Sports Management: Strategy and Performance

Summary

Strategic management is the process of setting and optimising goals, ensuring that the business is on the right track and that its core goals are being met. For any business or sports organisation, goals are crucial, helping the management and staff or athletes work together to achieve their shared targets. The overall objectives of a strategic management plan are to set realistic aims, put processes in place to achieve those aims, collect and analyse data on the organisation and use that data to improve the processes.

Strategic performance management is used in both sports and business, helping organisations get more out of their resources while gaining a competitive advantage over other organisations in the same markets or competitions. The strategic management process is cyclical, with management regularly needing to reassess the aims of the business and continually using data to analyse performance and adjust the processes in place.

The sports industry is a highly competitive field, both in terms of jobs and competition between organisations. Most businesses within the sports industry now make use of strategic performance management to not only improve results on the pitch but also improve the overall business of the organisation. Anyone wanting to work in sports management, or any related field, will need to understand the theory behind strategic management and how it can be applied to a sports business.

As the sports industry has become more professional over time, there’s an increasing need for organisations to look for ways to get ahead of the competition. Innovation in training methods, new techniques, improvements in sports science and strategic management have all been utilised to improve performances and achieve better results. As the rewards for success have increased, so has the incentive for sports organisations to optimise their management and look for new ways to improve results.

All organisations should be looking to gain a competitive advantage over other businesses in the same market. This includes sports clubs, athletes and businesses which are all competing for revenue, fans and market share. To be able to gain a competitive advantage, strategic management is essential, and the executives or decision-makers need to understand how to form and apply effective strategy.

To continually outperform the competition and ensure longterm success, organisations must revisit their strategy regularly, assessing their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This is known as SWOT analysis and along with human resources management, brand management and corporate strategy, forms the key components of a successful strategy.

In the sports industry, other areas also need to be assessed and optimised to ensure success. Sports organisations and athletes need to focus on scouting and hiring the right talent as well as optimising training methods. On top of this, motivation and well being are important aspects to consider. For an athlete to perform at their best level, all of these aspects must be carefully managed and controlled.

With new innovations coming into the sports industry all the time, organisations need to stay ahead of the latest trends to keep up with the competition. Just as data analysis and technology have changed how businesses operate in the modern world, they’re also changing how sports organisations work. To be successful in business or sports management, a good understanding of technology, as well as data analysis and future trends, is required. Long terms success depends on constantly innovating and adapting to changes in the market.

What You’ll Learn

· What is strategic and performance management

· The importance of strategic management

· The importance of values to a business

· What a mission and vision statement are and why they’re so important

· What is SWOT analysis and what it’s used for

· All about competitive advantage and how companies look for and gain an advantage over their competitors

· Why sports are an important part of the community and community development

· Methods used for training skills

· The importance of friendly and exhibition games

· How to build leadership, communication and teamwork

· What are human resources

· How sports organisations and companies scout for talent

· Why motivation is important in business and in sports

· The role of mental wellbeing and positive reinforcement in sports and business

· Training to optimise performance

· Injury prevention and support

· How teams, coaches and athletes measure performances to improve

· What is corporate strategy and what are the four components of corporate strategy

· Brand management and its importance

· How organisations raise capital and why

· Growth strategies of successful businesses

· How businesses measure and analyse data

· How sports organisations measure and analyse data

· What are brand equity and positioning?

· What is brand management?

· The different areas of digital marketing and its importance

· The importance of social innovation and entrepreneurship in sports

· Why creativity is important in sports

· How organisations manage and plan for innovation

Words from the Author, Saam Momen:

I have a true passion for teaching! I have proudly taught university courses in Switzerland, USA and Brazil. My career spans over 15 years in the sporting industry with jobs at the London Olympic Bid Committee, UEFA, CSM and TEAM Marketing. I possess a Master Degree in Sports Management and an Executive Education diploma at Harvard Business School on The Business of Entertainment, Media and Sports. I hope that throughout this course you are able to have a wonderful learning experience! Please do not hesitate to reach out should you have any queries.

Why Choose This Course?

This course has been designed to help students understand the theory and application of strategic performance management in sports and business. If you’re looking to get started working in sports management or in any other kind of management role, this course will help you to understand key ideas of performance management and how to create and refine business strategies.

This course is aimed at giving you the best possible preparation for a career in sports management, introducing you to several concepts and ideas that you’ll use throughout your career. Whether you plan on working in the sports industry directly or take another career path in business management, you’ll be able to apply and make use of the topics taught through this course.

Understanding the theory behind strategic management and what it means is necessary to succeed in a successful, modern organisation. As competition between organisations gets stronger, being able to understand strategic management and its importance in sports and business is essential. The course will establish the function of strategic management and how it relates to performance, letting you understand concepts such as mission and value statements and how they can help to centre a long-term strategy.

You’ll also cover the SWOT analysis method and learn how organisations measure and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses plus opportunities and threats. In any strategic management plan, a SWOT analysis gives managers clues as to which areas of the organisation they can improve, and which areas can be built on. The course will help you to understand each part of the SWOT analysis and how important it is in building and maintaining a competitive advantage.

Sports development covers the topics of creating and developing athletes as well as how sports can affect local communities. The course covers both of these areas in detail, first looking at community sports development and how sports can bring a positive change to local areas. You’ll also learn about the sports continuum model and how it’s applied from grassroots sports although up to elite sports development as well as learning about types of training.

Being able to manage, lead and motivate staff and athletes is required for anyone wanting to work in sports management. This course will describe in detail how to improve teamwork, leadership and communication skills as well as helping you to learn more about human resource management in general. This includes talent scouting, motivation and how to protect and foster the wellbeing and positivity of staff.

In sports and business, a lot of time and resources is spent looking for new ways to optimise performances and get more out of the available resources. The methods used will vary depending on the type of business but improving training methods, and measuring performances are highly effective. In sports, it’s also important for organisations to provide proper injury prevention and support as excessive injuries can seriously affect the overall performance of the team.

Corporate strategy is an aspect of strategic performance management that can be applied to large organisations that are comprised of multiple businesses. In these organisations, it’s important that the strategy of each business aligns with the overall strategy of the organisation. In this course, you’ll learn more about corporate strategy, including how it’s used, its importance and the different areas that make up the overall strategy.

Over the past few decades, data analysis has become an integral part of business strategy. Modern businesses use data to analyse their decisions and drive future strategy. Data analysis can be grouped into four main categories which each have distinct uses and applications. The course will look at the different ways data can be used in business and also how modern sports organisations are adopting a data-driven approach to decision making.

The course also examines marketing strategy, letting you learn more about the influence of marketing on an organisation’s overall strategy. You will get an in-depth look at how brand equity and positioning work, including details on how brand positioning is applied and why. You’ll also learn more about brand activation and digital marketing and how they form an integral part of any modern marketing strategy.

Innovation is a crucial step in building a competitive advantage, and strategic performance management should have a focus on encouraging innovation and progressive change within the organisation. The course will teach you about social innovation and entrepreneurship, including how sports can bring about positive social change. You’ll also see how sports and creativity are linked and how organisations can promote and manage innovation.

Finally, the course will also give you some real-world examples of strategic and performance management, letting you see the theories you’ve learned in practice. There are three case studies of businesses in the sports industry implementing strategic management to optimise performance in key areas. You’ll get to see a closer look at how businesses operate and the effects that a clear and well thought out strategy can produce.

Through this course, you’ll gain a clearer understanding of the overall importance of strategic performance management in sports and business. You’ll be able to develop your knowledge of business and see how strategic management is a necessary tool in modern and competitive industries. By the time you have completed the course, you should be confident in your knowledge of strategic management and be able to relate your studies to real-world examples in sports.