Robert Eenhoorn: from top baseball player to soccer visionary

As a baseball player, he was successful. He played for the New York Yankees, won the European title as national coach and, as technical director, saw the Dutch national team stunt by becoming world champions in 2011. In short: for Robert Eenhoorn, top sport equals achieving the impossible. That appealed so much to AZ board chairman René Neelissen that he appointed Eenhoorn as general manager in 2014. Seven years later, the 53-year-old Rotterdam native is considered a visionary within national top soccer and AZ continues to make strides as a dynamic professional organization. " Small things make big things happen. "Text: Jaap de Groot
Online Editor: Noa Verseveldt
Image: John van Helvert

The common thread throughout your career is that you always want to tap the top. You won't do it for less?

"Let me say up front that it's true. In top sports, it's about rising above yourself. You can think of all kinds of things why it won't work out, but I've always looked for the challenges. That's what top sport is about at its core. Strengthened by how I experienced America and then the Yankees in particular. There it was either win or not good. Nothing in between."

Where does that drive come from?

"I dare not say. I actually don't know any better. When I was young I decided to go to America, while many people wondered what I was going to do there. Yet I managed to play at the biggest club and win prizes. The same story after my return to the Netherlands, where everyone in baseball was quite satisfied with regularly being the best in Europe. So the bar went up and joining the world top became the goal, although we had less money, fewer players, some of whom were also amateurs. Then it's about everyone getting the same goal. If that works, you are capable of surprising things as a team. As proved in 2011 at the World Cup."

Not winning is not something to live with?

"Not winning is difficult. And when it does happen, it has to be explainable. If the goals are set high and you don't achieve them, the discussion that follows is: what didn't go well? Immediately make sure you are in front of the mirror. If you do that, you are always working to get better. In the safe Dutch culture that sometimes means that you are not always understood."

What must a top sports organization meet today?

"It's easy to give vision and strategy as the answer. Which I find a bit dead wrong, because what do vision and strategy mean? For me it mainly revolves around two aspects: a core purpose must be declared and core values apply within the organization. Only then do you get to strategy. Which then has to be explained in very simple terms. To all levels that are directly or indirectly involved. Because not explaining it is a reason not to do it. Moreover, you give people an outlet to tell stories. In summary, a top sports organization is about five things: vision, goal, ambition, strategy and winning. Especially with the first four, you are working on them every day. You talk about it with each other and test it regularly. That process must ultimately lead to winning. So when I started here seven years ago, we named the top four as our goal. And made it clear that you can only achieve that if you go to extremes together. That means that within the club, people will join and people will drop out. The latter went reasonably well, by the way, because several people felt 'I don't fit in here anymore'. Still, there is a big difference between the Netherlands and America. There everyone can participate up to and including college, then your career is over or you become a professional. What I mentioned before: from the beginning in American sports it is a matter of winning and surviving or not good. Which makes it clear that every selection process is a reflection of a country's culture. But whether it's America or the Netherlands, in the end it's about people who are persistent, who are curious. If not, you get people who are stagnant. That is why I am attracted to people who find it important to develop further in an inspiring environment. Who function from the mindset of what an organization can do for you rather than the other way around. And, of course, they must have quality. That is why it is so important that the core values within the organization have a strong factual foundation. For example, when I arrived at AZ, people had been to Moneyball (film about how AZ commissioner Billy Beane allowed his Oakland A's club, with data analytics never applied and limited financial resources, to keep connection with the top; ed.), only that had not been translated into a clear digital policy. I find myself in the fortunate position of being able to quickly bring people to the table who can make sense of that. Where people with responsibility within an organization don't see that as threatening, but understand that the more information you have, the greater the chance of making a good decision."

And all this was set in motion within an organization still described by many as a glorified county club.

"Any change you implement creates an opportunity for negative tension. Especially if it doesn't work right away, which is not entirely illogical when you're dealing with the long term. In elite sports, you often see that when things go badly, people get scared, fan assumptions and then seek confirmation of them. Instead of answering a complicated question based on solid research, there is a danger of replacing it with a simple question and thinking that with a simple answer, the complicated question is answered. Like firing a trainer. Some things simply require more research, otherwise decisions are made based on emotion. Sports is steeped in that. So that is one thing and the danger is always around the corner. Also through fans and press. Therefore, to be persistent in the strategy sometimes takes courage."

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MASTERS #48 with guest editor-in-chief Joseph Klibansky