The Michael Vick case presents an interesting object lesson for managers
everywhere, and it’s this: You always need to have a viable fallback position
that can save you, no matter what unexpected disaster befalls you. You’ve got to
have a Plan B.
Vick, the Atlanta Falcons’ star quarterback, is expected to plead guilty to
federal dogfighting charges next week. No one knows what will happen next, but
most analysts think Vick will get anywhere from 12 to 36 months in prison. And
he could possibly be banned for life by the National Football League.
But as bad as things are for Vick, they aren’t much better for the pro
football franchise he’s leaving behind. The Falcons are owned by Arthur Blank,
one of the founders of Home Depot and a pretty successful businessman. Blank
obviously has a lot of business savvy, but the Vick situation has caught him and
his team management flat-footed.
Blank and his managers built the Atlanta Falcons around Vick, signing him to
a 10-year, $130 million contract extension in 2004. Yes, Vick has been the face
of the franchise, but he’s had some injury problems here and there, plus a
series of minor but troubling incidents that in hindsight seem to have
foreshadowed the larger legal troubles he now faces.
The Falcons’ team management believed so much in Vick that they traded away
his backup, a young and talented quarterback named Matt Schaub, to Houston
during the off-season. Schaub has played when Vick was injured the last couple
of years, and he always seemed to perform extremely well when thrown into the
breach.
Now the Falcons are in a fix. As a story in the Los Angeles Times put it,
“The team’s string of 51 consecutive sellouts is as good as dead.” The paper
also quotes a local radio executive who says, “There is absolutely no buzz with
this team now.” Schaub, discarded by the Falcons, might have been someone the
team could get people to rally around. Instead, fans get a journeyman in Joey
Harrington, a nice guy, but one who was involuntarily terminated from his last
two NFL quarterback gigs, in Detroit and Miami.
The lesson here is simple: Managers should always be thinking “What if … ?”
no matter how smoothly things seem to be running. You need to develop
contingency plan that will keep things going when the much-feared worst-case
scenario really does come to pass.
Arthur Blank and his managers should have seen this one coming. They had a
good Plan B, but decided to discard it and put all their faith in Michael Vick.
That’s a gutsy vote of confidence in a player, but a seriously dumb business
decision.
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