The Role of the Owner

Carolina Panthers Coach Frank Reich’s open-ended comments last week that he and Owner David Tepper “had regular meetings” during the team’s 0-5 start pulled back the curtain on the secretive world inside an NFL building regarding an owner’s day-to-day involvement and decision making.

Like how the late Anthony Bourdain informed the world of the happenings inside the restaurant business in his book Kitchen Confidential (never order the so-called “fresh fish on Sunday”), Reich gave insight — seemingly unintentionally — into who’s running the show in Charlotte.

Why was this so bad?

Because all NFL fans love owners who spend money — but hate when they are involved. They want their owner’s checkbook open, not their mouths or ideas.

The days of an owner operating with old-school methodology, like former Washington owner Jack Kent Cooke or 49ers Eddie DeBartolo, are long gone. DeBartolo and Cooke saw their ownership roles as “The Chief of Questions.” They felt that an owner’s job was to hire the right people then ask thought-provoking questions that pertain to the core issues of winning in the NFL.

Today, questions are not asked as frequently as analytics have made everyone an NFL expert. You can cite numbers, use fancy terms, and be a football person before long.

Remember, analytics come from the past.

Ogilvy U.K. Vice Chairman Rory Sutherland said, “It’s important to remember that big data all comes from the same place – the past. A new campaigning style, a single rogue variable, or a ‘black swan event’ can throw the most perfectly calibrated model into chaos.”

Analytics are important. However, understanding how to apply the numbers requires some experience in the field. Why?

Analytics never know who’s on the field — and whoever is on the field matters more than numbers. Therefore, analytics have turned many organizations into Dunning-Kruger, a ​cognitive bias in which people overestimate their own knowledge or abilities in a particular area.

“Listen, obviously he’s a very accomplished individual, and he’s built his own empire,” Reich said of Tepper. “He knows how he did that. I don’t have his bank of experience to draw from. I have my own. But do I think he has the right mentality of the ‘win now’ but also ‘this is going to be a longer-term thing’ as well? He wants both.”

Because analytics give everyone a voice, we can learn from Sam Bankman-Fried as input into the dealing with data-driven decision makers. From Ed Smith’s review of Michael Lewis’ book, “SBF Develops among Silicon Valley’s princelings, any question that does not yield a verifiable and quantifiable answer is deemed stupid – especially literary criticism, English, the arts full stop. If it’s not math, it’s not real.”

So far in his reign as the sole owner, Tepper has failed to understand his “real” value comes from his experience when framed in the form of questions. He could make his organization elite by taking this approach and slightly altering his role.

Donnie Walsh, the former Indiana Pacers president, revealed that his owners, Mel and Herb Simon, gave him the ultimate decision-making power with one small stipulation: They needed to be informed before the transaction took place. Then, they would ask Walsh questions about why he was doing the trade why he felt it was in the Pacers’ best interest, long and short term.

Then, from hearing his answers, Walsh would either go forward or pivot. The questions forced Walsh to rethink his position, to explain in detail the “why.”

By asking questions, the Simons’ placed the decision in the right context.

Walsh determined by the strength of his answers how to think, behave, and act.

That’s perfection for any organization.