If you are a sports fan, and many are you would love to be the General Manager and there are people who have come close to the job. One author is Tom Callahan who wrote the book The GM – The Inside Story of a Dream Job and the Nightmares that go with it published by Crown Publishers, NY, 2007. Mr. Callahan was able to be the fly on the wall of Ernie Accorsi ‘s office who was the General Manager of the New York Giants football team which plays in the NFL. In New York, as long as the New York football teams are competitive the New York Giants are the most commented on team which means listening to the fans is both a blessing and understanding that everyone has an opinion. Part of the job of the GM is drafting and signing players to be on the team – if they perform well on the field the city and fans are happier. If they do not, opinions quickly form. If you think about the NFL – all the teams should have or do have done analysis of every player particularly in their backyard and extraordinary players should be on everyone’s radar. How one player comes to a team and not another is the story of people led by the GM. To pick a player, Mr. Accorsi noted a football team is like a jigsaw puzzle with a lot of oddly shaped pieces. However, despite everyone having a read on each player, how they perform together is the unknown. If your subject was people in battle, they do not fight for their commander (although they can respect him) they fight for their teammates or buddies. How do you know this person will fit in and their teammates will fight for them?  Sometimes the team overlooks somebody who went later in the draft, Mr. Accorsi has gone back to see did we miss something or how did we miss it? It turns out at least one of the scouts had the prediction accurate, they were just in the minority.

Another aspect of the GM’s job is hiring the coach for they should be thinking along the same lines. In the book the GM needs to hire a new coach and the thinking of the process is outlined. The coach worries about the execution of the plays, the GM worries about getting the players to execute the strategy of the coach. According to Coach Coughlin coaching is making players do what they do not want to do so they become what they want to become. The GM and the Coach worry about their players – the starting players are millionaires who like all people some are good with their money so are not. Some love to be in the media, some are more behind the scenes. What goes on in the field is the just the beginning.

To learn more about football and the inner workings of the game, the book is an interesting read about the behind the scenes and dealing with trying to keep a club competitive through draft, ownership, and execution on a weekly basis.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the New York Giants have a long history of making money and consistently challenging for the championship, how the team functions one can learn from them. All teams go through cycles, all teams have concerns with ownership, but to be a consistent money-maker is something anyone can learn from. If you are a fan apply the learning to companies on the stock exchange and it will help pay for your football activities.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.