In today’s environment, a well-defined strategy is paramount for sports organisations to engage fans while achieving business goals. Developing a cohesive strategy provides a unifying direction to unite a sports organisation and its employees on ambitions and priorities, and lead to greater results than would otherwise be possible.
In today’s sports landscape, developing and communicating a clear, coherent, and integrated strategy has never been more important. And yet, most sports organisations struggle to clearly articulate their strategy in a way that employees, owners, fans, and partners can clearly understand—and more importantly, they struggle to convey a clear plan on how they will achieve their goals. Defining a strategy for sports organisations is unique and different from other traditional companies.
Differing goals and ambitions: The ostensible goal of for-profit or publicly traded corporations is to increase shareholder value. In addition to clarifying financial goals, professional sports teams must be focussed on on-field success, governing bodies are occupied with growing the participation in and the legacy of their respective sports, and leagues must manage a portfolio of considerations (players, products and channels) to grow their overall brand.
Unique challenges and competitive dynamics: Changing viewing and social media habits mean that there are more avenues than ever to reach fans—and more competition for teams and leagues to attract eyeballs. While traditional for-profit corporations typically consider competitors within the same or adjacent industries (such as retailers competing with each other for share of wallet), sports organisations are competing with a much broader array of competitors, who are all seeking to grow their share of consumer engagement—be it streaming services, entertainment platforms, or new technology companies. And sports organisations are often working with vastly different budgets—from the smallest of schools and universities to the largest sports franchises in the world.
Defining a strategy for sports organisations is unique and different from other traditional companies.
There are a few critical tenets of strategy imperative for sports organisations to understand:
Answering a few critical, integrated questions can help provide clear direction and vision for the whole organisation. Our Strategic Choice Cascade is a proven tool to express what an organisation’s strategy is (or should be). It includes an integrated set of questions and choices that should be “solved” simultaneously through iterative exploration. At the core, five questions must be addressed.
Whether your sports organisation has articulated a strategy or not, it’s never too late—or too early—to explore this critical process as a sports executive. The first step is to begin by expressing or “stress-testing” the organisation’s current strategy through the series of questions outlined in the Strategic Choice Cascade. Next, a sports organisation can develop strategic options and translate these into actionable strategies. Once complete, the organisation can select the best strategic options by focussing on the ones that are most attractive and viable— and those that reinforce the organisation’s overall mission and purpose. Finally, a sports organisation can determine the actions needed to execute on the emergent strategy, including how success will be enabled. Over time, the Strategic Choice Cascade can be used to stress-test and reevaluate an organisation’s strategy in order to remain responsive to continual change.