Sportidealisten

How to be innovative in a sports club

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Sports Entrepreneur, Basketball, Interview

Imagine if we told you that if you become a youth coach at 12 years old that you one day could be a club director in a top division sports club? Now lets us tell you that this is not an imagination, this is a true story and we are happy to have a chance to tell you more about this in this interview. We have met Anders Jansson who found a passion for the leadership role and developed himself as a good coach but also a creative thinker and an entrepreneur. Through his passion for basketball, he made sure that you can grow a team and the club with new revenue streams. We will talk about all of these experiences and how he managed to bring one of the world’s best basketball players to Sweden. Lastly, Anders will give some tips on how to find your passion and working in sports.

Meet the sports industry from the inside

Anders Jansson

Consult – Savoy Consulting

Former Club director – Sundsvall Dragons

Basketball coach level 3

Anders Jansson interview, sport entrepreneur

EXPERIENCES as a youth coach CAN GET YOU the dream job in SPORTS

Thank you Anders for taking your time, sharing your experiences and lessons learned from your work in the sports industry. Let us start by letting you introduce yourself to us.

My name is Anders Jansson and at the moment when we are talking, I am 57 years old. As of today, I am running my own consultancy firm, Savoj Consulting. Now you might be thinking, “what is he doing when he runs his own consultancy”? Well, I am working in several areas in the sports industry. A few of those areas I am involved with are sales, events, marketing, branding and coaching.

Before my consultancy career I was the Club Director at the basketball club Sundsvall Dragons (we reached 10 semifinals and won 2 Swedish Championships and Finnish/Swedish Champions). Additionally, to this I have been awarded “the best marketer of the year” in Sundsvall, as well as been awarded “The Dragon of the year” twice (an award that is given to a person that has made a great contribution for the city of Sundsvall. Last but not least, I was one of the initiators of the local sports gala in the district of Medelpad.

Oh wow! Sounds like we have a lot to talk about. Let us start with one thing I know the readers want to know. How is it to work in sports? Furthermore, the question we all want to get an answer from:

Why did you take the step to work in sports?

I started to play basketball and football at the age of 9 years old, and I remember that I thought basketball was the most fun sport. Only three years later I became a youth coach in basketball. This gave me added value to further look into the coaching and leader role. I got myself educated into the different levels of coaching in basketball, I made it to level 3. And in between all of this I slowly grew my passion and joy of coaching people and to have the opportunity to teach the game and then also winning games.

However, that was just the beginning, my bigger involvement and actual work in sports came later in my life. At the age of 31, a job request as the club director at one of the top division teams in basketball in Sweden came from nowhere. I remember that I was thinking something along the lines “that sounds interesting, but I might try this for a few years”. But, slowly during these “few” years, I developed new values within my leadership style, and those “few” years turned into many years as you might understand from the achievements I mentioned during my introduction. My new values were not only winning as much as possible. I started to look into the club with a broader perspective. I wanted to develop one thing after another, if the team could do good, then the whole organization could do better outside of the court too. This was also the moment when the entrepreneur inside of me came into the picture. I started to notice that I could do more in sports than only coaching.

It is easy to think that your plans will always play out as they were planned, but this is very rare in sports. New tasks and opportunities have taken my plans into new directions. I have had to adapt to new situations, which taught me to be as ready as possible and open for changes. You can probably recognize this from an entrepreneur’s lifestyle.

Dare to be an entrepreneur when working in sports

Interesting, please explain how you mean with an entrepreneur’s lifestyle?

For me, an entrepreneur needs to take risks and try to think differently than others. From my own experiences, I started to think differently and one situation like this happened when we brought Scottie Pippen to Sweden and Sundsvall Dragon. I traveled to the United States of America and met Pippen. We tried to figure out how he could be able to get over to Sweden and play with the Dragons.

If you are not aware of Scottie Pippen, he is one of the greatest basketball players ever. He played together with Michael Jordan at Chicago Bulls (one way to understand his greatness is to watch the Michael Jordan documentary, The Last Dance from Netflix). 2008 was the year we did it. During 2008 Scottie Pippen came over to Sundsvall and while he was here, he visited the youth teams, he met with sponsors and talked about how businesses and sponsorships are being done in the US. This wasn’t the only thing he did, Pippen also met the municipality and talked about his social engagements in the states. And of course, he played a game in the league with us. We won again Akropol with 102-74 And Scottie Pippen made 21 points, All of these activities provided great value to all of our stakeholders. And all of this gave us an extra boost to do new similar innovative activities again.

Scottie Pippen Highlights – Sundsvall Dragons

Added value for win win win

To give you another example, we also brought over one of the world’s best F1 drivers, Mika Häkkinen (also called The Flying Finn) and of course his car to the stadium in Sundsvall. Sure, there is no connection with basketball like the one with Pippen, but a lot of people showed up and listened to his talk he did. This activity was also built to give our sponsors some added values in a similar way as the one with Scottie Pippen.

So why was this idea with Häkkinen a good one?

Well, we had heard that he did this show in Finland where it was something special and then we started to look into the possibilities to host that show over in Sweden. Once again, the entrepreneurial spirit made me take that chance and ask him and his team.

The Flying Finn, Mika Häkkinen

Finding the dream job with your passion

As you have told us, you love basketball, how come you fell in love with the sport? What makes you want to keep working in the game?

The biggest carrot (as we say in Sweden, which means an inner drive) is the love for the game, but also to improving the club I work with, which means create new revenue streams and figuring out how to increase a club’s revenue. To get back to my experience, this is what I did with bringing over famous people to the stadium and bringing sponsors together to make it happen.

Please explain how you mean with love?

The love is the game basketball, the split vision and the knowledge and tactics in basketball, which are excellent. I mean, you can’t kick the ball and you only have 8 seconds to do something with the ball, so you really need to take action all the time. You can’t stand still too long. It is a game where things always happen.

Three important skills to become a good sport manager

What are three important skills according to you that are needed in order to get into the sports world as a good leader/manager?

Heart: Love to the sport, in my case basketball.

Passion: A drive to go forward, you have to have that passion from your inner drive to be able to do something.

Entrepreneurship: Find everything you can to sell. We made it successful to sell everything from doping tests to motorsport and of course the basketball event with Scottie Pippen. You have to dare to take your idea into businesses.

How to be more creative in the local grassroots sports club?

Since Anders is very generous with his time he has more experiences to share and therefore we actually have more in this interview. He has more knowledge to share about grassroots sports and how he made one of the greatest in floorball to do a comeback. But in order to make sure you can take it all in we will post the second part of this interview in one of the upcoming posts. Be patient and stay safe. Keep an eye out for the next one.

If you liked this article, may want to read these:

A young innovator with an innovative idea

Leadership through sport management – How to be innovative

The modern leadership – how to be efficient

Learn how to improve your networking with LinkedIn

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LinkedIn logo representing professional networking platform

The quick guide to shaping up your networking skills with LinkedIn

Have you ever thought: “How do I find a job and why does everyone tell me to network and what does it mean?”. You are not the first one to think so. No matter how you find out about a job, we usually need to talk with someone, either to ask questions about the role or when we do the job interview. We are humans and we like to connect with each other in order to build trust and add value to each other. The secret of how to manage all of this is not a single answer. However, LinkedIn is a great platform to get you going and to shape up your networking skills and to increase your chances to get a job. In the following text, we will give you an introduction to the key elements of LinkedIn and how you can get noticed in this busy and crowded world.

What is LinkedIn and why do I need it?

LinkedIn is recognized as a professional networking and business platform. It was founded in 2002 but was officially launched in 2003. LinkedIn has more than 645 million users across more than 200 countries. Their mission and the reason why you need it is basically, great opportunities to connect with people from around the whole world and become more productive and successful.

Below are 7 steps on how you can get going with your networking. Let us start with step 1.

Step 1: Setting up a LinkedIn account

You can jump over this if you already have a LinkedIn account. But if you don’t have an account yet, start but creating one today. 40% of the monthly LinkedIn users access it on a daily basis. Despite this, you only have a few minutes to make an impact. Make sure you set up your profile today and then head over to step 2 and start to build attention so you can get noticed.

Sign up to LinkedIn

Step 2: A picture improves your chances to be found and connected

A lot of people on LinkedIn have a profile picture, but also a lot of people haven’t. Did you know that adding a picture increases your chances 14 times to be viewed by others?

At LinkedIn, the main focus is being professional, either connect with new potential clients, build your brand, find potential employers, and additional focus from a serious perspective. This makes it very important that you have a picture but also if you want to be viewed as a serious and trustworthy person that your picture is professional and serious. And please, don’t have a picture from a crazy party or a picture on your cat. To give you an example, here is our founder Jakob’s profile picture.

Professional headshot of Jakob Wikenstaal, founder of Sportidealisten.

Adding a picture increases your chances 14 times to be viewed by others

Lydia Abbot, Linkedin

Step 3: Your title is like your 8 seconds of attention

At LinkedIn, you have a short field called “Title” next to your profile picture, where you can add where you work or study. This is the place where it is very normal for people to decide if a person is interesting to look into more and head over to your profile. But it has also a great impact if someone would like to connect with you or not. And as mentioned in Step 1, the attention span is quite short, you need to be clear and interesting.

You might think: “but what if I don’t have a job and I am not studying?”. Well, don’t worry. Even people who have a job might not have their working title in this field. You might be looking into finding a new job and therefore you should be thinking about what job role you are searching for. Let us say you want to work with Sports Marketing. Then you could edit your title to:

Looking for a job in Sports Marketing

5+ experience in Sports Marketing, open to new opportunities

Step 4: Your personal summary, your CTA

Let us imagine you have caught someone’s (ours) attention and we clicked on your profile. We have seen your title and now we will have to scroll through your previous experiences (that you hopefully have added). This could be time-consuming and we might not read your profile as you would like us to do. But, hold on, there is a better way to get a quick sense of you, which is by reading a summary. Adding a summary at your profile could help the person who visits your profile page to learn a bit who you are as a person, what your values are, or what you have done and wants to work with. This section could actually help you getting the visitor’s attention and communicating whatever you would like the visitor to know about you.

Your summary is the text box at the top of your LinkedIn profile, just below your photo. It’s open-ended space (2,000 characters max) where you give an overview of your professional life. 

Guide: how to craft a great LinkedIn Summary

There are so many different recommendations about how to write the summary. We don’t have the only answer, but from our experiences, we have a good guide on how to start your own summary. Think about answering the following keywords: Mission, Key Skills, Highlights/Awards, Values, Vision, Previous Experiences, Discussion Topics. Here you can check out how our founder, Jakob have done.

  • Mission – What you can help a potential visitor, e.g. you are driven to help people make sales efficient
  • Key Skills – Describe your key skills, e.g. expert on Microsoft Excel and 5 years of customer care experience
  • Highlights/Awards – Any highlights/awards, e.g. Top 10 innovators according to ABC newspaper
  • Values – What values do you believe in and stand for, e.g. trust, transparency and positivity
  • Vision – Where do you want to go in your career? e.g. Striving to make the world in better physical and mental health.
  • Previous Experiences – Write a few sentences about where you have been doing in the past few years, not a long story, but briefly provide a short summary.
  • Discussion Topics – any topics you are interested to discuss and network around

Step 5: Adding your experiences

As we mentioned earlier, your profile should have your previous experiences, both academics, and work-related experiences if you have both. And it doesn’t matter if you have had paid jobs or been a volunteer. All experiences count. Add one after another, and make sure to add some brief story to each experience about what you did there and also something you accomplished. For example:

Sales at ABC – at Sales ABC I had several responsibilities around our memberships and I called current and potential clients to sell them a membership to the upcoming season. I also took part in our strategy meetings and provided several campaign plans that improved our revenue by 5 % two years in a row.

Step 6: Try to connect with your current network

Now when you have set up your LinkedIn profile and have a good and professional page it is time to build that network you always wanted. In order to make it easy, to begin with, we recommend you to start searching for your current network. It is always hard at the begging of who to connect with, but usually, LinkedIn helps you with a suggestion of whom to connect with. Try it out, but don’t feel the need to do this right now. Instead, think about your friends, your current and former colleagues and student colleagues. From this stage, you get a solid base, but make sure you want to connect with them because you feel that they can help you in the future with advice, networks or that you feel that you could help them with the same thing.

Don’t just connect with people to have a network, try to think if you can add value to them or if they can add value to you. As soon as you start sending requests to connect you will be recommended by LinkedIn to connect with similar people to the one you sent a contact request. Who knows, maybe you find your future employer, co-founder, colleague through this?

Well, try out LinkedIn, stay connected, and try to make a visit to LinkedIn as a daily habit. Good luck!

Step 7: Join us on LinkedIn

Now when you are ready to connect and network at LinkedIn we welcome you to join us on LinkedIn. Make sure you are not missing out anything from Sportidealisten. Click on the symbol below and follow us at LinkedIn!

If you liked this article, may want to read these:

How to use LinkedIn to find a job in sports

3 ways to express passion for sports jobs

How to create a great sports job application

How to build a sports job

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Busy desktop with tools and graphs of how to build a sports job

Getting a job in the sports field is quite tough and competitive, so how should you do it? How do you find a dream job in sports? We have talked with Jessica Pettersson that found problems in sports and therefore created her dream job in sports instead of searching for it. Today she helps sports clubs that don’t have time for administrative work, which is more or less the majority of the sports clubs at least in the Nordics. In this interview, she will explain how she did to achieve her dream job in sports and she also provides advice on how you can create yours and lastly Jessica will give some tips on how to recruit in sports.

MEET THE SPORTS INDUSTRY FROM THE INSIDE

Jessica Pettersson – Founder and CEO at Föreningskraft
Education background: Public Health Sciences at Karolinska Institutet and Child and Youth Sciences at Stockholm University

What experiences can get you a sports job?

Hi Jessica and thank you for taking the time to share your experiences in the sports industry. Let us start by asking, who is Jessica?

I am a public health scientist combined with a master’s degree in Child and Youth sciences. After my studies I found myself in the volunteer sector and worked both at Friends as well as Min Stora Dag (My Special Day). To date I am the CEO of Föreningskraft, where we help sports clubs with administrative work, in areas which they themselves can’t do it, don’t have the time for or doesn’t want to do.

Now, let’s get further into sports. Why did you choose to go into sports and work in the sports field?

I have been involved in the sports field since my parents put me in gymnastics at the age of 4. I have then continued working in sports in different roles like an athlete, a coach, a board member, a referee and more.

Sport has given me so much and therefore I want to give back to the community in every way I possibly can. It is a big movement in Sweden and sport is where I have gained joy for a physical active lifestyle and knowledge about leadership.

WHY YOU SHOULD CREATE A CAREER IN THE SPORT INDUSTRY

sports job,sports,sports career,Föreningskraft,sports administration,create your own job in sports,sports industry,Jessica Pettersson,sports clubs,sports management,sports entrepreneurship

How did you come up with the company, Föreningskraft?

There are two reasons why I founded Föreningskraft.

I was part of creating a sports club several years ago, and it has steadily grown. However, the board had to work a lot with the operations making sure everything was working. The aim since the beginning has been to be able to hire one person full time. Today we have quite some time left in order to get a good economy and working tasks that are attractive to hire someone part or full time. Then the idea struck me; what if I, for example, worked 25 % in several clubs? Then I could build myself build an attractive work week.

The second reason was more about being more flexible with work hours and work spaces. In order to work in a sports club, you are not necessarily required to work in a physical sports office. A lot of work is today managed with your computer and your phone. By starting up Föreningskraft I also manage to be part of creating a modern work space, where when and where you work are decided by the employee himself or herself.

Right now, we are two people in the company and we are working with different sports clubs where the amount of work varies, from 10 to 50 % per sports club. In this way Föreningskraft has built a network with club officers, sports administrators and project managers, where we exchange experiences, competencies and helping each other. This becomes very valuable since many of the sports clubs only have one employee, which often makes the work quite lonely.

HOW TO GET A JOB IN SPORTS AND THE ROLE OF EDUCATION

You have been a student before and studied health. Can you describe and explain how your student experience was like and how that may have helped you achieve a career in the sports industry?

During my bachelor’s degree I got to know a little bit about everything. This was also the time when I gained an interest in evaluation and this has become a big help when several sports clubs are asking for help to evaluate their own clubs. The evaluations have been everything from surveys to interviews with parents, athletes, board members and coaches.

During my masters I learned how to think outside the box and approach different situations and challenges from different perspectives. This has been a crucial part of my career when I am working with sport clubs and their own club development and efficiency.

What steps did you take to close the gap from being a student to becoming a sport professional?

The first step was to start up my own sports club. Within that process I have learned many things about club development, how a sports club is being managed, what challenges comes along and how you can solve those. I have also further deepened my understanding about how a sports club is working and is structured. This is probably the main reason to why I today have the opportunity to work with several projects in different sports clubs.

What does a founder in sports do?

With your current role, what are your different tasks?

Since I am working with several sports clubs there are different challenges and tasks. To give an example, at one club I am managing and developing their website and guidelines. At another I am a project manager helping a club with different competitions and camps and in a third example I might work on coach development, invoices or efficiency within the organization. This variation gives me the joy working at Föreningskraft.

As the CEO of Föreningskraft my main responsibilities are HR, finance and marketing. I have the main responsibilities making sure customers as well as employees are satisfied and getting what they are promised.

Three important skills in THE SPORT INDUSTRY

What three skills are important to step into the sports field

Good questions! I believe in the following:

You need to be a person who is structured and can manage several tasks at the same time.

You should have gained some kind of volunteer experience. It is important to understand why people work for free and put in hours of work into the sports field without earning a single cent.

Lastly, you need a big passion for sports and the sports community. You don´t necessarily have to have any experience or passion for a specific sport, as long as you love sports in general. But knowing what’s required and understanding the bigger picture is key to bringing yourself and your surroundings into an engaged working place.

Do this if you would like to work in sports

What advice do you have for students or other inexperienced job seekers who would like to work in sports?

Create your own experiences! That is what I did when I built a sports club together with friends. By working with our own sports club I got to learn how to be a manager and as of today, I am a paid sport manager in a sports club, just to mention one of the roles I carry.

However, you don’t have to build your own sports club. You could also volunteer on bigger sporting events, or become a coach in sports. Another way to go could be to step into a committee in a sports club like the educational committee, where you can be part of the development in sports.

How to hire in sports?

Now, heading towards the end. You have recently hired your first colleague to Föreningskraft. Congratulations! Could you explain how you know that the time was now to hire? And how did you know who to hire?

For me it was all about timing. There was one job from a sports club that came in at the right time.

Föreningskraft has been up and running since the fall of 2017 and I have now become experienced with the job and I have achieved a good structure that suits me and the sports clubs. Together with a colleague, we can grow this company and reach the next level.

I received far more applications that I ever expected, which I am very happy about. Many of them were a good match for the job. And why I chose the one I have as a colleague today? Well I had done an analysis of the needs that the sports clubs had and I tried to match that with the applicants. I also considered the right applicant based on an engagement for the company, previous work experiences, education and personality.

Advice to hire in sports

At last, could you give other sports organizations your three best hiring advice?

Do the heavy work, build a job post that really match with what you are actually looking for.

Take a step back and look into your organization with an objective lens and ask yourself, what do the organization need right now? Then try to hire a person to fill that need.

Contact Föreningskraft and we will solve your sports club’s needs with the help of sharp administrators with a “doer” mentality.

If you liked this article, may want to read these:

How to build a sustainable career in sports?

For employers and job seekers in the sports industry

2 tips to find a job in sports

When you need to be adaptable

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a person running with a surrounding that is changing in sports

2020 started at a normal pace and a lot of people were looking forward to excelling in their studies or their work in the sports field. However, from early March, the whole world slowed down and unfortunately, a lot of people was fired from their jobs. Not only that, but a lot of people were also forced to be in quarantine or at least work from home. How did we all handle this global change? Not even everyone can work from home. Denmark’s biggest football club made sure they prepared for situations like this. Let us look into what they have done and what you can do in order to be adaptable and not missing out in the future.

Sport clubs most valuable asset

2020 was a big challenge for all of us. Tons of meetings were canceled and with a sports perspective, a lot of Annual General Meetings (AGM) were forced to be postponed. But in times like the pandemic 2020, we realize that we needed to do everything together, now more than ever before but with a flexible approach. 2020 was the start of the time to be digital and adaptable.

AGM Voting Online - Image credit: Element 5 Digital
Image credit: Element 5 Digital

One sports club that was already prepared for the challenges of not running their General Assembly in a physical setup only was BK Skjold, Denmark’s biggest football club. Why? Well, they had already looked into and adapted a digital solution to voting online. In all these years, especially in Sweden, we have had quite challenging times when it comes to the AGMs. Despite the big football clubs’ big amount of supporters and members during the games, they are not showing up at the AGMs even though they have the right to vote and participate in the club’s operations. A normal amount of members on the AGMs for the biggest clubs could be about 250 when they have 5-10 000 members. For example, IFK Göteborg with an average of 12 000 attendance had 238 members with voting right at this year’s AGM.

And from a Nordic perspective, the AGM is the decision meeting where alla members can vote for decisions that can change the whole club´s future. To put it in other words, the biggest and most critical meeting of the year with a big impact by a club´s supporters.

Sure, there might be a lot of people who can’t make it for a specific date and time. But there are still a lot of people not showing up at the AGMs. But why haven’t most of us adapted ourselves like BK Skjold? With digital voting, more people can participate without the stress of time and place to be located.

BK Skjold, Denmark’s biggest club runs digital

BK Skjold, Denmark’s biggest football club - Image credit: BK Skjold
Image credit: BK Skjold

A few years ago BK Skjold presented a digital voting solution to their 1800 members. A digital solution called Assembly Voting that could help the club to enable more members to take part of decisions and vote online. The start of a digital transformation was from one AGM where they had 12 participating people at one physical meeting. They thought of a digital solution with the vision to share democracy to the whole club, which means all the members no matter where they lived.

How to grow a member-driven sports club?

The end result for BK Skjold and their online approach can be viewed below according to their President, Jens Sørensen:

  • 144 members voted that is more than 10 times as they usually get
  • They got 10 candidates to 4 board roles, which never happened before
  • They elected a qualified treasurer and an internal accountant – none of these positions have really been used for real during many years
  • 24 people came to the physical AGM – that is twice as the normal number
  • They received 15 motions through the digital solution
  • 9 of these 15 came from different members, which is another huge step for them.

What can digital voting do for sports clubs?

Thanks to digital solutions there are many great opportunities and reach is just one of them. From this story we can list several good benefits of digital voting in sports:

  • get more members to participate at AGM or other meeting points for members
  • makes it easy for members to be included and involved at different decisions
  • can create a bigger community and togetherness among the members
  • provides a greater variation among the suggestions about the club’s development
  • increases the input for the future of the sports club
  • gives members a greater insight into the club’s operations
  • builds transparency and trust about the club’s policy and decisions

Another thing that would be interesting to discuss is all the opportunities that arise with a digital voting system. Why not allowing the members to more often be part of the operations than once a year. As a member-owned club, you could and probably should involve the members more often than once a year. With the online voting system, you could run a voting process during one day or why not a week when you might want to decide if the club should create a special day for the fans or if the club should participate in the local community, etc.

Feel free to let us know what you would do or if you done this in your club.

If you liked this article, may want to read these:

How to become a successful and transformational leader

The modern leadership – how to be efficient

Leadership through sport management – How to be innovative

How to get a job in tennis

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Tennis arena that symbolize a journey from tennis player to sports management professional

If you are looking for a job within tennis, then we are happy to let you know that we will share an interview with one person who made this journey. From playing tennis to studying sport management and developing tennis in many ways. Let us find out how Emil achieved his dream, a job in sports.

MEET THE SPORTS INDUSTRY FROM THE INSIDE

Emil Holmgren – Club Office Manager at Växjö Tennissällskap (Växjö Tennis club)
Education background: Sport Management, Dalarna University

Emil Holmgren, Club Office Manager at Växjö Tennis Club

Why pursuing a career in sports?

You are working with a job in sports that many of us would call a dream job. How come you decided to pursue a career in sports? And mostly, why did you want to work in sports?

Sports has always played a big role in my life. As a kid I tried out many different sports, but at the age of eleven I fell in love with the sport Tennis. A few years later I had the opportunity to attend a School with an emphasis on sports. I then followed up with entering a High School specialized in tennis. During all this time I was competing in tennis on a national level.

With a lot of time spent at the tennis club in my city, Falun, I got highly involved with all things related to tennis, both playing and management. My next step into sport management at Dalarna University was quite smooth. The educational program already existed where I lived and I didn’t have to consider other options. The reasons why I decided to study sport management was actually more of a step towards working with tennis in the near future. My own tennis level wasn’t even close to going on the professional ATP Tour, but I wanted to stay in the field I love, tennis, and that is why I studied sport management.

How did you get involved with Tennis in Växjö?

I met my girlfriend in 2015 at the Swedish Open tournament, and she came from Växjö. Since a distance relationship is not optimal, I decided to move to her. I had the previous year already moved to Stockholm, working with the management running Kings of Tennis (ATP Champions Tour). I was sort of already on the move. During my time in Växjö it came quite natural for me to get in contact with tennis in the area. I reached out to Växjö Tennissällskap (Växjö Tennis club) and soon after that I was elected to the board. When the club decided it was vital to employ a club office manager, I got the opportunity.

The role of Sport Management education

Going back to your higher education in sport management. How was your student experience and how did it help you to get a career in the sport industry?

I look back at my student life as a positive experience. I never had to go through any major changes regarding my social life, I grew up in Falun and I knew my way around. The education itself was pretty good and it gave me a solid foundation for my future. One minor thing I missed was the opportunity to do internships, which wasn’t part of the program. But this was mostly a problem for all students coming from other cities and regions. Myself, I already had a great network and kind of “had my own internship” during the whole education, at my tennis club, Falu Tennis Club.

What steps did you take to close the gap from being a student to becoming a sport professional?

I did many hours on a volunteering basis at the tennis club in my hometown. Due to all the time spent there I managed to build up great working experience, and I think this was the key for my future career. I have had many different experiences throughout the years and that is actually my number one advice becoming a sport professional. There are so many graduates in sport management every year, how do you separate yourself from everyone else? You have to be unique in some way. My niche was to doing everything in tennis. At the age of 20, I had already been a board member at my club for two years, I had done an internship at Stockholm Open, been a referee in lots of ATP/WTA competitions. I had also been traveling on several tours together with Stefan Olson (one of the top players in a wheelchair) and helped him with sponsoring and social media. Lastly, I had also been part of the management group at Kings of Tennis for two years. Without all of these experiences, I would never have the job I have today.

Working experiences with Tennis

At your current position, what are your key responsibilities?

Operations, marketing and recruiting new tennis players are my key responsibilities. As the Club Office Manager, I am expected to know more or less everything concerning the club and its surroundings. Everything from facilities, the economy, our data systems, marketing and yeah probably a lot more. However, I like learning new things and if there are matters I don’t know about, I will make sure to get the right knowledge and solve the task.

Two things I really like doing, which is not in my job description, are taking photographs and doing graphical design. The good thing here is that we can use my personal interest outside tennis, to our benefit and have these skills in house. I am also working as a coach 8-10 hours weekly so we can keep the costs low in the club. I strongly believe sports clubs should recruit people with multi-functional skills.

What have been your focus since you started at Växjö TS?

Starting with our club’s position before I got here, the whole organization was in a good balance. However, there was a focus on the core operations at the facility ‘Strandbjörkshallen’. I noticed when I got here that we were lacking in our external communications, showing to our community what we actually were doing. That is why I started to create added value outside of our daily operations. For example, we have started the project ‘Tennis on the street’. This is a project by the Swedish Tennis Federation where children in less developed areas in Växjö can play tennis at no cost, two hours per week.

To date, we have improved our marketing skills and are making sure that we are telling how proud we are with our different developments. One of our most exciting projects coming up is ‘The tennis bus’. We are going to pick up children at their school and transport them to the tennis facility in our tennis van. We will provide them with snacks, a tennis practice between 2-3 pm and then we will have a daycare until their parents pick them up after work. This arrangement is a benefit for both the club and the parents. We get to fill up our courts earlier in the day and the parents do not have to worry about solving the logistics of life.

Last year (2019) I started to do some volunteer work with Hampus Linder-Olofsson, now ranked 2nd best wheelchair tennis player in Sweden. In this short period of time he has managed to win the Swedish Championship and the Nordic Championship, moved up from 350 in the world to around top 100. My purpose with this project is to improve and develop tennis by finding more para-athletes.

Getting a career in the sport industry

What tips do you have for students trying to get a career in the sport industry?

I mentioned it a bit earlier. Volunteer! Not only for one week at a competition. Provide your services to a local sports club. What can you bring to the table? Maybe you can run their social media? Or why not help them with their member’s registration. Can you help out at their café? All experiences you can get are worth something, just keep in mind that it might take a while before you land your dream job. Try to find a person to follow, talk to and exchange some ideas with. In my case, I did this with Mattias Pennonen at Falu Tennis Club, Per Hjertquist who managed Kings of Tennis and right now I have Tuomas Heinonen in Växjö.

Finding a new candidate in sports

Lastly, you have just completed a process of recruiting a new colleague. Could you explain how you knew that this person was the one?

Yes, we just recently hired Calle, as our sport director who will be working with me. He has been a coach at this club before and he is one of the best in the country according to the tennis community. We are happy to get him back to our club, which is really a result of all the hard work we have done, proofing that we are doing something great. Calle has a unique way to motivate both players and coaches to take the next step, to excel and grow. We both believe that the first two years interacting with tennis are incredibly important. If you manage to make a great impact, the chances are quite good that they will turn into a tennis ambassador for the rest of their lives.

And, what is your top 3 advice to other sports organizations when it comes to recruiting a new colleague?

I can only share my experience regarding tennis, and it is a rather small community, at least in Sweden. Everyone knows everyone. Just ask around and do not explicitly look for those with the best awards or achievements. Strive to get to know those who really love their work and are proud to work as, for example, a tennis coach.


If you liked this article, may want to read these:

How to build a sustainable career in sports?

2 tips to find a job in sports

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What a current sport management student needs to know

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Sport management Student try to Discover essential tips and strategies for the sports management career to enhance the education and secure a career in the sports industry.

Tons of people start every year a sport management education in order to later work in sports, to get that dream job. There are also lots of unanswered questions or hidden tips of how you actually getting through your education and getting closer to that dream job in sports. Therefore, you will get some advice about what to know as a sport management student.

Networking breakfasts are both tasty and inspiring

In early February, our founder, Jakob Wikenstaal, had the honor to talk to current sport management students at his former sport management university, Malmo University. During the past decade, sport management program have built up a great tradition at the program where a few networking sessions are taken place throughout each year. This is usually a setup like a breakfast event (of course free breakfast, need to think about the students) where about three people from the sports industry come and talk about their work experiences and sometimes also ask for interns or other help.

In the past few years, these networking breakfasts have been developed into always inviting alumni to do one talk, in order to inspire what other graduates have been up to after the studies. Jakob have been invited a few times and he always felt proud being asked to do a talk and to have the opportunity to talk about his journey so far. It is always great to show that the future sport managers have a lot of opportunities ahead.

This is what sport management students should be aware of

What Jakob did talk about during this breakfast was about what sport management students should be aware planning ahead. Jakob always focusing on how far you can go by trying out new tasks and being curious to meet new people.

How to get a job in sports?

Many students in sport management enter their first days at the university and have a hard time understanding how and what they can do to get a job in sports. But that is nothing to be scared of. Jakob had the same challenges. It is hard to know what skills you have and what value you could add to your surroundings.

How Jakob made this trip? Well, he created his own path. Jakob has been (and always is) curious and asking questions to experienced people in the sports industry. He is also reading a lot of different books, news, and trends on the web. All of these sources gives him a lot of inspiration and knowledge. Make sure to have different perspectives with different sources, which gives you a critical and more creative and open mindset and this has also been a good benefit in his career.

Jakob Wikenstaal´s personal advice to find a job in sports:

  • When looking at jobs, one working title doesn’t say everything about what that job means and require and if you would like it
  • Ask people that already know
  • Go out and volunteer
  • Keep asking yourself if you do and have tried tasks that you enjoy

Be unique and have your own USP

When it comes down to your name and another candidate to get the job, you need to make sure the recruiter chooses you. How? Well, you need to be different. Be unique and make sure you show it. This will be your unique selling point, USP. Find out at least one thing that is your unique selling point, why YOU? In order to get there, here are four ways to become a bit better than your competitors:

  • Do more than your future colleagues/job seekers
  • Read a little bit more
  • Get to know one person more
  • Say yes to that extra task

If you liked this article, may want to read these:

How to build a sustainable career in sports?

3 ways to express passion for sports jobs

For employers and job seekers in the sports industry

How sports technology has changed physical activity

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Panel discussion at Träffpunkt Idrott on integrating technology to enhance physical activity across all ages.

Digital and physical activities don’t have to be each other’s contrast.
– Technology can actually do the opposite and make us more physically active and create positive associations towards movements, according to the Sports Scientist Jakob Wikenstaal.
A few examples will be presented at two panel discussions at Träffpunkt Idrott.

During one of the afternoons at Träffpunkt Idrott, two panels will be held about the technological development within the sports field. Moderator is Jakob Wikenstaal, a Sport Scientist and one of the founders of Nordic Sports Tech and Sportidealisten.

– We want to show how sports and technology can cooperate and both increase and foster physical activity in all ages by inspiration and motivation, says Jakob.

– At the conference, we will discuss different solutions to the societies problems with physical inactivity. And, we are asking: can technology be a tool to assist and getting more people outdoors and become more physically active?

Nordic Sports Tech

Nordic Sports Tech, not only consist of members from the Nordics but also people from all over the world. Today, they have gathered more than 240 organizations, researchers and sports tech enthusiasts.

– Our mission is to lead the development of a nordic connected sports tech ecosystem by supporting and connecting founders, startups, organizations and investors, corporates and universities to sustainably grow and promote the sports tech vertical in and outside the Nordic countries, explains Jakob.

– There are many great initiatives, people and resources. However, they have so far been pretty hard to find. We want to be the unifying force.

Jakob Wikenstaal, Founder of Sportidealisten and Co-Founder of Nordic Sports Tech, discussing the impact of sports technology on physical activity.
Jakob Wikenstaal, Founder of Sportidealisten, Co-Founder of Nordic Sports Tech

What’s new in sports technology?

Several examples will be brought up during the panels. In the first panel, we will hear about different perspectives from eSports, how digital communities manage to get people outdoors and be physically active. In this panel, we will hear more from the founder of the Swedish eSport federation, Alexander Hallberg and another panelist from the sports tech startup, Just Football and their Chief of Product.

– You can play games, train and challenge your friends in free kicks and penalties outdoors via a smartphone. This is a good example of how to get more people physically active through new technology, according to Jakob Wikenstaal.

Another person in the panel is Michaela Lindgren, who founded Forest Femmes, a community for trail runners that inspires women to run in the forest.

On the second panel, you will get an overview of how technology in sports works today. Furthermore, you will hear success stories from people in the sports tech scene but also how hard and easy it has been to develop new technological solutions.

One of the panelists is Stina Lundgren Högbom, the program manager of SPIN Accelerator Sweden. She is oriented toward supporting entrepreneurship and startups in the sports tech scene.

A second panelist is Filip Ahlström, project manager of Malmö FF’s eSport’s team, which won the first season of eAllsvenskan 2019. They had a great focus on working with a health team throughout the season.

A third panelist is Emily Dahlgren, Co-Founder of Horse Tech of Sweden, where they want to promote and show the technological innovations form the equestrian sport.

– The equestrian sport is an interesting and a great example, says Jakob Wikenstaal.

– It has for such a long time been very conservative but has more recently become more tech-savvy. More and more solutions are brought to life from different sports tech verticals in order to develop training methods, performances, and much more, all with great success.

This is a translated version from Träffpunkt Idrott’s newsletter interview with the founder of Sportidealisten, Jakob Wikenstaal. Find the original version in Swedish here.

If you liked this article, may want to read these:

How sports technology has changed physical activity

How to become a successful athlete

Kickstart Your Career in the Sports Industry: New Year, New Job, New Trends for 2025

How to implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child in sports

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Children playing soccer, illustrating the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in sports.

Do you know about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)? In Sweden, this is the main topic in the sports movement. Since the start of 2020 this is a law in Sweden. We all need to rethink how we work in sports and how we treat our children.

The Swedish sports movement:

About 20 000 sports clubs

About 3 150 000 participants/members in sports clubs (the majority are in the age 6-14)

About 900 000 volunteers

The future sports generation

The Swedish sports movement is an important part of Swedish society. A lot of children growing up participating in a sport. This makes the sports movement an important part of raising our future, therefore the importance of treating our children with their rights is a big one.

Every year the youth sports clubs are getting funds from the government, however, this requires that the organisations are running from a child rights perspective. This is still something that hasn’t been managed enough and therefore the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child became law in Sweden 2020. This means that all the volunteers in sports and sports clubs need to raise the knowledge level about Children’s Rights in sports.

What is in the Convention?

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, or UNCRC, is the basis of all of Unicef’s work. It is the most complete statement of children’s rights ever produced and is the most widely-ratified international human rights treaty in history. You can read the full convention (pdf), or just a summary (pdf), to find out more about the rights that are included.

4 points to better understand youth sports

From a great lecture I experienced about this topic during 2019 I wanted to forward some important lessons to you. There are 54 articles that cover all aspects of a child’s life and set out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights that all children everywhere are entitled to. No matter who you are, where you are from, every child has rights. Important to know about the articles, no right is more important than another. However, the lecturer, Johan R Norberg, taught the audience four of these, because he thinks those can help the people who are involved within youth sports.

  • Article 2:
    • All children have the same rights and the same values.
  • Article 3:
    • It is the child’s best that should be a priority around anything where children are involved.
  • Article 6:
    • Each child has the right to survive and develop.
  • Article 12:
    • Children have the right to speak and be listened to.

What do these four articles mean and what can you do about them? Below are these further explained and in what situations they could be important to think about.

About the right to be involved, the same rights and values!

  • In areas with big houses and wealthy families, the sports clubs are doing good. The consequence, the less wealthy neighborhoods, and their local sports clubs are less developed and have fewer resources to include everyone.
  • How do we handle all sports that are splitting up the rules, like with ice hockey with ceratin rules for girls versus boys. Girls aren’t allowed to tackle.
  • What about para-sports? How can clubs and board members include more children in para-sports? Make sure to talk with your board and ask if they ever thought about including para-sports.

About the child’s best around anything where children are involved.

  • Sports aren’t made for children. From the beginning children aged 13-14 years old started to participate in sports. This could be one reason why we have to rethink youth sports.
  • If you think we can adapt the children to sports, think again. We have to adapt sports to children. League tables should be applied later because this reduces the stress on performance at an early age, which is one reason why many children quit sports early in their life.
  • Coaches are not all the same. Some learn by books, some by listening and some in other ways. We all need to rethink how to better teach and educate our surroundings in order to better treat children and taking decisions about children.

About each child’s right to survive and develop

  • How does it look with injuries in your sports club? Especially injuries at an early age. Will they be scarred for life and can’t practice any sport in the future?
  • Does any child in your sports club being bullied, discriminated in any way? Looks different, etc.

About the child’s right to speak and be listened to

  • For a lot of children, school and sports are very similar. They are both managed by adults and have fixed times. One consequence of this is that children get tired of school and thus they feel the same about sports.
  • What would happen if we could actually change this in sports and ask the children what they want to do and make it different than school?
  • Talk to children, because then you will know what they think! Maybe they want to play something that is far from your sport? Try it out.
  • Participation is one way to reduce the number of children that are quitting sports. The forecasts to stay are much better with participative processes. Try to propose different educations or activities. Just ask!
  • Do you have youth counseling groups? Or anyone under 25 years old at the board? Those are different ways of listening to youth.

Emergency plans if somethings happens or about to happen

You should develop an emergency plan! What can you and your sports organisation do if something happens, that shouldn’t happen? If a child gets hurt, who should you talk to? If an accident happens during a youth game, what should you do? There are several examples about this in the handbook below.

Handbook for how to work with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in sports

Thanks to a lot of different people, among these, the United Nations and two sports researchers, Johan R Norberg and Susanna Hedenborg, they have developed a great handbook for all of us. It contains summarized research and provides good overviews of how the convention could be interpreted in sports.

Furthermore, you can get good concrete tips on how to act and behave in your local sports club. For example, how to talk with children, how to involve them and understanding if they are worried.

Download the free book here or order it for free (in Swedish)

Three examples from Sweden

The following three sporting organisations, Brynäs IF, Marathongruppen and Svenska skidförbundet are involved with United Nations in different ways today and are working with the Rights of the Child in sports:

  • Brynäs and UNICEF collaborating with a project called A good start, with the aim to give more children a good start in life with education, healthcare, and different leisure activities.
     
  • Since 2018, the Marathongruppen arranging “Stafesten för UNICEF” at several places in Sweden. It is a running race that supports UNICEF’s work to help more children with a good start as possible in their lives.
     
  • The Swedish Ski Federation (Svenska Skidförbundet) are working together with Håll Sverige Rent (a non-profit organization that promotes recycling and combats litter through public awareness campaigns and environmental education) with the project, All children have rights. It is a project that helps children to have fun and play in the snow, no matter your background.

Lessons learned

The Swedish sports movement is an important part of Swedish society. We are raising our future, therefore the importance of treating our children with their rights is a big one. This is still something that hasn’t been managed enough and therefore the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child became law in Sweden 2020. This means that all the volunteers in sports and sports clubs need to raise the knowledge level about Children’s Rights in sports.

It is hard to remember all 54 articles about the Rights of the child. But start with these four points to better understand youth sports:

  • Article 2:
    • All children have the same rights and the same values.
  • Article 3:
    • It is the child’s best that should be a priority around anything where children are involved.
  • Article 6:
    • Each child has the right to survive and develop.
  • Article 12:
    • Children have the right to speak and be listened to.

There are many things to keep in mind. But most importantly, we need to rethink how we are treating our future generation in sports. We need to talk with the children, listen to them, how to involve them and understanding if they are worried. It starts with you and me, right here and now!

If you liked this article, may want to read these:

How to create a sport federation

The modern leadership – how to be efficient

Leadership through sport management – How to be innovative

Why breadth is important for your career in sports

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Illustration showing the value of diverse skills in sports careers.

Do you think specialization in sports at an early age is better for success? Do you believe that the same perspective is applied to university education too? If you ask the NBA star Steve Nash, six‐time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, and 20‐time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer, they would tell you no. No matter if you are a parent, a child or an adult, you will after reading or watching this understand why breadth is important for a career in sports.

Range

The Author David Epstein has written a book called, Range – Why generalists triumph in a specialized world. Thanks to this and the Productivity Game, there are two easily digestible ways to understand this book and its core message. First, a short summary will be presented and after that, you can watch the short video explaining the book a bit further.

Late specialization to find your dream job

What is the common reason why the three sports athletes would say no? As the Productivity Game says it: Other than being among the greatest to ever play their sport, they were all ‘late specializers.’

  • Nash grew up playing soccer and did not start playing basketball until he was 13.
  • Tom Brady spent much of his childhood playing baseball; he was drafted into professional baseball before football.
  • Roger Federer sampled a wide array of sports before focusing on tennis in his early teens.

The concept of Range is to build up a toolbox with a range of several skills

Epstein says, “One study showed that early-career specializers jumped out to an earnings lead after college, but that later specializers made up for the head start by finding work that better fit their skills and personalities.”

Sportidealisten’s founder, Jakob, has talked a lot about his own sport management education and its program’s breadth. A lot of sport management higher education programs are delivered in breadth and as a student, you may question this after graduating. Was this really a step closer to my dream job in sports? You might perceive that you only have a base layer of skills. However, with the concept of Range and plenty of opportunities for volunteering at different sporting events, there are great ways to finding your dream job in sports.

I have no sports education, how can I work in sports?

If you haven’t studied any sport management related to education, don’t worry! There are still many volunteering opportunities in sports. If you haven’t volunteered before, don’t stress. Take your first steps into the world of sports and your dream job in sports by asking your friends about any sports clubs they know or browse on the web for sports clubs and ask them to volunteer.

Patience is key to finding your dream job in sports

Take your time and accumulate a range of experiences and skills, but when you feel like you’ve experienced enough and you know yourself well enough, go deep on an interest and get really good.

At the end of the summary, a Career Change checklist is attached, in order for you to control your status of range. Make sure to ask yourself:

  • Has my current job become too procedural?
  • Do I interact with a diverse group of people?
  • Am I still learning (exposed to new experiences)?
  • Have I tried many different roles before specializing?

If you didn’t say yes to two or more of these four questions, you might want to think about changing your career.

If you are interested to know more about this book, please have it a go with the Productivity Game’s great Core Message video (9 minutes).

If you liked this article, may want to read these:

How to build a sustainable career in sports?

For employers and job seekers in the sports industry

3 ways to express passion for sports jobs

How to become a Senior Research and Insights Executive in sports

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Harriet Eastham, Senior Research and Insights Executive at Southampton Football Club, during an interview about her career in sports.

What does it take to work in sports and to work in the Premier League? It is time to share experiences and valuable tips from people in the sports industry. This month’s sports job spotlight is a person who started as a student and took the 1 % approach in order to find her dream job in sports.

Meet the sports industry from the inside

Harriet Eastham – Senior Research and Insights Executive at Southampton Football Club

Harriet Eastham - Senior Research and Insights Executive at Southampton Football Club

You got a new job in sports, congratulations!

Dear Harriet,

How are you doing? I am happy to connect with a person who is sharing a passion for sports.

You recently got a new job in sports, congratulations! As a person who runs a sports jobs platform with the mission to help more people finding their dream job in sports, I would be curious to ask you questions about your previous role in order to inspire more people finding their dream job in sports 🙂

Hi Jakob,
Thanks for your kind words! Happy to answer any questions you may have.

Ah, that is very kind of you. Let us get right into it.

First questions.

– Why did you decide to pursue a career in sports? 

– How did you get involved with Southampton FC?

I wanted to pursue a career in sport as it has a wonderful ability to bring people together. I knew that it was an industry that would be exciting, with no two days being the same, whether that was as a player or in the back office within the club. In regards to data analytics in sport, I knew I wanted to be apart of an innovative industry after being exposed to the work of Billy Bean and Bill James. It fascinated me how you could quantify elements of an industry that at times runs on emotion.

I was very fortunate that following my masters at Loughborough University London, there was a job opening in the Research and Insights department at Southampton FC. The job mirrored exactly what I had learned previously in modules on the course – so it was a dream come true! Fortunately, I grew up in Winchester just down the road from Southampton so I’ve always been a fan of the club and used to play as a kid for the girls’ team so it felt like a bit of a homecoming.

Many thanks for these answers, Harriet!

That sounds like a great story. And, you got back home 🙂

I certainly agree with no two days being the same!
So you did enjoy Loughborough then?

I loved my time at Loughborough and can’t speak highly enough of the place.

How to go from sport studies to a sports job?

How were your student experiences from Bachelor’s and Master’s and how did it help you to get a career in the sports industry? I mean, did Southampton FC only recruit you based on a Master?

And, what steps did you take to close the gap from being a student to working in the sports industry?

I’d say my masters definitely helped my chances of gaining a job in the sports industry. However, a lot of work outside of the classroom took place to make sure that I gave myself every opportunity to be exposed to the industry. I volunteered a lot at various sports events as a videographer, reporter and data analyst to make sure that I was getting in front of the right people to try and show that I was someone that they should take a chance on.

Happy to hear that Harriet. I had my guesses that you probably had done some extra work. At least according to me, I feel companies require something more than just an education.

And does Southampton FC engage and collaborate with any sport management/science university?

We have an academic partnership with Southampton Solent University currently 🙂

Okay. That is good. I guess most of the bigger clubs have some academic collaborations.

Find your dream sports job

Also, have you heard about EASM?

I haven’t but I’ve started reading up on it and it looks great!

We will actually host our next Sport Management conference in London at your university, which will be mid-September 2020. So pretty close for you and maybe your colleagues and network. We (the EASM board) will actually visit Loughborough University London at the end of November 🙂 Looking forward to visiting it already!

I hope you enjoy your visit!
Yeah, I’m sure some of us would be interested in attending 😊

Thanks! I think you would like it. Do you also have any network and common events you go to among the premier league clubs?

There are certain Premier League forums that those higher up than myself attend, and we’ve started to see the likes of Facebook run Premier League only events for clubs to give them hints and tricks to getting the most out of their content on the site.

Aha. It sounds like exciting stuff ahead.

Advice on how to enter a new sports job

Last three questions that I am very interested to know from your perspective.

– What is your advice for other people just entering a new sports job?

Enjoy it! The sports industry can be a fast-paced place to work but that doesn’t mean that you should become overwhelmed and not enjoy the fact that you are hopefully working in a role or industry that you’ve always wanted to be in.

– What do you see as the top 3 necessary skills in order to break into the sports industry? It could be soft/business skills etc.

I’d say the business skills can be taught, but what can’t be taught is the soft skills of:

(1) Being tenacious – create your own opportunities if you have to. The sports industry is a competitive one to get into, so anything that can give you an extra boost to help you stand out is always a plus.

(2) Having an eye for details – Within sport, it’s all about the 1 percent for improvement in both performance roles and commercial roles.

(3) Being a sponge – Try and soak up all of the experience that others have around you and be willing to listen to what they have to say. Sometimes people can be quick to want to prove themselves, rather than respecting others’ opinions or experiences. I’m still learning every day from my colleagues, even those that may be younger than me as they bring something new to the business.

– What tips do you have for students trying to get a career in the sports industry?

Expose yourself to as many opportunities as possible and try and put yourself in front of people to grow a network. If you can show others your passion to work within the sports industry, then it becomes infectious and memorable so people are more likely to keep you around and recommend you to others. Also, as cliche, as it sounds, don’t give up!

Wow! I really enjoy reading these answers, Harriet. I highly appreciate you and your time to put down these meaningful words and thoughts. I can really align with being tenacious, the 1 % and being the sponge. I actually need to ask you one last question before we say over and out. How do you manage to stay up to date and adding that 1%?

I’m glad you enjoyed them – thanks for asking me! 🙂 

I spend the first 30 mins of my day at work having breakfast and reading outlets like SportsPro, Sports Techie and looking for opinion blogs on LinkedIn. I really enjoy learning from others and Ryan McCumber’s conferences (F.I.S.T and Sports Analytics World Series) are great resources to meet others and share ideas.

Thanks for sharing that too! You have certainly given a lot of energy and inspiration to the readers and to those that are looking into working in the sports industry and especially in the football industry. With that said I want to say, all the best of luck with your new job and I am looking forward to following your career in the world of sports!

If you liked this article, may want to read these:

How to build a sustainable career in sports?

For employers and job seekers in the sports industry

3 ways to express passion for sports jobs

Why EASM helps your sports career

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Professional networking and development opportunities through the European Association for Sport Management (EASM) for sports industry professionals

Learn, enjoy and never forget the experiences gained at EASM

That was the core message our founder Jakob got from his first experience from EASM. However, the initial question Jakob had 2014 when he first interacted with the European Association for Sport Management (EASM), was: what is EASM and what values can you get from them? 2019 was the year when Jakob could look back to these questions and give the answer you have been waiting for.

What is EASM?

Back in 2014, Jakob was about one year into his sport management studies. One of our professors mentioned a sport management summer school that was through an association called the European Association for Sport Management. Jakob and his student colleagues were told about this opportunity to go abroad, have several days of lessons and work with other future sport managers from around the world. As a future sport manager, Jakob thought this sounded like a great opportunity.

What was interesting at this stage? Well, it was an opportunity to add something extra, something of an international class to a CV and sport management career. Unfortunately, the dates and costs weren’t on a students side and Jakob never took that opportunity 2014.

EASM

Fast forward, 2017 was the year Jakob interacted with EASM again and this time he participated at the Student Seminar and the EASM conference in Switzerland. Jakob met more than 50 international students and they had five intensive but fun and valuable days at the Student Seminar. They learned a lot about the Olympic games and its history, but they also did the Management Game. The management game consist of group work around a challenge and the students need to solve this in a few days and deliver a great presentation.

Why EASM helps your sports career

Jakob´s group never won, however, they did a great job and most importantly they did their best. After this, the students moved to the EASM conference and the opening ceremony and this evening happened to be the next step in Jakobs´ career. He was honored and asked to be the successor as the Student Representative at the EASM board.

Why EASM helps your sports career

Lessons learned

Fast forward to the EASM conference 2019 in Spain, Jakob was ending his term as the Student Representative and then what? During the summer 2019 Jakob was thinking about the future. He asked himself: Why did I get the honor to be the Student Representative and what have I learned since then and what is EASM all about?

He wasnt sure where to begin. Jakob always asks around in social environments who and what brings people to act and what is their passion. This was what he did during the days of the Student Seminar too. Some people might call this networking and some might just call this curiosity. Furthermore, Jakob always try to listen and find new opportunities for his networks, trying to provide them feedback, ideas, etc. According to Jakob, if people do those things, they show passion and hunger to do more.

Taking on a board role in an international context was something Jakob never imagine being part of during his early days into his sport management career. Now years later, he can only say that he can recommend to try something similar to those who wants to make an impact on the international level and are looking for an international career. The people at the board of EASM have shown that everyone is welcomed. Even though Jakob was much younger or had less working experience than the rest of the board of EASM, Jakob was always free to ask questions, taking part in the discussions and the decisions. Furthermore, the board of EASM and the community is a community where you can take action. If you want to engage and make an impact you are welcome. The board volunteers their time. So, Jakob basically asked questions, what he could help out with and he proposed different action plans. Those things have allowed him to develop as a board member and as a person.

Why EASM helps your sports career

During these years, Jakob has since the start met and made new friends all over the world. He has talked and interacted with more than 240 students from the Bachelor to the Ph.D. level. Jakob has been part of the Local Organising Committee at the EASM conference 2018 in Malmo, Sweden, he has arranged two Student Seminars and one Summer School, and Jakob has developed an online platform for sport management students and developed a few Facebook groups where new EASM students can network. He continuously stayed connected and both kept contact with student participants online and offline. Jakob has also helped and managed the award committee for the Alberto Madella Scholarship Fund and helped develop an award for the Student Seminar 2019.

Basically together with great support from the EASM board members, Jakob has developed a sports management community for the rising stars within the field with the aim of increasing visibility of EASM within the Student community and engagement of European sport management students with EASM. When Jakob finished his term as the Student Representative, he thought through his experiences and chose to apply to become a full board member. What do you think happened? Jakob was chosen and then did additionally three years at the board of EASM.

What do you want to do with you career in the sport management field?

  • Are you working at a sport management related program/university and want your students to develop?
  • Are you a student who wants to develop and build your sport management network?
  • Do you want to contribute and further develop the sport management field with research, mentoring, working or if you have any ideas?

The European Association for Sport Management (EASM) offers significant advantages for professionals in the sports industry. Engaging with EASM can enhance your career through:

  • Networking Opportunities: Connect with a diverse group of international sports management professionals, academics, and students, facilitating the exchange of ideas and collaboration.
  • Professional Development: Participate in conferences, seminars, and workshops that provide insights into the latest trends and research in sports management.
  • Access to Resources: Gain entry to exclusive publications, research materials, and a comprehensive sport management library, supporting continuous learning and informed decision-making.
  • Career Advancement: Engage in mentoring services and collaborative projects that can open doors to new opportunities and enhance your professional trajectory.

Incorporating EASM into your professional journey can provide the tools and connections necessary to excel in the dynamic field of sports management.

Why EASM helps your sports career
If you liked this article, may want to read these:

How to build a sustainable career in sports?

For employers and job seekers in the sports industry

3 ways to express passion for sports jobs

The future of football will be like?

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Future of Football Business Conference 2019 presentation

What is the future of football? What is the next big thing you should know about? How can football clubs and leagues adapt and stay innovative? A review of the Future of Football Business conference in Graz, Austria.

What is the Future of Football Business conference?

The Future of Football Business conference in Graz, Austria is the conference for digitization, innovation and future topics in the football business.

International experts provided insights into topics such as fan engagement, modern infrastructure, new monetisation possibilities, internationalisation, the use of data and many other hot topics in the football business.

Furthermore, experts from clubs and economy presented their best practices or learnings and discussed how to handle those changes and to use emerging opportunities. An additional focus was on startups from the football business ecosystem. Let us go through some of the insights.

Football startups and how they can help clubs

One of the many sessions during the conference was a panel discussion with the topic: How Clubs and Leagues can benefit from working with Startups. Involved in the panel were:

Tomasz Zahorski (Member of the Board, Legia Warsaw)
Patrick Lenhart (Head of Marketing & PR, Austrian Bundesliga)
Dirk Schluenz (Head of Commercial, FC St. Pauli)

Together they discussed how many startups that tried to get in contact with them. For Patrick and the Austrian league, he received up to 50 different calls/messages every week. Meanwhile, the football clubs, they received 10-20 calls/messages from different startups who would like to help them every week.

The common thing between the organisations was that the Austrian league, Legia Warzaw, and FC St. Pauli don’t have the resources and time to listen enough to all messages. However, the Austrian league would listen to those who can help all the clubs in their league. Patrick also mentioned that they would recommend startups to go directly to the clubs instead of them. FC St.Pauli thought it was stupid to go to a club and not the biggest player within the tech industry like Google and Facebook etc.

One challenging part for the startups that they discussed, was the difficulties to get in contact and sell to football clubs. What they should do is to ask the clubs what they need and then offer the services/products for free to show the proof of a great startup. That would provide the football clubs more trust and credibility.

Another way to be innovative was that the Austrian league could imagine having an innovation lab. A place where they could try to identify the needs of their clubs and then invite startups to try to solve them.

Innovative football startups

Later during the day of the conference, The Football Innovation Award was held. The award presented the category “Innovative Startup”. Together with an international jury of experts, a shortlist of five nominees from the entries was chosen. The five startups were:

Let’s look into two of these, that actually are Nordic startups.

Clubtimiser, is a wall-to-wall CRM solution for sports clubs. It is developed on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform and helps solving challenges and “pains” experienced by sports clubs regarding value chain management such as pipeline management, account management, capacity management of products, an overview of sponsorships, event management, etc.

Sportidealisten Sports Job Nordic Sports Tech NordicSportsTech Future of Football Business JustFootball Clubtimiser

Just Football, is a mobile game revolutionizing the sport of football by combining real-life gameplay with digital user-created content. Progress in your career by playing football challenges with other players on one of the thousands of pitches submitted by the Just Football community.

Sportidealisten Sports Job Nordic Sports Tech NordicSportsTech Future of Football Business JustFootball Clubtimiser

Lessons learned by Sportidealisten

So what is the future of football like? What we experienced and discovered was that media, data, and technology are more or less involved in the plans of growing football clubs and organisations. No matter if it is about broadening your fan base abroad to China or India, or to the neighbor country. You need data to better know your fans and potential fan, but also media to engage and technology to offer good accessibility to your football club and community.

If you are a startup, and specifically if you want to get involved in the football industry, make sure to address the need of the majority of a league’s football clubs. At least provide free samples to clubs in order to give them a chance without taking too much time and risk from them. Football clubs and leagues get so many messages, instead of listening to your idea that costs, convince them by showing first.

Lastly, with a subjective Nordic perspective, Clubtimiser and Just Football show some interesting future football trends. Technology can help more clubs to organise their management, no matter the sports club’s size. And Just Football shows that they can help to get more people physically active by gamifying football, almost like playing FIFA.

And who won the Football Innovation Award? Well, the Swedish startup, Just Football did! Congratulations! Want to know more about this technology space, head over to SportstechSweden.com.

Sportidealisten Sports Job Nordic Sports Tech NordicSportsTech Future of Football Business JustFootball Clubtimiser

What are your thoughts? Do you work in the football business? Add your comment below.

If you liked this article, may want to read these:

How sports technology has changed physical activity

Kickstart Your Career in the Sports Industry: New Year, New Job, New Trends for 2025

The SportsTech behind the athletes’ road to the Olympics

De är världens mest innovativa inom sport

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de är världens mest innovativa inom sport

Vad krävs för att vara innovativ inom sport? Vad gör att NBA är en av världens mest innovativa verksamheter? Detta ska undersökas i detta inlägg. Av världens 50 mest innovativa verksamheter finns två från sportens värld. Dessutom finns en lista med sportens topp 10. I detta inlägg delar jag med mig vilka några av de topp 10 mest innovativa är inom sporten och några lärdomar från dem.

Världens 50 mest innovativa verksamheter

Företags- och mediaföretaget, Fast Company, som fokuserar på innovation, teknologi, ledarskap och kreativitet, har listat topp 50 mest innovativa verksamheter. Den fokuserar på de verksamheter som har den mest djupgående inverkan i både sin sektor och kultur och som visar olika sätt att klara av dagens snabba värld. Vill du läsa vidare om hur dessa 50 verksamheter skapar framtiden idag klicka här. Listan visar verksamheter från många olika sektorer, så som design, rymden, mat, gaming, sport med mera. På plats 3 och 40 kommer två verksamheter från sportens värld (för en svensk kan det vara kul att Oatly ligger på plats nio).

Fast Company har dessutom skapat topp 10-listor över de mest innovativa verksamheter efter varje sektor, däribland sport. Nedan kommer vilka de är. Jag blev inspirerad och hoppas du kan bli lika inspirerad av att lära dig om dessa verksamheter.

Världens 10 mest innovativa verksamheter i sportens värld

För sportsektorn har Fast Company placerat världens mest innovativa verksamheter enligt följande topp 10.

1. NBA

Den professionella basketbolligan i USA, NBA, har genomfört flera olika förbättringar för att vara sporten som alla kan se oavsett vart du är. De utvecklar inte bara sporten på planen, utan öven utanför planen. Förra året slog ligan publikrekord för fjärde året i rad! Dessutom ökade prenumeranter av streamingtjänster med 63 % och de totala intäkterna ökade med 25 %.

Vad är det då NBA gör?

NBA har bland annat utvecklat en AR-app med ett kul spel, men de har även experimenterat med appar som Snapchat. Därutöver har de tillämpat VR genom “NextVR Screening Room”, vilket tillåter fans med ett NBA League Pass games att se matcher på en virtuell bioduk.

En av faktorerna till ökat antal av åskådare sägs vara NBAs lansering av esportligan NBA 2K League. Det var första gången en traditionell sportliga skapade en esportliga av sin sport. Slutligen har även NBA utvecklat sitt spelschema genom att reducera antalet matcher på olika platser under en kort tid för att förbättra spelarnas hälsa och spelkvalité.

2. Fanatics

Onlineförsäljaren av merchandise, Fanatics har gjort många sportklubbar en tjänst. De är lika snabba som sporterna själva att förse fans med rätt merchandise. Fanatics tillämpar en sorts vertikal produktion för att designa, producera och distribuera matchtröjor. Oavsett om sportarenorna har snabb eller långsam uppkoppling av internet och telefonnät, kan deras plattform förutse efterfrågan på bland annat tröjor. Förra året ökade den amerikanska fotbollsligan, NFL, sin merchandiseförsäljning med 50 % med Fanatics hjälp. De har dessutom startat samarbeten med flera europeiska fotbollsklubbar och esportens, Overwatch League. Tre olika faktorer till utveckling är:

INSTANT REPLAY

Fanatics plattform kombinerar sociala media interaktionen, matchdata och lagets hemsidas aktivitet för att uppskatta vad folk vill ha. Ett exempel som ges är när en amerikansk fotbollsspelare gjorde en överraskande touchdown i sin debut för laget Chicago Bear, där Fanatics skapade en tröja med spelarens namn och la ut den för försäljning vid halvtid. Resultatet: Den sålde för mer på en timme än vad Tom Bradys (spelaren som vunnit det mesta) tröja gjorde på hela den dagen.

GOOOOOOOAL!

På ett liknande sätt som ovan kan Fanatics snabbt justera lagens hemsidor som de arbetar med för att prioritera rätt spelares tröja. De anpassar inte bara hemsidorna åt lagen, utan de går även ut på sociala medier och mejlutskick till målanpassade grupper.

HITTING THE NUMBERS

Enligt statistiken sker 50 % av försäljningen av ett vinnande lags merchandise de första 72 timmarna efter vinsten. För att möjliggöra och ta emot en så stor efterfrågan skapar de samarbeten med lokala tryckeri och även med utkörningsföretag. Till exempel när ishockeylaget, Washington Capitals vann Stanley Cup förra sommaren tog Fanatics hjälp av Uber för att leverera alla ordrar.

3. Philadelphia Flyers

Ishockeylaget Philadelphia Flyers hamnar på en tredje plats främst för sin kreativitet och innovation av nya maskoten, Gritty! Det blev en viral succé över nätet med bilder, videos och memes med Gritty! Philadelphia Flyers har varit med flera decennier och ville nu skapa mer engagemang med sina fans. Målet med en maskot var att den skulle exaltera fansen och stärka lagets själ och kultur. Allt som allt, Gritty skapades, en väldigt stor filur med ishockeyklädsel. Resultatet blev en ny influencer som alla älskar.

Sportidealisten Lediga Sport Management Jobb Idrottsvetare Lediga SportJobb Lediga IdrottsJobb Sportkarriär Jobba med sport Sportutbildning idrottsutbildning Innovation

4. Levy

Fjärde platsen på listan hamnade restauranggruppen Levy. Det som de skapat är ett bättre flöde för all mat och dryck på arenor som Atlantas Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Men de har även utvecklat en robot som vänder burgare på Dodger Stadium i Los Angeles, vilket möjliggör för kockarna och personalen att fokusera mer på att ge bra service till fansen.

5. Zwift

Femte placerade Zwift har tagit löpare och cyklister till en ny nivå genom ett spelformat med en social twist. Zwift är helt enkelt världens största digitala lekplats för löpare och cyklister. Genom mätning av aktivitetsdata när du springer eller cyklar skapas ett spel som anpassar sig till din verklighet med höjder, hjärtpuls mm. Under 2018 utvecklade Zwift onlinemiljöer, där användare kunde uppleva en löpning vid vulkaner, under vattnet eller cykla på VM-banan i Innsbruck, Österrike.

6. Los Angeles Dodgers

Det amerikanska basebollaget, Los Angeles Dodgers är mer än ett basebollag. De har byggt upp en verksamhet för utveckling av sportteknologier. De har genomför en accelerator för att hjälpa startups inom sport, där de samarbetat med sport- och teknologiverksamheter som adidas, Fox Sports, Levy och Octagon. Dessutom har de byggt sin egna ungdomsakademi och utvecklat sitt biljettsystem mer digitalt.

7. Nex Team (HomeCourt)

Nex Team har gett basketbollen en ny nivå. Med hjälp av Nex Team kan en spelare analysera sig själv genom en videoanalys via sin egen telefon. En smart teknologi med hjälp av artificiell intelligens ger atleter en tydlig progression. Enligt företaget analyserades mer än 10 miljoner skott i mer än 150 länder under 2018.

8. Copa90

Från starten 2012 har Copa90 utvecklats väldigt mycket. Det började med en YouTube-kanal och har i dag blivit ett globalt mediaföretag inom fotbollen. De har skapat många olika intressanta och smarta samarbeten och gjorde succé under fotbolls VM i Ryssland.

9. Kitman Labs

Kitman Labs arbetar med artificiell intelligens och datorvetenskap för att förbättra atleters hälsa. Kitman Labs har utvecklat en produkt som kallas för Risk Advisor för att mäta atleters skaderisker. Med hjälp av sin unika teknologi kan de hjälpa atleter och tränare att träna smart och undvika skador.

10. MGM Resorts International

Slutligen på topp 10-listan har vi MGM Resorts International, som är en upplevelse och betting-gigant, med utgångspunkt i Las Vegas. Varför de är med på listan är för att de har utvecklat smart data i deras samarbeten med de amerikanska ligorna NBA, MLB och NHL nu när betting är legalt i USA. MGM Resorts kommer integrera realtidsdata i ligorna för att skapa nya spelupplevelser.

Sportidealistens lärdomar

Enligt Fast Company, kommer två av världens 50 mest innovativa verksamheter från sportens värld. Dessa två hamnar såklart i topp på topp 10-listan bland mest innovativa sportverksamheter. Med ett svenskt perspektiv låter denna topp 10-lista väldigt kommersiell och ligger en bra bit ifrån den svenska idrottsrörelsen. Det ska dock sägas att det är ett amerikanskt företag som ligger bakom rankingen och fokus ligger inte bara på innovation, utan även på företagsvärlden. Däremot är det intressant att se hur dessa tio verksamheter från sportens värld arbetar och utvecklar olika tjänster och möjligheter.

Några av lärdomarna från denna topp 10-lista handlar om vad de faktiskt gjort unikt. Ta som exempel NBA, de skapade första esportligan och fick med sig båda massor av klubblag och fans. Ett annat exempel är Fanatics unika anpassning till respektive lag och skapandet av unika erbjudande för försäljning av tröjor.

Andra lärdomar är att en maskot kan göra så stor skillnad, som en viral succé med Philadelphia Flyers maskot, Gritty. Eller varför inte Nex Team för att göra prestationsutveckling tillgänglig för flera.

Har du ett eget förslag på en innovativ verksamhet inom sport? Kommentera i kommentarsfältet under artikeln.

Vad är Fan Relationship Management?

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vad är fan relationship management

Bruce Lee: “Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”

Om du inspireras av andra och gör liknande så gäller Bruce Lees citat. Detta är väldigt passande i detta inläggets ämne. Fast det är inte alla som tänker på att det är okej att ta samma koncept som någon annan skapat. Gör som Bruce Lee, anpassa dig och ta det som passar i din kontext.

CRM i sportens värld

Jag har läst en studie om CRM, alltså Customer Relationship Management, där man studerat detta inom sportens värld, närmare bestämt inom fotbollen. CRM kan förklaras på många sätt och jag väljer att kalla det för ett hanteringssystem av dina kundrelationer.

CRM i fotbollsindustrin

Artikeln heter From CRM to FRM: Applying CRM in the football industry och det intressanta som fångade min uppmärksamhet var att de undersökte hur engelska fotbollsklubbar från Premier league (högsta divisionen) till League Two (fjärde divisionen) uppfattade och hanterade CRM.
Det som tidigare sagts om CRM inom sport är att det ofta varit något man inte fokuserat på, då man ofta litat på att fans är annorlunda än kunder och är mer lojala än kunder. Fast, under de senaste åren har det blivit mer och mer viktigt med relationsskapande hanteringar med kunder och fans. Bättre upplevelser och engagemang kan i dag erbjudas om du vet mer om vilka fansen faktiskt är.

Lösningen till tomma arenor

Detta perspektiv blir mer viktigt för sportklubbar som inte fyller upp sina arenor. Dock så kanske inte alla har råd med det främsta CRM-systemet, men Albion FC som ingår i studien med hjälp av en fallstudie, hade fixat ett nytt IT-system med fokus på CRM. Däremot hade klubben inte integrerat det i hela organisationen och tillämpat det på rätt sätt. De hade förlitat sig på den “självklara” lojaliteten hos fansen med mer segmenterade grupper i generella mallar, som kanske består av endast tre idealtyper. Detta innebär att de marknadsför till människor enligt tre målgrupper. Dock är det många olika mäniskor som kan besöka en fotbollsarena. De saknade en mer fullständig förståelse vilka deras fans faktiskt är.

Från CRM till FRM

Författarna i studien tar upp att med sportens unika egenskaper kontra vanliga företag, bör sportklubbar eftersträva CRM, fast kalla det FRM istället, vilket är Fan Relationship Management. Det de kunde se här var att även med ett simpelt CRM-system bör sportklubbar integrera hela organisationen för att optimera sitt FRM. Studien såg att alla avdelningar i sportklubben bör integreras för att förstå sina fans. De borde involvera både IT- som marknad- och kommunikationsavdelningarna för att förstå vilka fans som kommer på matcherna. Dessutom för att förstå till vilken nivå fansen är lojala och även kunna lyssna till deras olika behov, på så sätt kan sportklubbar kommunicera effektivt och transparent till sina fans.
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Sportidealistens lärdomar

Avslutningsvis, vad är Fan Relationship Management? Enligt studien “From CRM to FRM: Applying CRM in the football industry” studeras engelska fotbollsklubbar angående hur de arbetar med sina relationer med fansen. Inom företagsvärlden är det känt att jobba med olika it-system för att hela företaget ska ha koll på sina kunders relationer med företaget. Detta har sedan studerats ur ett fansperspektiv. Fans anses mer lojala och har tidigare tagits för givet att de kommer på alla matcher. Däremot står många arenor tomma och genom att applicera FRM inom idrotten anses sportklubbar kunna lära känna sina fans bättre. Således kan de i slutändan kommunicera med rätt budskap till sina fans trots att de lockas av olika matcher och intressen.
Så ta med er följande tre saker om du inte hinner läsa studien:

  • Genom att involvera större delen av organisationen kan både personen som säljer biljetter i shopen, till den som sköter sociala medier, veta vad som gäller.
  • Fansen kan få en känsla av en service och klubb i mästarklass.
  • Fans måste bli behandlade som kunder, fast bli erkända som fans. Detta enkla erkännandet är extremt viktigt och en databasmarknadsföring kan användas för att ge rätt officiella status för de lojala fansen som varit med under en lång tid.

Här hittar du artikeln.

Hoppas att du finner detta givande och på återseende med mer lärdomar som ökar din kreativitet inom sportens värld.

Har du testat detta? Har du ett eget förslag? Kommentera i kommentarsfältet under artikeln.

På återseende med mer lärdomar som ökar din kreativitet inom sportens värld.

Fyra tips till sportjobbet

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fyra tips till sportjobbet

Varje år börjar flera hundra studenter i Sverige sin resa till att få närma sig sitt drömjobb, att få jobba i sportvärlden. Frågar du dem vad de vill bli eller arbeta med, svar de flesta “jag vet inte” eller “kanske något inom …fotboll/ridsport (eller annat sport som är favoritsporten). Efter studietiden tänker många att det är äntligen dags för drömjobbet. Däremot är det inte många som vet vart det finns eller hur de ska hitta det. Detta är ett problem för många och det är därför Sportidealisten finns till, en samlad plattform som bidrar med inspiration, kunskaper, lärdomar och lediga sportjobb i Sverige och internationellt. I detta inlägg får du fyra tips hur jag lyckades få ett sportjobb. 

Du behöver inte kunna allt

Snart är det augusti och dags för Malmö att arrangera ett nationellt och ett internationellt idrottsevenemang, Malmö Triathlon, samt European Cup. Det får mig att minnas tillbaka 2018 års upplaga. Två dagar innan blev jag tillfrågad att hjälpa till. Men jag kunde ingeting om triathlon. Jag sa ja. Så här i efterhand är jag väldigt tacksam för möjligheten som jag fick. Trots en intensiv helg som gjorde mig lite sliten resten av veckan fick jag nya och färska erfarenheter från ett jobb i sportens värld. Att säga ja till detta hade aldrig varit möjligt om jag inte vågat lite på mina erfarenheter, att se utmaningar som möjligheter och att lära känna och träffat nya människor.

Möjligheten

Lediga sportjobb växer inte på träd och speciellt inte avlönade sportjobb. Det finns över 600 000 ideella ledare i Sverige som lägger ner sin tid för att fler ska kunna träna och tävla i en idrott. För att du ska kunna arbeta med sport gäller det att ta vara på alla möjligheter som ges. För att ge exempel, har jag arbetat både ideellt och avlönat med sporter som jag både är intresserad av och mindre intresserad av. Jag kunde inget om triathlon. Det har helt enkelt handlat om att ta vara på möjligheten och se det som ett steg på vägen för att skaffa erfarenheter, som kan leda till framtida drömjobb.

Erfarenheter

På tal om möjligheter till erfarenheter, där har jag varit tacksam för de chanser som dykt upp på min resa. Allt i från att jag arbetat ideellt på Nordea Masters, Stockholm Open till min praktik på fotbollsappen Tonsser. Fast även avlönade arbeten på Fotbolls EM eller Ishockey VM. Dessa och flera möjligheter till, har hjälpt mig på vägen och berikat mig med flera gedigna erfarenheter som kommer bra till användning nu och framöver. Mycket är upp till dig. Det krävs att du vågar testa på nya erfarenheter och sporter du inte kan.

Våga

Att våga testa på något nytt är något jag gärna gör med det mesta, allt från olika maträtter till sportjobb. En sak jag intalar mig själv är ”du vet inget förrän du har prövat, hellre tacka ja och veta att det var inget för dig än att tacka nej och aldrig veta vad du gått miste om”. Vad jag menar är att du måste våga testa nya saker i livet för att utvecklas. Du vill inte blicka tillbaka och ångra en möjlighet du inte tog. Att våga ta nya möjligheter leder alltid till erfarenheter du kan dra lärdom av. Dessutom erfarenheter du kan övertyga potentiella arbetsgivare.

Nätverka

En sak som jag fick höra mycket under mina första år på Sport Management utbildningen var, ”ni måste nätverka”. I början kände jag att det inte behövdes. Fast i själva verket vågade jag inte riktigt tro på det eller förstod vad som skulle vänta runt hörnet när jag väl började att lära känna andra människor inom sportbranschen. Även om du inte kan få hjälp eller hjälpa personen i dag, kan ni någon gång senare stöta på varandra och erbjuda varandra hjälp.
Sedan 2017 har jag i dag en kul och hedrande roll i EASM (den europeiska föreningen för Sport Management) som studentrepresentant och det är mycket för att jag har vågat ta kontakt med nya och okända människor. Eller för att koppla till den inledande delen, hade jag inte nätverkat med nya studenter från mitt universitet, hade jag aldrig fått chansen att arbeta på Malmö Triathlon och European Cup och dessutom få hissa upp svenska flaggan till Lisa Norden.

Ta chansen du också!

Nu är det som sagt dags igen. Snart är det augusti och den 3-5 augusti är det dags för de nationella och internationella idrottsevenemangen, Malmö Triathlon och European Cup. När du läser detta har du förhoppnings mer tid än mina två dagar att ta beslutet. Vill du vara med och uppleva tävlingen på nära håll? Våga ta steget och passa på att lära känna de andra som kommer arbeta under dessa dagar. Vem vet, kanske leder det till ditt drömjobb i sportens värld? Just nu söker Malmö Triathlon och European Cup positiva, engagerade och serviceinriktade eldsjälar som vill vara en del av sitt CREW för att skapa ett av sommarens hetaste idrottsevenemang.

Sportidealistens Lärdomar

Jag brinner för att hjälpa andra att hitta sitt drömjobb inom sport. Det finns så mycket jag vill berätta om när det kommer till tips och lärdomar för att arbeta i sportens värld. I detta inlägg har jag berättat om hur jag själv har gått tillväga och hur jag gör för att ständigt arbeta med min dröm, sportens värld. Mina fyra tips för att lycka få sportjobb handlar om att ta möjligheten, skaffa erfarenheter, våga ta steget och nätverka.

Inledningsvis har jag berättat om min involvering i Malmö Triathlon och European Cup och detta var en möjlighet som dök upp två dagar innan tävlingen. Jag tog möjligheten och har nu skaffat nya erfarenheter. Detta blev av för att jag vågade tacka ja och fick därför testa på hur det funkar med triathlon som jag aldrig varit med om förut. Fast, hur fick jag ens möjligheten? Jo, för att jag har nätverkat och blev tillfrågad av en studentkollega.

Avslutningsvis, sportjobb kan se ut på många olika sätt och de kommer inte av sig själva. Utan, du måste se till att våga ta chansen, skaffa nya erfarenheter och knyta nya kontakter. För min egen del har jag träffat väldigt många och det är något jag fortsätter med varje dag och varje vecka.

Har du testat dessa knep? Har du ett eget förslag? Kommentera i kommentarsfältet under artikeln.

På återseende med mer lärdomar som ökar din kreativitet inom sportens värld.

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