Chris Green's blog - Reputation is everything

Monday, 07 June 2010 10:37

ONE of the most memorable, solid pieces of advice I recall gathering as a journalist came from former Crewe Alexandra manager, Dario Gradi.

For more than 20 years, under Gradi’s careful tutelage, Crewe’s academy has punched well above its weight and he led the club in the Championship – the second tier of English football - for several years. An incredible feat for a club based in a small town of just 67,000 residents.

 

Gradi’s alumni included dozens of players who played in the first team and were sold on for large sums – with the proceeds ploughed back into future development.

 

I wanted to know how it had been achieved. What was Crewe’s secret? How had this small town club been able to acquire some of the nation’s best football talent…and then carefully hone them into top class players?

 

“Reputation is everything in youth development”, insisted Gradi. If you have a good reputation for treating players and their parents well, they will always be prepared to join your club. If you develop high quality players in the best possible way and with a good attitude you will always be able to sell them on when the time is right for them to progress. If you apply your highest standards you earn respect.

 

That comment stayed with me. I have tried to apply it to my work – and I advise my clients to do the same in their businesses.

 

If your reputation is high among your peers they will always want to do business with you –you have their respect and their confidence.

 

Take Gradi’s area of expertise – football youth development.

 

When I wrote Every Boy’s Dream – a critique of the English youth football academy system – it was the result of several reports and interviews with people over many years. I visited parents and children in their homes. I visited club coaches. I stalked football’s corridors of power. When I made my own assertions in the book, it was a condensed, rounded view from the varied opinions on offer.

 

Every Boy’s Dream was short-listed for best football book in the 2010 British Sports Book of the Year awards. Meeting dozens of coaches and people who concurred with the spirit of the book at the Grass Roots Football Live (4-6 June 2010) was fascinating. These are people at the sharp end of coaching. They respected the book and its sentiments. They bought it.

As an author, my credibility has also been substantially enhanced – my reputation expanded.

 

Cheap and cheerful solutions don’t always work. Quality counts. Of course, quality costs. It takes time, money and effort but there is great long term return on investment on offer – the opportunity to enhance your personal and/or professional reputation – and that has long term benefits.

As Gradi says, “reputation IS everything.”

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