The Problem with All-Star Teams →
Matt Drance:
Facebook’s moves suggest it wants to succeed here. It’s gobbling up a remarkable amount of talent — an All-Star Team, if you will. The problem with all-star rosters, of course, is that as a team they often suck. It’s an odd phenomenon, but if you put too much greatness in the same room, things don’t always turn out so… great. Each all-star may be too used to his or her way of doing things, and while all the team members might respect each other, they don’t necessarily flow together very well. They don’t communicate properly. They don’t share the ball. They just don’t work as a team.
Very thoughtful piece. This works for other industries as well, soccer for example: Real Madrid & Manchester City have been on a spending spree. Trying to buy the trophies by buying the best players around. And neither of the two has had any real success in surpassing their respective rivals, Barcelona & Manchester United. You can certainly buy talent but you can’t buy a team.
Adding a talented player to your team could work out great. Changing 9 players out of your 11 people line-up is however more likely to disrupt the team then to improve it. At least for the near term. It will be interesting to see how things work out for Facebook.
