Expert says Eagles' corporate playbook is a winner

Even a quick glance at Andy Reid's wardrobe will confirm that the Eagles don't operate within the buttoned-down constraints of an IBM. They don't have the same single-minded commitment to profit as a shareholder-driven firm like Microsoft. And while they might have Apple's cult-like following, the team certainly doesn't possess its rule-breaking panache.

But, according to one die-hard fan who doubles as an instructor at Penn's famed Wharton School of Business, the bottom line is that the Eagles have become a blue-chip NFL franchise because they operate much like a healthy corporation.

The upper-management rapport between Jeff and Christina Lurie, Joe Banner, Andy Reid, and Howie Roseman detailed in The Inquirer's eight-part series that concluded Sunday, the consensus-building, the shared philosophy, the clearly defined decision-making process, are all indicative of a well-run organization, said Scott Rosner, a Philadelphian and an assistant professor in legal studies and business ethics at Wharton.

Still, since professional sports teams are at their core different animals than Procter & Gamble or McDonald's, it's not likely the Eagles' management style would be the template for first-year Wharton students.

"It's a recognizable and useful business model, but you wouldn't start with it," said Rosner. "You'd want to lay out the foundations from other more classic kinds of businesses and then draw the distinctions."

The biggest distinction, he said, might be that, at least when it comes to their football decisions, the Eagles are better served by ignoring their consumers.

"The root of fanatic is fan. I went as bananas as everyone else when they picked Donovan McNabb instead of Ricky Williams," said Rosner, 39, whose father was in attendance the last time the Eagles won an NFL championship, in 1960. "Well, how foolish were we? And how smart were they? Because it's sports, everyone thinks they can make the decisions. But these same people who wouldn't ever look at another business and say, 'Oh, I can run that' are always saying, 'I can run that' when it comes to sports teams.

"Of course, the Eagles need to embrace and listen to their consumers on the business side - marketing, sales, the fan experience, and brand-building. But you cannot listen to them at all when it comes to the building of a team."

In The Inquirer series, Rosner said it seemed that a key to the Eagles' sustained success in the last decade has been the relationship between team president Banner and head coach Reid. That management Mutt and Jeff operate in the textbook chief operating officer-chief financial officer style.

"They're opposites who work very well together," said Rosner. "Reid is looking to play role of the COO, looking at how to build the team. And Banner is the team president and salary-cap expert for whom the question is usually 'How can we afford it?' They're both hyper-competitive workaholics. It seems like they're philosophically aligned. And they have the necessary creative tension that you see in many other industries."

And that dynamic extends to how all five of the team's top executives deal with each other, the Wharton instructor said.

"There clearly is lots of trust among the hierarchy," he said. "There's an open management style, and they're very willing to listen to each other. I think a source in the story said they'd never hire Bill Cowher, someone with that kind of dictatorial style. They have a very nice consensus-building style. They're systematic in their decision-making process. Even Christina [Lurie] has a very defined role. She's very involved in the things she finds interesting and does not touch the things she's not interested in. That's how spouses frequently operate in small- to mid-sized private companies."

Rosner said much of the credit for upper management's Kumbaya style should go to Jeff Lurie, whose willingness to delegate is unusual in the egotistical universe of professional sports owners.

"It seems like there's a very transparent decision-making process," Rosner said. "It doesn't sound like people are going behind each other's backs. You've got Lurie as the delegator, involved only in the major decisions, like signing Michael Vick or trading McNabb.

"The strategy of hiring great people and getting out of the way is one a lot of professional sports owners have a hard time with. A lot of owners forget everything they did that allowed them to accumulate the great wealth and buy a sports team in the first place."

Lurie came to the Eagles from the movie business. While that background undoubtedly proved useful when it came to the entertainment aspects of NFL football, according to Rosner it was hardly the ideal business model.

Sony or Fox can judge a film successful even if it doesn't win an Academy Award. But an Eagles season without a Super Bowl is ultimately a failure.

"In the movie industry, it's not a binary equation," Rosner said. "It's not just win or lose when you make a film. There's not only one winner. Your business can be successful by other standards. In one industry you have a single motive: to generate profit. In the other, you've got two motives, to generate profit and to win championships. It's a hard balance but one the Eagles seem to manage as well as most teams."

One incident that tested that balance came last summer when the organization stunned the football world by signing Vick, not long after the quarterback had been released from prison in connection with the infamous dogfighting ring he operated.

Having long stated their desire to scout character as well as talent, the Eagles suddenly had to explain why they had joined forces with perhaps the No. 1 villain in sports.

"I don't think it brings the Eagles back to the pack," Rosner said. "But perception is different than reality. For some, the perception is that now the Eagles are just like everybody else. Did it hurt the brand? I think in the short term it did. Among certain populations, the Eagles are the team that hired the guy who tortured the dogs.

"But the Vick decision is actually one that's not so radically different from what a lot of other industries need to address. It's a classic human-resource issue. You've got bad-acting individuals in every industry. There are very talented people who make big mistakes, don't do a very good job, walk away with a lot more money than Michael Vick got, and resurface somewhere else shortly thereafter. Look at Bob Nardelli."

He is the CEO who bounced from GE to Home Depot to Chrysler despite almost uniformly bad results.

The equally difficult decision to trade McNabb, their longtime franchise star, to Washington on Easter Sunday struck some as "New Coke" foolhardy, a callous abandonment of the face that built the brand.

"I'm not so sure," said Rosner. "Coke doesn't have a shelf life. Professional athletes like McNabb do. Coke can endure for a century or more, and it has. Whereas with pro athletes, the nature of the business is that you have constant turnover. It's an unfortunate but realistic part of their business."

What happens now? Now that the Eagles have traded McNabb and turned a page, the immediate forecasts at least are for a downturn in fortunes. How will that play with their passionate fans in this era of instant gratification?

"Sports franchises are far more emotional businesses than others," said Rosner. "You might be a big fan of Tide or Budweiser or Colgate or Chiquita bananas. But you don't emote in the same way over it. We're far more loyal to sports franchises than other products.

"I've got a 19-month-old son. There have been lots of kids developing rashes and chemical burns because of a new formula [a certain brand of diapers] is using. Well, the smart response is don't buy that brand. But if the Eagles put out a bad product one year, am I going to shun their product? Of course not."

Not as long, anyway, as the team's management remains committed to building a mousetrap that will snare them the long-elusive Super Bowl victory.

"That's sports," Rosner said. "All but one team walks away a loser in the major aspect of their business every single year."