Academic studies abound on how those of us in business can learn from the achievements of great sports managers. In business as in sport, it is usually possible to work out within 12 or 18 months whether a leader has what it takes to achieve success.

There are exceptions of course. The one most frequently mentioned is Alex Ferguson, who came very close to getting the sack at Manchester United just before he started to turn the club around.

When someone is appointed chief executive of a company, the greatest test of their management and leadership is their ability to work with those whom they have inherited and balance that group with their own talent. Get that balance right and show the capacity early on to be ruthless and the prospects for success are heightened.

The most prized trophy in world sport is the soccer world cup. Winning a Grand Slam in rugby's Six Nations is some achievement, but to win the world championship in the world's most popular sport, with practically every nation on the globe participating, puts it in the shade.

Phil Scolari led Brazil to be world champions in 2002 and went on to achieve relative success with Portugal over a five-year period. When he went to Chelsea last summer, great things were expected. Club management is very different, but with Chelsea's resources, it seemed inevitable he would succeed. He lasted six months.

Closer to home, Brian Kerr, a genius with Ireland's underage teams, could not make the transition to senior international management. His failure was not to put his faith in some of the younger players on the fringes of the set-up and blend them with the more serious-minded and committed older players. In this way, he failed to establish his culture in the Irish squad.

We see evidence of this in business all the time. Leadership is demanding of those who with the top jobs and often the expectations we have of them are not realistic.

Look at what Declan Kidney did. He inherited an Irish squad, part of which – through the Munster experience – had been bred on his particular vision of how the game should be played. The challenge was always going to be moulding the devoted group of Munster believers with the non-Munster talent pool, some of whom had no experience of his ways.

It is known that the Leinster players were somewhat baffled by his time in charge of the province, and particularly by the manner of his departure. This group included some of the most talented players in the country. They were the cutting edge of the Irish team and included its exceptional captain.

So, if this Six Nations was a target for the new coach then he had a problem. The imbalance in the squad he had inherited, between those who shared every nuance of his management style and those who did not, would need immediate attention if he were to have any hope of success so early in his term.

The way Kidney started to achieve this blend in the autumn series was illuminating. When he coached Leinster he had at his disposal some of the aristocrats of the game – Hickie, Horgan, D'Arcy, Dempsey and O'Driscoll – who were automatic selections for Ireland. Hickie had retired by the time Kidney became national coach but, of the others, only O'Driscoll started the Six Nations in the first 15.

The club form of Heaslip, Kearney and Fitzgerald allowed him to bring the Leinster swagger without any "baggage". The management of O'Driscoll's "captaincy" in the autumn was masterful and the distinctive qualities of the Munster and Leinster styles were blended brilliantly by this highly astute manager.

In spite of his quiet manner, Kidney also has a ruthless streak. In this he is like Brian Cody, the other huge managerial talent in Irish sport, from whom great management lessons can be learnt. Form players were dropped before the penultimate game and Malcolm O'Kelly was dropped midway through the campaign for an alleged timekeeping misdemeanour.

The current economic climate will test business leaders as never before. There is already evidence of significant change at the top of some bigger companies, and as the new CEOs take the reins, they could do a lot worse than see Kidney as an example. Much has been made of his demeanour and his modesty. They are admirable qualities sadly lacking in much of Irish business. They also highlight his intelligence. It was his toughness, and his ability to blend those who are his disciples with those who are not, that were the basis for his success.