The Sports Management Toolkit

Paul Emery

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781134007738
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Business allgemein

The Sports Management Toolkit is a practical guide to the most important management tools and techniques available to those working in the sport and leisure industries. Designed to bridge the gap between the classroom and the workplace, it includes ten free-standing chapters, each of which provides a detailed introduction to best practice in one of the core sports management disciplines. Written in a clear and straightforward style, and free of management jargon, the book covers all the key functional areas of contemporary sports management, including:

• marketing
• performance management
• risk management
• human resource management
• project management
• finance.

Each chapter includes a detailed, step-by-step description of the key tools and techniques and their application; a 'real world' case study to demonstrate the technique in action, plus an extensive guide to further resources and a series of self-test questions. The final chapter offers an extended, integrated case-study, demonstrating how all the key management techniques are combined within the everyday operation of a successful sport or leisure organization. This book is essential reading for all students of sport and leisure management, and for all managers looking to improve their professional practice.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

CONTEXT

To meet the complex demands and challenges of the emerging sports industry, future managers will need to be everything to everyone. In an unprecedented world of technological connectedness and social diversity, sport managers will need to know how to maximize income, be resource smart and time precious, and simultaneously minimize their footprint. Evaluated against new output metrics, this dynamic global industry will require knowledgeable and innovative problem solvers who are competent in a broad range of management tools.

Historically, such education and training have largely been the responsibility of tertiary institutions. However, as Mallinger (2009) suggests, ‘Several recent business journals suggest a growing gap between those who teach in graduate business programs and those who practice business in corporations and agencies.’ Elaborating further, he argues that, while academics encourage theoretical input and thoughtful reasoning, practitioners face real-life deadlines and bottom-line pressures and require urgent practical solutions. The outcome is an emergent theory and practice divide, limited dialogue between the two entities, and significant barriers to the development of mutually beneficial partnerships.

The purpose of this textbook is to help bridge this gap between class-room teaching and workplace needs. It is intended to be a sport and leisure management student and practitioner text that applies conceptual, procedural and professional knowledge to real-world case studies. As an introductory textbook, this process-oriented practical management toolkit covers the broad remit of management disciplines. Through selection of fundamental analytical and planning techniques to the key resources of people, products, money and time, the long-term aim is that this book will become one of those rare essential sources that every manager keeps and uses in the workplace.

ORGANIZATION

Given that this is not a standard textbook, it is not intended to follow the norm of developmental and sequentially read chapters. Instead it adopts an active learner approach that encourages independent chapter reading. Each free-standing chapter presents a management tool or set of tools that is suited to a particular purpose. In the same way that a tradesman would not use a hammer to cut a piece of wood or, to use a sports analogy, a golfer would not use a driver to sink a final putt, a manager should use a tool that is fit for purpose and solves a problem. Possessing its own unique assumptions, processes, limitations and applications, each chapter – and tool – provides a framework for practical use and where possible will adhere to the following structured format:

technique description – defines the nature and key concepts of the management tool(s);

purpose – elaborates on the benefits of using the tool;

theoretical overview – clarifies broader concepts, key principles, historical development and theoretical underpinning;

practical application – provides examples of tool use;

assumptions and limitations – establishes the application and interpretation boundaries of the management tool;

process – illustrates step-by-step procedures;

common mistakes – identifies frequently encountered errors;

interpretation and management decision – explains what the data mean and possible decisions derived from them;

summary – paraphrases and draws together the key points of the chapter;

self-test question – provides one or more tasks to help assess understanding of the tool application.

Guides to further resources, useful web links and guideline answers to all the self-test questions featured in this book are available on a companion website at http://www.routledge.com/9780415491594.

Each chapter will additionally include either an applied sport management example or a case study. In some cases this is essential and covered within the process section; otherwise the procedures would be difficult to engage with. In other instances, separate case studies are provided to view real-world outputs of the technique.

Text is often kept to a minimum in order to put over management tool principles in a concise way for time-precious practitioners. To additionally ensure personal and meaningful engagement, case studies are drawn from both work and non-work sources, as organizations in the future must meet personal aspirations as well as task-oriented goals.

Furthermore, to reflect the broad remit of the global sport industry, diverse examples are selected from contexts that cover private, public and non-profit sector organizations and from destinations as far spread as America, Australia, China, Europe and India. Popular sports will be alluded to and reference made to services and goods that are produced and delivered by small local enterprises through to multinational conglomerates. Similarly the self-test tasks reflect contrasting demands, ranging across short-answer, essay, mathematical and even theoretical critique questions.

CHAPTER CONTENT

Integrating these personal and organization perspectives, chapters are logically organized as a ‘developmental journey through life’. For example, Chapter 2 introduces the SWOT analysis tool as the first stage of this journey, as if addressing the question ‘Where are you now?’ If you do not know where you are, how do you know the route to your desired destination? This analytical technique is used to develop a situational audit establishing where you are as well as identifying the most influential factors currently affecting you. This is achieved through applying the SWOT tool principles and process to the instantly recognizable brand of Nike Inc., as well as to you as an individual commodity.

Once you know where you are, you can determine where you wish to go. Setting a measurable course or direction is the purpose of Chapter 3. This entails establishing clear targets or ends by constructively aligning aims, objectives and performance indicators. This process of detailing realistic outcomes is initially demonstrated through a personal non-work scenario of New Year resolution setting, before applying it to the Tennis Victoria (Australia) case study.

Having decided where you want to go, you need to be aware of what could go wrong along the journey. This is covered by Chapter 4, where risk management tools are examined. Being a legal requirement, a risk management framework is presented whereby the processes of risk assessment, treatment and control are explored. Practical industry examples given relate to the risks encountered in sports clubs or centres, a marathon, Formula 1 and even the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics.

In sport management, nothing happens without people making it happen. In other words how do you find the right people to help you reach your destination? To this end, Chapter 5 focuses on three vital yet interconnected tools of the recruitment process, namely job analysis and the writing of effective job description and person specification documents. Acting as communication tools to inform the recruitment and selection process, real-life case studies are provided from contemporary public sector and national governing body positions from New Zealand and Australia.

Who helps you and how are important factors to consider along your journey. But you also need to continuously look back at your collective outputs, as well as forward, to determine whether you are still heading in the right direction. Times change, and you need to appraise where you focus your energies now so as to create new directions and opportunities for the future. Chapter 6 focuses on strategic business units and the competitive marketplace. It incorporates some of the most popular diagnostic tools of marketing, namely product life cycle analysis and portfolio matrices, with application of the latter being demonstrated through the hugely successful Twenty20 Indian Premier League.

However, time is always of the essence. Common questions on any journey include ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ and ‘What is the quickest route from here?’ Chapter 7 provides a condensed view of project management scheduling tools that are applied to a non-profit local ice hockey club in Canada. Introducing manual and computer processes of constructing and calculating the critical path, this chapter explores the planning, monitoring and trade-off decisions that ensue from the important project drivers of quality, resource and time.

Can we afford to undertake this journey? Resource issues underpin every management decision we make. In practice, it is rare that a sport organization can survive any length of time without money, which makes financial accounting tools vital to current and future success. Chapters 8 and 9 respectively address these important short- and long-term business planning decisions. Using a small video analysis start-up project as well as a local football synthetic pitch example, Chapter 8 illustrates the relationship between income and expenditure or more specifically sales volume, costs and profits. Constructing and interpreting the graphs and calculations of break-even and sensitivity analysis tools help in appraising an organization's financial viability. Chapter 9, on the other hand, extends the financial principle of contribution and profitability, by looking at capital budgeting or long-term investment decisions. By means of the most frequently used appraisal tools of payback and average rate of return and the discounted cash flow methods of net present value and internal rate of return, the economic viability of the decision-making process is applied to a sport venue development project of the Beijing Olympic Games.

The final chapter offers an example of a sports organization as well as an event that has already made such a journey and continues to do so. The Great North Run, the largest half-marathon in the world, and Nova International Limited, the UK's leading event and sport marketing management group, demonstrate the power of sport. Through extensive partnerships, this integrated case study demonstrates how all of the key management tools introduced in this text could combine within the everyday operation of a very successful sport organization that achieves social,...

Table of contents

• Front cover
• The Sports Management Toolkit
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Figures and tables
• Abbreviations
• 1 INTRODUCTION
• 2 UNDERSTANDING THE CURRENT ENVIRONMENT: THE SWOT ANALYSIS
• 3 COMMENCING THE PLAN: SMART OBJECTIVES AND KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
• 4 MANAGING RISK: WHAT IF?
• 5 WHO WILL DO THE WORK? IDENTIFYING THE PEOPLE REQUIREMENTS
• 6 APPRAISING THE ORGANIZATION'S PORTFOLIO: WHAT STRATEGIC BUSINESS UNITS SHOULD WE FOCUS ON?
• 7 CRITICAL PATH NETWORKS: COMPLETING PROJECTS ON TIME
• 8 PLANNING FOR PROFIT: IDENTIFYING WHERE WE MAKE MONEY
• 9 APPRAISING INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
• 10 CASE STUDY: THE GREAT NORTH RUN
• References
• Index