Mike Forde
Most companies say their people are their greatest asset. Few build the operating systems to prove it. The franchises and clubs that win year after year in elite sport run those systems with a rigor most boardrooms do not match.
Mike Forde helps companies build the operating systems behind sustained high performance, drawing on six years inside Chelsea FC and his work as founder of Sportsology Group.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Mike Forde
- His vantage point is inside the building. As Director of Football Operations at Chelsea FC, he ran recruitment, contracts, sport science and team operations across the club’s most successful era: the Champions League, the Europa League, the Premier League and three FA Cups inside six years.
- Few advisors work credibly across the EPL and the major US leagues. Sportsology, the firm he founded in 2014, has long-running client relationships with the Philadelphia Eagles, Atlanta Falcons, Brooklyn Nets and San Antonio Spurs alongside European football clubs.
- He has been the architect of senior appointments that have shaped franchises. The Brooklyn Nets hired him in 2016 to lead their general manager search and he placed Sean Marks, who rebuilt the roster around Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. The Sacramento Kings retained him for the same purpose in 2020.
- His co-authored book Quiet Leadership (Portfolio Penguin, 2016), written with Carlo Ancelotti and Chris Brady, gives him a developed framework on leading talented egos. It has sold over 100,000 copies and is read well outside professional sport.
Biography highlights
- Founder and Executive Chairman of Sportsology Group, an advisory firm based in New York and London with clients across European football, the NFL, NBA and MLB
- Director of Football Operations and Executive Club Director at Chelsea FC, 2007 to 2013, the most successful era in the club’s history
- Performance Director at Bolton Wanderers FC, 1999 to 2007
- Co-author of Quiet Leadership: Winning Hearts, Minds and Matches with Carlo Ancelotti and Chris Brady (Portfolio Penguin, 2016)
- Led the general manager searches for the Brooklyn Nets (placing Sean Marks in 2016) and the Sacramento Kings (2020)
- BSc Sport Science, Liverpool John Moores University; MSc Psychology and Sport, San Diego State University
Biography
Chelsea FC won everything in sight between 2007 and 2013: the Champions League, the Europa League, the Premier League and three FA Cups. Mike Forde sat inside the building for that entire run as Director of Football Operations and Executive Club Director.
He had spent the previous seven years at Bolton Wanderers FC as Performance Director. The Chelsea role professionalised that work at scale: recruitment, contracts, sport science, performance analysis and team operations under public pressure.
He founded Sportsology Group in 2014 to do similar work outside one club. The firm now operates from New York and London, advising franchise owners, leagues and institutional capital across European football, the NFL, NBA and MLB. Sportsology has worked with the Philadelphia Eagles, Atlanta Falcons, Brooklyn Nets, San Antonio Spurs and LA Rams. The firm also runs senior leadership searches: Forde placed Sean Marks at the Brooklyn Nets in 2016 and was retained by the Sacramento Kings in 2020.
His co-authored book Quiet Leadership (Portfolio Penguin, 2016) sets out the methods Carlo Ancelotti used to lead talented egos at AC Milan, Chelsea, PSG and Real Madrid. It has sold over 100,000 copies and is cited regularly by senior managers far outside professional sport. The Ringer profiled Forde in 2021 as the consultant NBA owners call when a general manager search begins.
Key speaking topics
- High performance team culture
- Talent identification and development
- Leadership of high ego performers
- Operating systems behind sustained winning
- Lessons from elite sport for corporate leaders
- Senior executive search and assessment
- Multi cultural team management
Ideal for
- CHROs, CPOs and heads of talent rebuilding the systems behind spotting and keeping high performers
- CEOs and senior leadership teams setting cultural standards that outlast personnel change
- Senior partner and managing director audiences in professional and financial services firms
- Sales leadership and customer facing kickoff events focused on team performance
Audience outcomes
- A working vocabulary for what separates winning teams from the rest, drawn from clubs that win under public scrutiny
- Direct examples of how Carlo Ancelotti, Sir Dave Brailsford and other elite sport leaders manage difficult egos and protect culture through change
- A sharper diagnosis of where their own talent and culture systems are weakest, with reference points from the NFL, NBA and European football
- Tools they can apply directly to hiring decisions and talent reviews
Talks
The principles that produce sustained winning in elite sport, translated for senior corporate teams.
Key takeaways:
- The building blocks of a culture that wins consistently, taken from clubs that have done it across multiple seasons
- The characteristics that separate teams that perform under pressure from those that fold
- Practical steps to attract, develop and keep the right people in an organisation
A practical session on how the highest performing managers in world sport get the most from talented egos, and what it tells corporate leaders about retention and motivation.
Key takeaways:
- The methods Carlo Ancelotti and other elite managers use to lead high status performers
- How to know when a talented but disruptive person should be cut from the team
- What McKinsey’s “war for talent” actually looks like inside a high performance organisation today
On the cultural standards that survive change of leadership, ownership and strategy, and why most corporate cultures fail to outlast their founders.
Key takeaways:
- Why people come and go but culture is the constant that decides long term performance
- How the most successful sports clubs build values that outlast specific managers and players
- The diagnostics senior leaders can use to test the durability of their own culture
On the practical management of teams drawn from many countries, traditions and styles, taken from leading European dressing rooms and US locker rooms.
Key takeaways:
- How elite sport handles the same multi cultural challenge corporate teams face today
- The specific habits and structures that turn cultural difference into competitive advantage
- How to communicate and motivate individuals from very different backgrounds inside one team