Management lessons from Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, GM Bob Myers

Enlarge Photo

Ron Leuty

Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

Email  |  Twitter  |  Google+  |  Twitter

The Golden State Warriors open their NBA season Wednesday night in Sacramento with a new head coach and a new offensive system in their quest to return to the playoffs (and more?) for a third straight season.

That feat hasn't been accomplished by a Warriors team since the mid-1970s.

Change in any organization is tough to manage — especially when its a high-profile National Basketball Association team coming off a 51-win season under another head coach — so we asked new court boss Steve Kerr and General Manager Bob Myers how they look at this season and who are some of their management mentors.

How do you manage through change?

Kerr: In basketball, players are used to changing styles. The biggest thing to me is to implement a style that suits the players and honor the work they're used to doing.

Keep doing what you're doing and make it better.

Myers: The best organizations really embody continuity. You don't look to have a lot of change. You try to avoid that and you try to make them as infrequently as possible.

Is this season ultimately judged by that 51-win level?

Kerr: If we don't win 51 games, I'll look like an idiot — and I probably am an idiot. I know that would be written, but I try not to worry about that. I'm focused on us playing. Things can go either way with injuries and other things, but you just try to work through that.

Myers: I'm more concerned with the process we employ every day. Sometimes things exist outside our control — there are pleasant and unpleasant surprises — but we can't judge this numerically.

How do you manage through unexpected events?

Kerr: I don't know. I'll tell you when it happens.

Ron covers biotech, higher education & sports business.