Our first business book of the year has a sporting twist…

Although ‘The Real Madrid Way’ (written by Steven Mandis) is a book about a football team, it’s not really about football.

Mandis is a professor and sports research specialist, and what he set out to do, was to understand what made Real Madrid such a successful football club both on and off the field.

I must admit, I’ve always thought Real Madrid must have a rich benefactor, with all the star players they’ve bought over the years.

But I couldn’t be more wrong, and after reading this book I’m amazed they’ve been able to compete and outdo the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United.

You see the club is a non-profit organisation, and a section of the fans (called socios) own it, who pay an annual membership fee for extra benefits, such as voting and access to tickets.

Mandis dives deep to understand how Real Madrid managed to be so successful by working in this fan ownership model, and where Galacticos 1, 2 and 3 fit into their business model.

Interestingly the fans who own the club vote who should be president and run Real Madrid. The most successful presidents have been those who have listened to the fans, and given them what they want, teams that play great football sprinkled with star players.

Not just any star players though, they were specifically chosen to fit the community values of the club, which endeared these star players into the hearts of the fans.

The Galacticos strategy also benefited Real Madrid financially through being able to command huge global sponsorship deals.

Florentino Pérez is the current president, and during his two stints embraced the Galacticos strategy, learning from his first stint, his second stint in charge has been tremendously successful, both on and off the field.

As I said earlier, it’s not a book about football, it’s a book about how you can turn a sports club into a community organisation, whilst still becoming a global business and brand.

‘The Real Madrid Way’ gets a thumbs up and five stars.

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…thank you & see you next week.