Turnaround Management with the German National Football Team
Turnaround Management with the German National Football Team
Introduction
Germany impressed the whole world with their swashbuckling brand of football en route to the semi-finals, where they ultimately bowed out to Spain. They had dismantled the English 4-1 and toyed with the Argentines (4-0), and their stellar performances provided some much needed gloss to an otherwise lacklustre world cup. But it was only six years ago, this summer, that they were returning home early from a major tournament and wondering what the future held.
Germany had to rebuild after the debacle of the 2004 European Championship in Portugal. They did not win a single game and failed to get out of our group for the second consecutive European Championships (Euro 2000 had already been a huge disaster culminating in humiliating group stage elimination with losses to Portugal and England). German football appeared to have reached its nadir in 2004.
The Brand Image of German Football
German football has traditionally focussed on putting function above flair, efficiency above flamboyance, with result-oriented “safety football” holding sway over entertainment for the masses. The first of Germany’s three world cup wins, in 1954, had come by dint of guts and determination rather than verve and panache in the face of much more talented and technically proficient opposition- the ‘Magical Magyars’ of Hungary. The second of their world cup triumphs had also come against the odds, on home soil against the scintillating ‘Total Football’ team of the Netherlands in 1974. Their last win, in 1990 was in the most boring world cup of all time (Italia 1990 has the lowest goals per game average (2.21), and is commonly regarded as the most boring world cup ever). Thus Germany had cultivated a knack of grinding out consistent results despite never really raising the level of their play (in the words of Gary Lineker, “Football is a game played by 22 men, and in the end, the Germans always win.”).
The
Introduction
Germany impressed the whole world with their swashbuckling brand of football en route to the semi-finals, where they ultimately bowed out to Spain. They had dismantled the English 4-1 and toyed with the Argentines (4-0), and their stellar performances provided some much needed gloss to an otherwise lacklustre world cup. But it was only six years ago, this summer, that they were returning home early from a major tournament and wondering what the future held.
Germany had to rebuild after the debacle of the 2004 European Championship in Portugal. They did not win a single game and failed to get out of our group for the second consecutive European Championships (Euro 2000 had already been a huge disaster culminating in humiliating group stage elimination with losses to Portugal and England). German football appeared to have reached its nadir in 2004.
The Brand Image of German Football
German football has traditionally focussed on putting function above flair, efficiency above flamboyance, with result-oriented “safety football” holding sway over entertainment for the masses. The first of Germany’s three world cup wins, in 1954, had come by dint of guts and determination rather than verve and panache in the face of much more talented and technically proficient opposition- the ‘Magical Magyars’ of Hungary. The second of their world cup triumphs had also come against the odds, on home soil against the scintillating ‘Total Football’ team of the Netherlands in 1974. Their last win, in 1990 was in the most boring world cup of all time (Italia 1990 has the lowest goals per game average (2.21), and is commonly regarded as the most boring world cup ever). Thus Germany had cultivated a knack of grinding out consistent results despite never really raising the level of their play (in the words of Gary Lineker, “Football is a game played by 22 men, and in the end, the Germans always win.”).
The
References: - With inputs from an interview with Juergen Klinsmann published by the BBC