BBM-matrix
When all else fails you write. I believe we have finally lost it in sports. Not everywhere but locally. If you pile a bad decision on top of a bad decision and repeat it you get what? The same when you put cauliflower into the blender and expect orange juice - the shit just doesn't happen.
The thing we lack (in addition to the obvious) is a management model. Management models are like traffic rules - you didn't need them until people got killed or otherwise injured in too great a numbers. Same here. It's the same shit different day until that day when it's just too much. Then happens the management model.
I give you the BBM-matrix. It's like an idiots guide to understanding something of the field of sports management. You got 4 blocks out of 12 at your disposal. How you play. It defines you.
A sports club could be run by a monkey with a degree in carpentry. Causality has a thing to say.
My take on the issue and how I see it, it's about this :
"Impossible Expectations inside the Bubble of Bad Management".
In short we have expectations that cannot be met managed against all the laws of the universe and we are expected to bring home the gold, every damn day!
Based on things I've done, things I've seen and things I've heard the functions can be divided into three segments of equal measure.
- administration
- marketing and communication
- research and development.
Rules of the matrix
Like all good things we need rules to keep things interesting and in control. Rules are not there to restrict. Just to remind us that even though we roam free we still need to eat, sleep and shit.
Rule number one - you can't have it all. Out of the twelve at your disposal you can only choose four.
Rule number two - rule number one DOES apply. No way around it so don't even bother.
Rule number three - take the rule one to heart.
The BBM-matrix
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| All three factors co-existing happily inside the Bubble of Bad Management |
This is what the really old school still thinks the core. Administration makes things run smoothly. Focusing on this upholds the status quo. Keywords for good administration are productivity and tools. Make your every move count. Have the right tools for the job. This is the obvious no-brainer. This is easy and it takes that monkey with tools to do it. The best brain without tools will suck at this.
Productivity. The traditional time management does not apply anymore. Things are different nowadays. The reason is simple - we are dealing with extremely heterogenic and unstructured audience. Only certainty is variation. You never know what comes next. And you never know where it comes from. It could be your inbox or something even more darker. When you deal with idiots you gonna look good but it's frustrating.
Right tools for the right job. A shiny new thing might be your choice of tool but it does little for memberships. A fine CRM application. Anyday. As the scene has evolved we need tools to handle massive databases easily and make queries easily. We must search, not look for things. Time isn't wasted getting wasted but it sure as hell is wasted looking for things like contact details or billing information.
Basically adminstration is the operating system. Just like iOS or Windows. As such is ment to run in the background and work its magic. Not to be a task as such.
If you need more than one block here you're screwed.
Marketing and Communication
This is what really takes a patience of a saint. Every man and his dog has an opinion. In the quiet words of Dirty Harry, opinion is like asshole - everybody got one. Marketing and communication is a tricky one.
The most important thing here is to realise that EVERYTHING is marketing related. Mundane thing like an Instagram post tells you something - no likes means no following and you got your work cut out for you. Marketing today has to be quick and able to react. Sold stuff on Insta? Can do. We need to get them visit our POS from everywhere.
What is marketing and communication anyway? The way I see it in it's most simple it means things you communicate to your audience. The message can vary for different stakeholders. Naturally the things you communicate to your staff is different from the message your clients get.
The problem when we enter the BBM is two-fold. The first is the lack of planning. Marketing tends to be reactive as no time is budgeted to plan it carefully. The even bigger issue is that this is not even seen a problem. What we got is series of individual actions that may or may not support each other.
Which leads to the second issue. The need for marketing normally arises from panic, from sudden need to achieve something like better sales. We can argue thou that if 5 to 10 printouts with a logo improved sales dramatically we would see them a whole lot more. The issue is then the misconceptions of what works and what doesn't. Normal case is this. Somebody has talked to someone who has said that there is no printouts of our product in the location X. This leads to a series of panicky communications. The result is a printout with a logo sized A4. If the need is big it's A3. So the issue is that marketing is not seen important until the courses remain half empty.
Now it's not to say printed material is bad or inferior. Just that it alone will do us jack shit. If all our Point Of Sales are on the web we can argue the effectiveness of something that does not lead us to the POS. What I personally want to see and do is innovative uses of different media combined with the material strategically distributed to physical points of importance. All planned to perfection. This panic printout thing is like looking for a toilet when the shit is already in your jeans. It's too late and it's the wrong thing. BBM managers don't see this. They look for toilet when they need a shower, dry cleaner and a fresh pair of jeans.
If you think you got the product - invest here, heavily. Sell sell sell.
Research and Development
Development means not staying where you are but moving forward and making things better. It's about enjoying the view but wanting a better one. Basically all dynasties have failed because of this. At some point we lose sight and memory what made us in the first place. We become lazy and ignorant.
All the effort we put in here gives us no gains today but ensures we are still playing tomorrow and playing better. There is no way around it. If your company sucks ass and you struggle in the today then this is definitely your thing. If you do well in the today you need to invest here to stay that way. Your thing.
So the excuse "in our current situation we can't invest heavily or nothing to R&D..." is just other way of saying we are okay with having no future. Nobody in their right mind wants to invest in no-future company. Nobody really wants nothing to do with them.
In a sports club environment R&D is something you're not supposed to talk about. There's never money, time or whatever.
Inspire and make people that are inspired and know their shit to do your R&D. The thing with R&D is that when you realise you need it - it's too late.
Get better and stay a head. Or the competition will.
The inevitable overlap
These things will have an overlap. The time when you just don't know what is what. The matrix is a model, not a replica of actual happenings. Like mentioned before, marketing is everywhere. The admin is the operating system that everything runs on and we have to develop or we cease to exist.
Those of you who do this already know this. Those who manage those who do should open eyes and ears and learn.
This is just an intro. To learn more you contact the author.
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