pan, a lucky one-off hit except that immediately afterwards ITV was proving for the first time in ages it could do serious comedy – one of the most difficult tricks in the business – with Vicious and The Job Lot.
It is even possible that Peter Fincham might be director general of the BBC now if he hadn’t been forced out to appease Buckingham Palace after the Queen walked in the wrong direction in a clip for a press briefing that was never actually shown.
Fincham would be less than human if he didn’t allow himself a smile or two when it was ITV which garnered all the plaudits and awards for exposing the Savile scandal using material discarded by the BBC.
There must also be considerable satisfaction this week that Fincham has pulled off another significant piece of team-building by enticing BBC Four controller Richard Klein to become ITV’s director of factual programmes.
Klein is not the television equivalent of van Persie, but on a modest budget he has made BBC Four one of the most influential channels among the sort of audiences who would be the most passionate defenders of what the BBC stands for.
In fact the channel comes closest to the sort of public service broadcasting remit that the Corporation is supposed to provide.
Klein, who once worked for a year as a postman and has his feet firmly on the ground, managed to produce original and striking programmes.
Naturally that sort of thing can’t be allowed to continue.
Under the ludicrously named Delivering Quality First campaign Klein’s budget was being seriously shaved and he probably saw what could happen next.
Under the first law of broadcasting if you want to undermine a programme, a person or a channel you introduce serious budget cuts which over time have their inevitable effect. Then the top brass decide it’s not what it used to be and that maybe it’s time for a change.
Without Klein’s clout and commissioning flair BBC Four could be in trouble.
You can already hear people beginning to argue that perhaps the BBC is trying to do too much on limited resources. It probably will be only a matter of time before the cry goes up asking do we really need BBC Four when there is a perfectly decent BBC Two channel which could do with some of the money that is diverted to Four. And anyway isn’t there already some confusion in viewers’ minds about what the two channels are trying to achieve?
With executives on the move there is usually push and pull and Klein will have a larger salary and a less bureaucratic working environment at ITV.
He might, however, still have stayed at the BBC if he hadn’t been run over by Delivering Quality First.
At the same time as announcing the Klein appointment Fincham also appointed Helen Warner, a former Channel 4 head of daytime as ITV’s director of daytime – another piece of gradual strengthening.
Fincham has some way to go before becoming the broadcasting equivalent of Sir Alex Ferguson – but at the very least he is up there with Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger and could yet challenge for top honours.
A surprising speech
The Queen’s Speech was really interesting this year for what was not in it. No plain packets for cigarettes and minimum unit pricing of alcohol has gone walkabout, something that will please the marketing community.
We can also celebrate the total absence yet again of a Communications Bill. With few exceptions, such as trying to tackle digital exclusion, this really is a case where no news is good news.
It looks increasingly possible that there will be no communications legislation this side of a general election – something we can cope with very well.
Update: a correction was made on Thursday 9th May to correct an error regarding Richard Klein’s link to The Thick of It.