Leadership and Senior Management

In February 1989, a syndicate led by Jones purchased the Cowboys for $140 million; $95 million for the team and another $45 million for the stadium lease. In exchange for his 53 percent share of the team, Jones put up $90 million of his own money and borrowed the remainder against his personal assets.

As part of deal, Jones did not acquire Texas Stadium, but rather the operating rights to it. He received the benefits of stadium ownership without incurring the negative tax consequences. Jones agreed to pay the city a modest fixed lease and assumed the stadium's operating expenses, totaling about $5 million a year. In exchange, he received 100 percent of the revenue from parking, concessions, merchandise, stadium advertising, and luxury suite sales.

Jones began overhauling the organization by first ousting former leadership. Getting rid of an organization's roots isn't always easy, well received, or without controversy, but Jones had the commitment from his minority owners. Jones, like Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, wanted to be as hands-on as possible and he wasn't shy about these intentions.

He fired legendary coach Tom Landry the very day he acquired the team that won just three of 16 games in 1988. How much of a legend was Landry? He played fullback and defensive back for the Texas Longhorns in the late 1940s, and he became the third winningest coach in the history of the NFL while serving as the Cowboys only coach. In fact, from 1966 to 1985, Landry led the team to 20 consecutive winning seasons.

Although it was said that Jones' predecessor, H. R. "Bum" Bright, was also ready to dismiss Landry had Bright not sold the team, Jones rubbed many the wrong way, including many league and team officials who believed Jones had preordained Jimmy Johnson as the team's new coach.

Jones didn't care about how people perceived what he was doing with his new investment. He fired the heads of many departments, including public relations director Doug Todd. Of those remaining, many resigned, including GM Tex Schramm, head of player personnel Gil Brandt, and vice president Joe Bailey.

Jones understood that he would face tremendous pressure given these management changes, especially because Landry and Schramm had been with the team since the 1960s. However, in the three seasons leading up to Jones' purchase, the franchise had posted three consecutive losing seasons for the first time since 1964.

Jones believed that he could turn the Cowboys around by devoting all of his time, energy, and resourcefulness to the team. He set out to accomplish this by overhauling his executive staff and team roster, and by containing organizational costs. Combining his commitment to the team with his desire to capitalize on the brand name of the Cowboys, Jones quickly made sweeping and excruciatingly difficult changes throughout the organization.

It is not uncommon for new team owners to "clean house" on their purchase. Some do it because of chronic organizational ineptness. Other new owners make wholesale changes to let fans, the media, and even other franchise owners know that things will be different; not necessarily better, but at least different.

In many respects the immediate and pronounced changes brought to the organizations by the likes of Jones are no different than most new ownership who immediately seek to assuage shareholder concerns by taking a broom to the executive suite. However, this sweeping must be undertaken carefully and with customers in mind.

This is witnessed on the local level when the neighborhood tavern changes ownership and the first thing the new management team does is bring in its own bartender, a guy that might have worked well at its other location but has no roots in the local community. In this instance, the barflies (shareholders) are merely hoping to commiserate with a bartender (executive) they have known for years. Often, such patrons are willing to change their buying habits by following their bartender down the street to his or her new afternoon gig.

When Jones made the immediate and highly public changes in his senior management, most notably the firing of Landry, they were met with great criticism. Many believed Jones had trampled on the sanctity of America's Team, and others thought the changes were necessary believing that the game "had passed" Landry by. Regardless, it was evident that Jones did not fully understand or comprehend the extent to which the Cowboys were not just loved, but revered. He appeared heavy-handed, lacking an appreciation for the tradition and legacy of the team.

Recent mergers and acquisitions throughout the world of big business have demonstrated that Jones was not alone in misunderstanding the business culture or environment in which newly acquired or merged businesses operate.

Quaker Oats bought Snapple for $1.7 billion in 1994. The drink company had experienced major growth propelled in part by its wide range of spokespeople, including shock jock Howard Stern, talk radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, and Wendy, "the Snapple lady" with the heavy Long Island accent who actually answered phones at company headquarters.

However, when Quaker Oats completed its acquisition, it swiftly removed all three. Stern bashed the brand, sales plummeted, and shelf space in supermarkets became harder to protect. When Triarc Cos. bought the brand three years later for $300 million it moved quickly to rehabilitate the brand by running ads on Stern's radio show and bringing back Wendy. This back-to-the-future approach helped as sales slowly recovered.

It can be argued that Quaker Oats instituted the changes because it wanted to communicate an "under new management" message, but telling people that, especially when a brand is strong, doesn't necessarily enhance it.

Think about your favorite restaurant. You're a "regular" who is far more familiar with the waitresses than you are with the management. One day, a new owner takes over. As long as the food is good and the dining experience is the same you might not notice the transition. Now suppose the new management comes in and hangs one of those "Under New Management" signs in the window. Your first impression, instead of not noticing, might now be this: Was there something wrong that I didn't notice? Why did the old managers leave? Were there rats in the kitchen?

Jones risked hanging up the sign, but his reasons behind the change were better reasoned than those of Quaker Oats.

After weathering the intense scrutiny associated with these high-profile dismissals, Jones turned his attention to restructuring the team on the field. Because the team finished with a 3 13 record, the Cowboys received the top pick in the 1989 NFL draft. Jones and his new head coach, former University of Miami coach Jimmy Johnson had two choices: They could trade the pick and acquire numerous additional draft picks or players or keep the pick and use it to select the draft's consensus top prospect, UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman.

Many of a company's employees have become part of the team because they were at the right place at the right time. They knew someone who worked in the firm, or maybe they came out of college when a hiring boom was taking place. Perhaps they simply went to the right college the one where the organization heavily recruits new talent or where the company CEO is a member of the board of trustees.

You might contend that no company can discover every incredible prospect like scouts and draft analysts arguably do, but selecting the right talent at the right time is still as paramount to an NFL team as it is in the business world.

Knowing that eager, dedicated employees are the backbone to the organization, Jones built his core of athletes by focusing on young, draft-eligible talent. Jones selected Aikman because he felt that, in addition to his extraordinary talent, picking Aikman would demonstrate to fans that Jones indeed was committed to putting a winning team on the field regardless of cost. Aikman's six-year contract for $11 million was the largest contract a rookie had ever received, Jones was determined to send a clear message that he would rejuvenate America's Team.

Has your company ever had the chance to hire someone like Troy Aikman someone you thought was "the franchise"? Did you make the right choice or blow it, squandering precious time and resources on employees that never panned out? Just how sure was Jones that Aikman was the ideal fit for the Cowboys? He signed him four days before the draft. The Cleveland Browns signed their No. 1 pick in 1999 prior to the draft and the Houston Texans came to terms with their No. 1 pick, David Carr, before the 2002 draft. In 1989, such developments were not only rare, but were considered fairly risky.

Jones strongly believed that stability and continuity in ownership and coaching were two of the three key ingredients to success in the NFL, the third being a superstar quarterback and a supporting cast for the future.

Whether he realized it or not, Jones was evoking the key elements of any successful business, namely competent management, strong leadership, and great employees.

He realized that although Aikman was going to be the team's leader, the quarterback could not by himself solve all the team's problems and recognized that Aikman's on-field leadership needed to be complemented by a compelling supporting cast if he was to rebuild the organization.

Accordingly, Jones overhauled his player personnel. He rapidly jettisoned high-priced and underachieving veterans for hungry, cost-effective younger players. Believing that he and his coaching staff were superior at identifying talent, Jones set out to systematically overhaul the team by acquiring additional draft picks, future players that he believed would contribute to multiple Super Bowl victories.

Jones' approach to building the franchise from within by leveraging senior management's collective eye for talent was validated when the Cowboys pulled off one of the most lopsided trades in the history of professional sports. On October 12, 1989, the Cowboys traded Herschel Walker and two third-round draft picks to the Minnesota Vikings for five players and seven draft picks, including Minnesota's first- and second-round selections from 1990 through 1992. Outstanding players that joined the Cowboys as a direct result of the trade included running back Emmitt Smith and defensive tackle Russell Maryland.

The added maneuverability given the team through the additional draft picks enabled the Cowboys to trade some of these picks during future NFL drafts, yielding the team even more draft picks in fact, a club record 17 in 1991. Further, in Jones' first four years, the Cowboys made 45 trades.

In addition to drafting Aikman, the lopsided Herschel Walker trade gave the Cowboys the depth and breadth of employees needed to complement management and leadership.