The sports industry is more complex than ever before, and succeeding within it now requires an equally dynamic approach. Teams and leagues across many sports face unprecedented competition in worldwide markets as the cost of doing business increases and traditional revenue streams face pressure. In light of these changes, the idea that winning championships is the key to organizational success is misguided. The Sports Strategist: Developing Leaders for a High-Performance Industry reveals which areas in the industry, unlike winning, can be controlled and maximized for consistent success. Aspiring leaders in the sports business will learn how to design identities, manage narratives, and maximize new technologies in order to implement business analytics and build public support. These techniques are vital to creating a successful sports organization that is ready to reap the benefits of winning when it does happen, without having to rely on it when it doesn't. In such a high-performance field, the demand for well-equipped leaders is great, and The Sports Strategist provides the necessary tools and techniques for their success.

Offering a hands-on approach to becoming an efficient sports marketing strategist, this guide shows readers how to develop their own idea for a sports product/event, create a strategic plan, and apply these ideas to a real-world business venture. KEY TOPICS: Exposing the day-to-day realities of putting together a sports business venture, the handbook begins with two case studies that introduce the overall situation facing sports managers as they attempt to make decisions regarding the correct direction to take their organization ... then walks readers step by step through the many different aspects that are part and parcel of a successful sports marketing plan, such as seeing and seizing an opportunity, understanding markets, the structure of the sport industry, sport publics, sport markets and sport products, the adult sport participant, conducting market research, sponsorship within the corporate marketing framework, designing sport packages, putting the sport sponsorship plan together, pricing sponsorship packages, sponsorship publicity, hospitality programs, analyzing competitive forces, image control, market share strategy, and writing a strategic plan. The guide also includes examples taken directly from the sports business world and highlights the vast scope of job opportunities available in the primary and secondary sport infrastructure. Ideal for both beginning and seasoned sports marketing professionals.

Thinking strategically is what separates managers and leaders. Learn the fundamentals about how to create winning strategy and lead your team to deliver it. From understanding what strategy can do for you, through to creating a strategy and engaging others with strategy, this book offers practical guidance and expert tips. It is peppered with punchy, memorable examples from real leaders winning (and losing) with real world strategies. It can be read as a whole or you can dip into the easy-to-read, bite-size sections as and when you need to deal with a particular issue. The structure has been specially designed to make sections quick and easy to use – you’ll find yourself referring back to them again and again.

What role can strategic thinking play in contemporary sport management? It can be the difference between leading or languishing – it’s that important! Covering sport at all levels, from community-based sport to elite sport, this is the first textbook to focus on strategic management in a sport context. The book introduces the fundamentals of strategic planning, environmental analyses, strategic direction and leadership, strategy formulation and selection, implementation, strategic control, and change management. Designed to encourage students to develop a strategic mindset, as well as critical thinking and problem-solving skills, the book unpacks key concepts such as leadership, governance, organizational change, and the multiple layers of strategy in sport. Full of real-world case studies from diverse, international sport business environments, and useful pedagogical features such as review questions and guides to online resources, this is an essential text for any sport management course and an invaluable resource for sport development, recreation management, or events management courses.

Praise for 60-Minute Brand Strategist "A fresh take on the wisdom of putting brand strategy at the heart of corporate strategy. Brilliant insights for a fast-moving world." —Angela Ahrendts, CEO, Burberry "Idris Mootee paints a sharp, comprehensive, and finely articulated analysis of the potential of meaningful brands in the 21st century's cultural scenario and business landscape. The result is a smart manual that reminds you and your company how to build relevant, authentic, sustainable, and successful brands in an evolving society." —Mauro Porcini, Chief Design Officer, PepsiCo Inc. "Idris's book teaches us how to engage today's increasingly cynical consumers on a deeper emotional level to build real equity and leadership. He demonstrates how to break out of the box and connect business strategy to brand strategy, and how the right brand story never really ends!" —Blair Christie, SVP and CMO, Cisco Systems, Inc. "It's rare to find a book that's both inspiring and practical but Idris nailed it! He has crafted the ultimate guide to brand building in the connected world with visual clarity and thought-provoking strategy." —Eric Ryan, cofounder, Method Products, Inc. This book is about one thing only: branding. Period. In this economy ruled by ideas, the only sustainable form of leadership is brand leadership. 60-Minute Brand Strategist offers a fast-paced, field-tested view of how branding decisions happen in the context of business strategy, not just in marketing communications. With a combi-nation of perspectives from business strategy, customer experience, and even anthropology, this new and updated edition outlines the challenges traditional branding faces in a hyper-connected world. This essential handbook of brand marketing offers an encyclopedia of do's and don'ts, including new case studies of how these concepts are being used by the world's most successful and valuable brands. 60-Minute Brand Strategist is your battle plan, filled with powerful branding tools and techniques to win your customers' hearts and defeat the competition.

Super Strategist: The Art and Science of Modern Account Planning is the only modern guide to advertising’s arguably most vital discipline, that has been written with the passion of someone who’s found their calling and the wisdom of an industry veteran who is still actively leading strategy in a large, modern, full-service agency. Super Strategist is full of practical advice for newcomers and usable strategies and insights for experienced planners, or anyone with an interest in the discipline. Readers will find clear outlines of the role of account planners within an agency, including step-by-step plans to achieve success with clients large and small: how to conduct modern consumer research, develop and implement the creative brief, use data skillfully to protect and improve great work, and use all of these tools and more to influence the feather in the planner’s cap—the customer journey. Whether it’s called account planning, brand planning, strategic planning, or creative strategy, the goal is the same: to inspire brilliant work that is backed by rigor and data. Creative is still king, but in today’s fractured markets clients need to know their multi-million-dollar campaigns are supported by up-to-the-minute research and data-driven insights. Account planners ensure, as Douglas Atkins puts it in the foreword, that the work is idea-led, but consumer-informed. To find that perfect balance of art and science, the successful account planner is “X-shaped”: experienced in digital, social, communications and brand strategy, comfortable in creative and quantitative disciplines—a Super Strategist who is the fulcrum of any successful agency.

For more than thirty years, Brent Scowcroft has played a central role in American foreign policy. Scowcroft helped manage the American departure from Vietnam, helped plan the historic breakthrough to China, urged the first President Bush to repel the invasion of Kuwait, and worked to shape the West's skillful response to the collapse of the Soviet empire. And when US foreign policy has gone awry, Scowcroft has quietly stepped in to repair the damage. His was one of the few respected voices in Washington to publicly warn the second President Bush against rushing to war in Iraq. The Strategist offers the first comprehensive examination of Brent Scowcroft's career. Author Bartholomew Sparrow details Scowcroft's fraught relationships with such powerful figures as Henry Kissinger (the controversial mentor Scowcroft ultimately outgrew), Alexander Haig (his one-time rival for Oval Office influence), and Condoleezza Rice (whose career Scowcroft helped launch -- and with whom he publicly broke over Iraq). Through compelling narrative, in-depth research, and shrewd analysis, The Strategist brings color and focus to the complex and often secretive nature of US foreign policy -- an intellectual battlefield on which personalities, ideas, and worldviews clash, dramatically shaping the world in which we live.

Why do so many sports teams have losing records, year after year? Why do others win big, but only every 20 or 30 years? And why is it that so few teams enjoy sustained, continual success? This book gives the answer. Providing a blueprint or "playbook" for success in sports at every level, it lays out a clear step-by-step plan for building a team culture that will lead to winning consistently. With each step, the book introduces real-world tools that can be easily implemented by every sports organization and coach to achieve success, including team charters, individual athlete plans, player accountability systems, and team communication strategies. It offers expert advice and practical guidance on key areas, such as aligning individuals with a clear team plan, resolving conflicts proactively, and learning from every game and every season to develop a smarter and more consistent culture of success. The Sports Playbook: Building Teams that Outperform, Year after Year will help every team fulfil its true potential through leadership, focus, and performance. It is essential reading for coaches, sport management professionals, and leaders of every kind of team, inside and outside of sports. The foreword, introduction, chapter 1 and chapter 2 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com.

Beat the odds with a bold strategy from McKinsey & Company "Every once in a while, a genuinely fresh approach to business strategy appears" —legendary business professor Richard Rumelt, UCLA McKinsey & Company's newest, most definitive, and most irreverent book on strategy—which thousands of executives are already using—is a must-read for all C-suite executives looking to create winning corporate strategies. Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick is spearheading an empirical revolution in the field of strategy. Based on an extensive analysis of the key factors that drove the long-term performance of thousands of global companies, the book offers a ground-breaking formula that enables you to objectively assess your strategy's real odds of future success. "This book is fundamental. The principles laid out here, with compelling data, are a great way around the social pitfalls in strategy development." —Frans Van Houten, CEO, Royal Philips N.V. The authors have discovered that over a 10-year period, just 1 in 12 companies manage to jump from the middle tier of corporate performance—where 60% of companies reside, making very little economic profit—to the top quintile where 90% of global economic profit is made. This movement does not happen by magic—it depends on your company's current position, the trends it faces, and the big moves you make to give it the strongest chance of vaulting over the competition. This is not another strategy framework. Rather, Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick shows, through empirical analysis and the experiences of dozens of companies that have successfully made multiple big moves, that to dramatically improve performance, you have to overcome incrementalism and corporate inertia. "A different kind of book—I couldn't put it down. Inspiring new insights on the facts of what it takes to move a company's performance, combined with practical advice on how to deal with real-life dynamics in management teams." —Jane Fraser, CEO, Citigroup Latin America

Managing Organizations for Sport and Physical Activity, fourth edition, presents a clear and concise treatment of managing organizations in sport and physical activity. The four functions of management--planning, organizing, leading, and evaluating--provide a general framework that represents the simplest and best approach for introducing readers to the intricacies of management. For each management function, Chelladurai presents relevant theories and their practical applications, citing those theoretical models that are most appropriate to the unique aspects of the sports industry. He uses the open systems perspective, placing organizations in the context of their environment and emphasizing the manager's role in adapting and reacting to changes in that environment. To apply theory to sport management practices, Chelladurai provides numerous examples from the fields of physical activity and sport, including professional sports, intercollegiate athletics, health and sports clubs, and recreation/fitness programs. New to the Fourth Edition A chapter on service quality, which describes the notion of quality in sport management services--from the local fitness center to the pro sport arena. It also discusses the measurement of service quality and the gaps in translating customer expectations into the desired service. A new feature providing "An Expert's View," which offers additional perspectives on relevant topics contributed by scholars who research and publish in a specific area. New sidebars on current topics relevant to the field of sport management; some examples include US Track and Field's SMART goal setting as well as genes and technology of leadership. Pedagogical Aids Developing Your Perspective. Thought-provoking questions ask learners to apply theoretical information to contexts relevant to them from their current experiences or in their future careers. Managing Your Learning. Key points from each chapter enhance comprehension. Strategic Concepts. Key terms lists provide for a shared vocabulary in discussing the major concepts of management. In Brief. Short summaries of the important points in a section help crystallize concepts. To Recap. Brief boxes revisit key concepts discussed earlier in the book. Extensive references to journals, scholarly texts, and relevant websites.