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Thursday, July 9, 2015

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS

Hackett unsure of future,
but confident in game plan

Despite strong fan
support, interim
athletic director

hesitant to commit

By ZACH SHAW

Summer Managing Sports Editor

After firing Brady Hoke, hir-

ing Jim Harbaugh and landing
a reported record-high apparel
deal with Nike, most Michigan
fans would happily let Interim
Athletic Director Jim Hack-
ett drop the
‘Interim’ part
of his title and
simply
take

the job.

But
just

like
all
the

decisions
he

has made at
the
position,

Hackett
is

happy to take
all the time he
needs to make sure his decision
on his future, whatever it is, is
the right one.

“I’m not there yet,” Hack-

ett said on Tuesday. “I know it
sounds funny to you, but there’s
no hidden thing. It’s working, so
why mess with it?

“Right now, I’ve got more

issues to tackle, so I’m focused
on that.”

Hackett’s patience is a luxury

afforded by a support staff that
now includes former Oregon
State Athletic Director Bob De
Carolis. De Carolis — a former
Michigan softball coach and ath-
letics administrator from 1979-
1998 — has retired to Ann Arbor
after 17 years at Oregon State,
and is serving as a senior advi-
sor with no intentions of becom-
ing the next Athletic Director at
Michigan.

De Carolis is helping out with

day-to-day tasks, such as ongo-

ing construction
at
Michigan’s

athletic campus,
and is a part of a
team of experi-
enced assistants
and
advisors

Hackett is dele-
gating expanded
leadership roles
to.

“We have very

clear ownership

of aspects within the organiza-
tion,” Hackett said. “It’s a little
different than (predecessor Dave
Brandon’s). I have a smaller team
working for me, but they have
bigger jobs.”

“They pray I don’t manage

the day-to-day,” he added with a
grin. “What we have is a perfect

fit for my style.”

The
system,
as
Hackett

explained it to reporters on
Tuesday,
is

what he called a
‘Point-of-View’
process. Essen-
tially,
when-

ever a task or
problem arises,
whichever
employee
has

the most expe-
rience in handling the issue will
take control, sometimes even
giving orders to Hackett.

The result, according to Hack-

ett, is an increased ownership
and devotion to the tasks, along
with visible acuity to the issue at
hand.

“I’m not saying I’m above it

all or distant, it’s just finding
where is the best use of my time.
Bill Gates used to use a phrase
call ‘Bill Dollars,’ because where
do you want to spend Bill Dol-
lars over the course of the day in
Microsoft?

“Where do you want to spend

Jim Hackett’s time? Where can
we get the most leverage from
him, and what are his skills and
gifts? There’s a lot of that around
me that is much better handled
by (fellow employees).”

But the elephant in the room

remains.
Eventually,
Hackett

will have to take ownership of

the job, or pass it on to the next
candidate.

***

Fan approval of the Athletic

Department is evidenced by
decade-high ticket interest and
sales, but Hackett knows the
circumstances
behind both his
arrival — when
he
replaced

the
resign-

ing
Brandon

in
November

— and decision-
making
don’t

indicate a suc-
cessful
long-

term future.

“When I came

here, (University President Mark
Schlissel) had been on the job I
think eight weeks,” Hackett said.
“There was a sea of problems (at
Michigan) that weren’t just ath-
letics, but a lot of transitional
pieces going around. In the midst
of that, we’ve got the football
program and I thought ‘With all
that, the things you would need
to know about somebody to make
a decision of their permanence,
we bypassed.’

“So it would be like a forced

marriage,
and

what’s
the

probability that
that’s going to
live like my 39
years of mar-
riage? So I said
to
the
Presi-

dent, ‘If you’re
OK, I’d like to

put that off until we both think
it needs more attention.’ ”

Hackett has asked Schlissel to

meet with him after the presi-
dent returns from China, and

has at least three more major
projects that he isn’t ready to
announce yet.

His mind isn’t made up about

the future, but thanks to an
enhanced support staff, it doesn’t
have to be.

“You almost want the thing

running better almost as if you

weren’t there,
because
it

means
every-

one
around

you is stron-
ger,”
Hackett

said.

“I want you

to think about
empowerment
and growth as
a virtue I get
to bring to the

organization. If the day I leave
everyone says, ‘He asked us to
do more and we were better,’ I’d
be happy with a report card like
that.”

ZACH MOORE/Daily

Interim Athletic Director Jim Hackett has no plans to leave Michigan yet, but is still hesitant to become a permanant employee.

“There’s no

hidden thing. It’s
working, so why

mess it up?”

BY THE NUMBERS
Jim Hackett

1977

Year Hackett graduated. He was the cen-
ter on the football team and teammates

with Dave Brandon
$175

Cost of season tickets next fall, far lower
than the $295 price tag under Brandon.

31

Years he worked for Steelcase Furniture,

serving as CEO for 20 of those years.

1

Coaching hires made so far by Hackett

(football coach Jim Harbaugh).

“I’ve got more
issues to tackle,
so I’m focused

on that.”

“It would be
like a forced
marriage.”