The Game.
When Zak Brown became CEO of McLaren Racing in 2018, he didn't inherit a winning team - he inherited a disaster.
The most successful team in British motorsport history, home to Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, and Lewis Hamilton was losing £125 million per year and finishing at the back of the grid.
The culture was toxic, blame was everywhere and accountability was nowhere.
Most leaders would have obsessed over the car; the engineering or the lap times.
Zak Brown did something different.
He ignored the car and fixed the organisation.
He acknowledged the brutal truth: McLaren was broken.
The culture needed rebuilding and the people needed clarity.
He brought in Andrea Stella as Team Principal, a quiet, methodical leader who prioritised team cohesion over ego. He restructured roles so everyone knew what they owned, invested in recruiting world-class talent from Red Bull and Mercedes and committed to a multi-year rebuild when everyone wanted immediate results.
2021: fourth
2022: fifth
2023: fourth
2024: Champions
2025: Champions (and we may see the first McLaren F1 Drivers Champion since Lewis Hamilton in 2008 - come on Lando!).
The results of the turnaround weren’t about better engines or bigger budgets.
It was about understanding that you can't fix performance, without fixing the system that creates performance.
The Analysis.
Elon Musk puts it perfectly: "The factory is the machine that builds the machine."
Most business leaders make the same mistake McLaren did before Brown arrived.
They see the performance problem and try to fix it directly.
But if your organisation is broken, your output will always be broken.
No matter how many times yo redesign the product or push your team to be ‘better’, if the culture is toxic; if roles aren't clear, if people don't trust each other and if accountability doesn't exist - you're not fixing anything.
Brown's approach mirrors what Jim Collins writes in Good to Great:
"First who, then what. Get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. Then figure out where to drive it."
Performance follows culture. Not the other way around.
When Brown took over McLaren, he focused on:
Creating psychological safety so people could innovate without fear
Absolute clarity on roles and accountability
Recruiting the right people, not just filling gaps
Committing to a long-term vision when short-term results didn't come
When you just focus on the track; the car or the product - you're managing symptoms.
When you focus on the organisation; the culture, the people, the systems - you're solving the problem.
Your organisation is the machine, that builds your product.
If the machine is broken, the product will always be broken.
The Reflection.
Are you trying to fix the result, or are you fixing the organisation that creates the results?
Best,
Daniel Holloway
Founder, Sport of Business
P.S. Know someone building a business who thinks like an athlete? Forward this to them. The best performances are by those who understand the game.