STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT IN SPORTS

Strategic Management in Sports

Strategic Management in Sports

Introduction

Strategic management is an externally oriented philosophy of managing an organization that links strategic thinking and analysis to organizational action. Managing sport organizations at the start of the 21st century involves the application of management theories, principles, and strategies that are no different to managing organizations in the corporate, government, or nonprofit sectors. The sport industry, how-ever, does have several unique attributes that influence how these theories, principles, and strategies are applied by sport managers.

Definition of Strategic Management

Strategic management involves analyzing an organization's position in the marketplace, determining its direction and goals, selecting an appropriate strategy, and then leveraging its distinctive assets to achieve its goals. Like any organization, the success of a sport organization may largely depend on the quality of its strategic decisions. It could be argued that nonprofit sport organizations have been slow to embrace the concepts associated with strategic management relative to professional sport organizations and, indeed, other types of organizations.

This is arguably because nonprofit sport organizations have largely been controlled by volunteers who may be unfamiliar with or unwilling to adopt more formalized ways of managing their activities. In a competitive market, sport managers must drive their own futures by undertaking detailed market analyses, establishing a clear direction, and crafting strategy that matches opportunities. An understanding of strategic management principles and of how these can be applied in the specific industry context of sport is essential for future sport managers.

SWOT Analysis of Indian Premier Leage IPL

Strengths

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is based upon the Twenty20 cricket game which should be completed in 2 ½ hours. That means that is fast-paced and exciting, and moreover it can be played on a weekday evening or weekend afternoon. That makes it very appealing as a mass sport, just like American Football, Basketball and Soccer. It is appealing as a spectator sport, as well to TV audiences.

The IPL has employed economists to structure its lead so that revenue is maximized. The more unified the sport, the more successful it is.

Weaknesses

Twenty20 has been so popular that it could replace other forms of cricket i.e. damage the game that generated it.

Some fans will also have to pay for travel to the ground. There may be large queues for the most popular games. There may be some distance between where the fan lives and the cricket ground.

Stakes are very high! Some teams may not weather short-term failures and may be too quick to get rid of key managers and players if things don't go well quickly. Famously, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) sacked their CEO Charu Sharma for watching his team lose 6 from their first 8 games.

Some teams have overpriced their advertising/sponsorship in order to gain some short-term returns (e.g. Royal Challengers), and some sponsors and are moving their investment the more reasonably priced teams.

Opportunities

Since it has a large potential mass audience, IPL is very attractive as a marketing communications opportunity, especially for advertisers and ...