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It was a seemingly impossible order: Re-brand an entire Major League Soccer franchise in 45 days.

“Can we wait a season?” Marc de Grandpré, the executive assigned the task, asked his boss.  

“It takes 13-24 months for a team to go through the process and get all the gear.”

When de Grandpré was told his question was a non-starter, he went to work — partnering with Adidas, transitioning the ticket stock and tracking down some of the biggest names in music to perform at his club’s home opener.

Six weeks later, Red Bull New York — formerly the Metro Stars — kicked off its season at Giants Stadium in front of nearly 36,000 fans.  

De Grandpré is now the club’s president and general manager — and he still regards that stretch as the most intense and informative period of his professional life.

The Daily Coach spoke to him recently about meeting ambitious deadlines, the importance of employee feedback and the benefits of being an outsider by traditional standards.   

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Marc, thanks a lot for doing this. Tell us a little about your childhood and some key lessons from it.

I grew up in a small town outside of Montreal. Obviously, growing up in Canada, hockey plays a large part in any kid’s life. I had some great coaches early on. One who really left a mark on me was Bob Nathan, who was our pee-wee coach. He was a disciplinarian to say the least. You couldn’t hide from working hard. You couldn’t fake working hard. He demanded a lot of us, but he helped us understand what team really means.

My parents never told me you can’t dream this or do this. “If you want to go for it, go for it. Find a way.” Baseball was a perfect example. I was 16 or 17 and had played in the summers, never seriously, but thought maybe I could play in college. They said, “If that’s what you want to do, figure out how you can position yourself to maybe get a shot at playing baseball.” I found a camp in Florida over Christmas and flew down there using all my money I’d saved from working summer jobs. It was a showcase I had no business being at. But I did pretty well fielding and running. Some coaches said, “Hey, this guy hasn’t played a lot. Maybe he has potential.” It led me to going to Southern New Hampshire College because my mom loved the coach, Bruce Joyce.

Your grandfather was a very prominent businessman in Canada and your family was pretty well-known. Did you feel any pressure to live up to the de Grandpré name?

My grandfather was one of the most successful businessmen of his time in Canada, but you would never know. He was very humble in his ways. It was never about him. It was about the folks who worked with him, surrounding himself with great people and having conviction in what is right and wrong.

I left Canada somewhat to get away from the name and go do it on my own. When I was 18, I lost a dear friend. We were very close. She lost a battle to cancer. It was a moment where I wanted to go somewhere where no one knew our name or where I came from and start on my own. That’s why I went to college in the states to play baseball and hockey.

The expectations were always, “If you’re a de Grandpré, you’ve got to be super smart, super hard working,” all of this, but they were never driven from within the family. It was all external expectations from people who didn't know us. It was never that we had to follow in his footsteps. We had the freedom to follow whatever passion we had, as long as we put in the work and earned it on our own.

Want to shift to your early professional career at Red Bull, the energy drink company. What did you learn in those years that still serves you?

I’d say the word was “chaos.” It was learning to build the brand and be an entrepreneur. There was no structure. I didn’t get paid for the first three months because I was Canadian and my Visa wasn’t processed. We had to build everything from the ground up. It was blood, sweat and tears. I didn’t have a master plan, but I found some really smart people to work with me. We had a great brand, a great owner with a vision and great leaders in North America to help us grow. 

How many distributors and retailers said, “This will never work?” We just kept going at it. It drove resilience in all of us. We got a lot of No’s but pushed through and pushed through. Now, we look back and all have a grin on our face and smile at what happened — from nothing, to seeing a can on a ground and celebrating, “Oh my God, somebody bought a Red Bull and drank it!”, to the moment the owner walked into our office at lunchtime in Hoboken, N.J., and informed us he’s buying a team.

You didn’t have a soccer background at all. What stands out to you the most from those early weeks in branding a sports franchise?  

It went from disbelief to belief in about an hour because he asked me and another gentleman to go with him to New York when he bought the team from A.G. That was probably the most challenging 45 days of my professional career, going from marketing and selling cans to, “Go figure out how the Red Bulls are going to play here in 45 days in the home opener when I come back in April.”

It was tough as nails, but it was also so rewarding to see it come together. I didn’t play soccer. I didn’t know soccer. To me, it was the power of setting this ambition, an almost impossible goal, and finding a way. We found a way working with Adidas and everyone else to change everything from ticket stock to the paint in the locker rooms, all the merchandise and gear. We had a great event and locked in Shakira, Rihanna, Wyclef Jean. We had Pelé there.

It reminds me as a leader to continually set ambitious targets for your team and hold them accountable to them. There’s always a way to find a solution if you have the right people.

Are there any ways in which you think being an outsider may have benefited you? 

I think I bring a perspective that is grounded and rooted in the traditional business world. I can ask really ignorant questions because I didn’t grow up in the game. I’m not part of the network in the sports world who came through the system. The questions may be off-kilter, but they lead sometimes to people questioning their own decisions and challenging the status-quo. Sometimes, it’s a disadvantage when we get real technical about the game, but I’ve learned about it with some good people around me. Overall, I think it’s been an advantage.

Can you tell me a little about your “sensing sessions?”

Those are awesome. A few years ago, our leadership team was in West Point to do some team building. One of the Generals who was talking to us said when he went on the front line to see the troops, he would meet with a small group of folks and ask them how it was going. They would provide him feedback, and it was an open dialogue, free flowing. I started doing that here — and it’s been amazing.

It gives them the ability to ask me anything. I may not have an answer. I may not be able to give you an answer, but I’ll get as close to what’s possible. It’s also feedback on me. What do you think I’m doing well? What am I doing that’s slowing you down and not getting you the resources you need to succeed? The feedback is awesome. I hear about communication, or lack thereof, frustrations about X, Y, Z policy, why does it take so long to get something approved?

You have to park your ego at the door when you walk into these rooms. You have to take your blinders off and channel as much humility as you can because they don’t hold back. But as a leader, I think it’s really important for all of us to learn from the people doing the day-to-day work, the front line, and learn what their day to day is. I don’t know what all of the 199 employees do every day, but I have a much better sense of how difficult some of their jobs are, what’s challenging them and what we need to address to make sure they become the best versions of themselves. 

Why are hand-written notes so important to you and your culture?

Before the holidays, everyone gets a hand-written note from me thanking them for what they’ve done. During the season, I’ll send hand-written notes to someone who went above and beyond. It’s the least I can do. Last year, I made a mistake. We were running out of time, and I wrote a canned message that was printed on cards and just signed them. Big mistake. That’s on me.

This year, it’s back to hand-written by me, specific messages for each individual. It’s important for me to recognize them. It’s part of our culture. We recognize and thank each other for great work every day.

It seems like there’s a lot of empathy in your leadership style and that you make yourself vulnerable to your employees and team members. How do you balance that with having discipline and standards within the organization?

I don’t think one is without the other. To drive discipline and the standards we want, it starts with me showing vulnerability, empathy and the team seeing me as one of them. Yet, when they need direction and they need discipline and a goal post set, they know they can look up to me to steer them in the direction that’s in our collective best interest.

As my grandfather always said, “Lead with love.” This is a people business that starts with people and ends with people, on and off the field. If you don’t show them that you truly care for them and appreciate them individually, you’re not going to get the results you want.   

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