One of my boyhood idols was Philadelphia Flyers Captain Bobby Clarke. Clarke was known for his work ethic, his passion, and his selfless belief that the team mattered more than any individual. To this day, Clarke remains the only Flyer in its 43 year history to hoist the Stanley Cup in the air in a victory lap, and he did it twice in a row.
Following his career, Clarke became a General Manager and changed his first name to just Bob. He held a variety of executive positions with the Flyers and, for a brief period, other NHL clubs. Just this past week, Clarke was honored for his management success.
One team Clarke managed was the (now defunct) Minnesota North Stars – which made a Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup in Clarke’s first year as a GM with the team.
Bob Ganey, North Stars coach, recalled Clarke’s management approach: “He’d pull out a pad of paper and he’d say, ‘What are our needs? Where are we weak?’ And then once that was established, it was, ‘How do we answer those needs? How do we attempt to solve those things?’ That’s a method of work that I still use, not only in my work capacity as a manager, but in other places. What’s the problem? Where are we weak? What do we need and how do we solve that problem?”
A simple approach…but an approach worth featuring as an example of excellence in operations. To read more about Clarke’s management approach, go to the Flyers web site at:
