ECA Club Management Guide"Strategy is about establishing what makes a club unique and leveraging those competitive advantages, rather than just stating an aim of wanting to become the best in a sporting competition."
Introduction
Constructing a strategic plan for Hajduk Split was built around several key inputs: an objective analysis of the background and current situation of the club based on existing structural models, as well as a qualitative interaction with Hajduk’s key internal and external stakeholders all supported by a quantitative survey carried out across Croatia. Methodological approach utilized combined experience of
Hajduk stakeholders map for identifying representative common goals and positive values associated with Hajduk Split. Long-term strategic goals provide an ambition that is sufficiently removed in time to enable breaking out of the traditional short-term annual cycle, and positive values help in framing of the moral brackets which the organisation wants to stay within when reaching those goals.
ECA Club Management Guide"Setting a plan is not risk-free, and invariably the internal and external environments will collide with some of the best-though-out forecasts."
Solution
Solution for aforementioned challenges lies in the implementation phase. During this phase preparatory work that has been carried out to set the goals and identify values is tested against the reality of the organisation and its environment.
Key to this process is establishing sufficient information input and feedback mechanisms to provide as many real-time insights as possible.
Why is information so important?
The ability to analyse and act on information is increasingly important to businesses. Change of pace requires companies to be able to react quickly to changing demands and environmental conditions. Although prompt action may be required, decisions are increasingly complex as companies compete in a global marketplace.
Managers need to understand high volumes of data before they can make necessary decisions. Effective business intelligence tools assist managers with decision making, facilitating a dynamic process with (an almost) real-time control.
The change of dynamics across the club
A football club is a unique organisation which combines a whole range of business units. Some of these are unique, such as football teams, while others are very common in other industries, such as hosting entertainment events, retail sales or IP rights management.
Moving from analogue to digital and from static to dynamic will enable a qualitative jump in the way Hajduk Split operates its business units: tracking progress and assessing performance objectively, reacting better to changing conditions and pro-actively managing its environment in an informed way.
Planning & Implementation
Strategic planning and strategic implementation are never static processes; there is constant monitoring of ever-changing environment seeking to identify new and developing opportunities together with the need to respond to major changes, such as that of managers and club leaders, which are inevitable from time to time, and will always require an adjustment based on new inputs.
Even the goals themselves are not set in stone and may be amended or changed in case of necessity, a shift in focus or a change in the environmental conditions. What is important is to ensure due process and maintain consultative approach: stakeholders consultation and input is crucial in maintaining the development consensus and long-term stability around Hajduk Split.
FRAMEWORK FOR VALUE-BASED APPROACH
To develop a robust strategic planning structure for Hajduk, it is crucial to first capture the unique combination of values that is inherent to the club and the people who associate themselves with it.
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FRAMEWORK
There is a need to define the framework in which HNK Hajduk š.d.d. (further referred to as: “Club”, “Hajduk”) as an organization is presently operating. The Club and its managers cannot move towards high performance if they do not know what they should be good at.
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IDENTITY
Values create an identity, and the identity shapes the aims of the organisation, which in turn define the strategic and tactical objectives of the entity in its entirety, and for all of its constituent parts.
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VALUES
Values are important and lasting beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture about what is good or bad and desirable or undesirable. Football clubs traditionally serve as sources of a specific culture, which is accepted, followed and sustained by the club’s many (or few) followers.
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CLUB DNA
The combination of values mixed together with other factors creates a unique “club DNA”. Values have a significant impact on the behaviour of people associated with the club, and provide guidelines to those who are working for the club or simply supporting it from the sidelines.
FOCUS ON VALUES
As part of a series of interviews held in Split on 3-4 March 2017 with various internal and external stakeholders of the club, the interviewees were asked to select from a long list the values, which they believed were most reflective of Hajduk as a club and organisation.
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Honesty
to think, speak and act in accordance with the truth and the Hajduk values -
Professionalism
to perform to the highest quality standards expected in your job -
Excellence
occurs when talented people CAN and DO deploy their full abilities and deliver the best performance of their lives -
Passion
to make sure your heart beats for Hajduk in life and in work -
Knowledge
to want to know more today than yesterday, and tomorrow more than today -
Respect
To recognise and value the contribution of others -
Responsibilty
to know when to act, and do it to the best of one’s ability without prompting, with initiative, accountability and creativity -
Teamwork
to know when to ask for help, whom to ask and how to ask, and to know that leaders create leaders -
Ambition
to aim for the biggest goals, which can be beyond the ordinary reach -
Transparency
to act and live with integrity -
Success
where there are sucessess, there are also failures. Therefore succeed inspite of every effort to fail
FOCUS ON STRATEGIC AIMS
As part of a series of interviews held in Split on 3-4 March 2017 with various internal and external stakeholders of the club, the interviewees were asked to select from a long list 3 strategic aims, which they believed should be pursued by Hajduk as an organisation.
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means achieving the desired results, on and off the field; Only the constant pursuit of excellence can ensure long-term success.
“Leading change, Developing talent, Driving innovation, Adding value, Achievieng excellence.”
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means becoming better in an organised way and always being open for creating something new, whether it is players, ideas, products or projects.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change, creative and with innovative solutions.”
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means ensuring long- term viability of the club through thoughtful and rational planning, management and operations, without irresponsible gambling on the future.
“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now!”
CRITICAL LONG-TERM ISSUES
Critical areas to be addressed:
KEY STRATEGY AIMS
Effective sport strategy requires changes in strategy policy, entrusted by the factual transformation of the club's activities and ensuring multilateral communication.
KEY STRATEGY AIMS
REORIENTATION TO WIN STRATEGY APPROACH
10-year target
- Hajduk Identity
- Human Capital
- Productive Capacity
- ...
Recommendations
- To play, work and live according to the Hajduk philosophy. Develop club identity and philosophy components to fit the operative requirements.
- To consistently attract and retain the necessary quality and level of people in all areas of the club. Develop informed recruitment, development and retention processes within the club.
- To help the Human Capital of the club perform as effectively as possible within all environments and challenges. Develop robust HRM process with strong motivation factors; create a culture of innovation, development and knowledge; implement integrated ERP system.
SUSTAINABILITY CONDITIONS
10-year target
- Ownership Structure
- Governance Structure
- Budget Stability
- Stakeholder Relations
Recommendations
- To have a stable and effective ownership structure that can satisfy the long-term needs of Hajduk. Adopt a workable supporter ownership mechanism for the club and structure shareholding accordingly.
- To have a stable and effective governance structure that can satisfy the medium-term needs of Hajduk. Improve the current governance structure to create better checks and balances.
- To work with a self-sustainable operative budget and invest in growth opportunities. Grow commercial revenues; develop strategic investment aspects; optimise costs; implement culture of responsible budgeting and risk management.
FACTUAL CHANGE OF DEVELOPMENT POLICY BASED ON VALUES
10-year target
- Player’s Development
- Human Lab / Infrastructure Investments
- Information Governance
- Value-based Analysis
Recommendations
- To place Hajduk as an integratory and developing force within all the communities around it. Develop the Hajduk Hubs project; organise dedicated community department at the club. Adopt a workable supporter ownership mechanism for the club and structure shareholding accordingly.
- To have the best stadium facilities possible. Re-develop Poljud to modern standards or construct new stadium. Construct new training facilities. Improve the current governance structure to create better checks and balances.
- To earn the opportunity to be competitive at the European level on a consistent basis. Develop a strong enough squad and club operations to satisfy the demands of European competitions. Play a leading role in the re- formatting of Croatian domestic football.
- Compete through harnessing data to drive growth and profitability now. implement integrated information analysis systems to develop player’s development process with strong motivation factors; create a culture of winning.
STRATEGIC AIMS
TO WIN
When we win as a football club, we like to do it first and foremost on the football pitch, but this is not always something you can expect, because there is also an opponent who also wants to win, and sporting competition at times is unpredictable because of that.
On the field things are clear: our task is to maximise our winning chances, and minimise the chances of all other results. The conditions for this are simple: we need players who have sufficient levels of physical, technical, tactical and mental preparation, coaches who have the necessary skills and knowledge to produce a team out of the various individuals
in any given circumstance, staff who can deliver optimal results in their specific field, and management who can recognise and attract the necessary players, coaches and other staff to the club, and equip them with the tools necessary to perform better.
For those who are not directly involved in the football side, it is extremely important to realise that your contribution is also vital: off the pitch there is no opponent, and this offers a double opportunity, because winning outside the pitch brings us closer to the goal of winning on the pitch through providing more resources with which to compete, and also develops in all of us a winning mentality that we can take into the game itself.
On and off the field we can win in many different ways: by successfully achieving our goals and stretching the aims further; by expanding our knowledge and becoming better today than we were yesterday, and better tomorrow than today; by creating a culture of innovation and self- initiative, which will enable us to raise the bar; or even by realising that everything we do at Hajduk has an impact on how the football team performs on the field.
STRATEGIC AIMS
TO DEVELOP
When we talk about development, in a football club environment it typically means the academy and youth development system. Of course, this is a crucial part of any club: you need playing talent, and what can be better from all angles than producing it from the club’s own youth academy.
But development does not only mean producing young football players: crucially, it also means developing them as human beings and as individuals who will play an important role in society, whether they end up being professional footballers and modern global icons, or other no less important members of their community.
And development, just like winning, also extends outside of the football pitch: it must once again become part of the culture and fabric of our club, because no matter whether we are a player, a coach, an office worker or a manager, we all need to develop our skills, our knowledge, our experience, our flexibility and our resilience in order achieve the wins that we crave so much.
STRATEGIC AIMS
TO BE SUSTAINABLE
The long-term stability of Hajduk has been placed into doubt many times before, but the club has always managed to come through in the end. Football clubs are usually very resilient organisations, because there are many people around them willing to support, lend a shoulder and not let the unthinkable happen.
It would be wrong, though, to think that this means football clubs can be operated in any way you want, as they will always end up being saved: in the end, crises can serve as an opportunity to recover and develop, but also as an opportunity to enter a negative cycle. It takes a lot of energy to get out of a hole, so if you must keep doing it many times over, there will not be any strength left to break out of the survival cycle.
Placing the long-term well-being of Hajduk at the core of how we consider all the club’s activities will ensure that not only are we acting responsibly in terms of making sure that the club is preserved for future generations to come, but will also deliver the necessary resources to feed our desire to develop and to win. Sustainability, therefore, must be viewed as a virtue and a precondition to achieving our results, and not as a necessary evil or a limit placed on our ambitions!
CUTTING THROUGH COMPLEXITY
Areas of impact of the club's strategy initiatives on day-to-day operations.
STRATEGIC CONNECTION
One crucial concept is that the three strategic aims are all connected between one another, and must all be achieved together to be considered fully successful.
There is no point in winning for the sake of winning, if the victory does not help us touch the other strategic aims, too. And there is no reason for developing for the sake of developing, if ultimately it does not help the club to win and to increase its sustainability.
Lastly, who would want a club that is solid in its foundations, but is not winning and not developing with the times?
Strategic questions
So, what do we need to do?
We must bring about a culture of winning, a culture of development and a culture of sustainability simultaneously, always remembering that at Hajduk we do not do things like everyone else, because we are rebels!
Strategic questions
And how do we do it?
By challenging ourselves to deliver the best results possible in every aspect of our work and life, by wanting to become better today than we were yesterday and better tomorrow than we are today, and by making sure that whatever we do to achieve the first two aims, we first ask the question:
...Is it going to make Hajduk live forever?
STRATEGIC AREAS OF IMPACT
How do we win across the entire club?
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AIMS
We need to define for ourselves WHAT is and what is not winning
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PHILOSOPHY
We need to define for ourselves HOW we would like to win
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RECRUITMENT
We need to have the BEST TALENT possible
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LEADERSHIP
We need to organise to PERFORM AS A TEAM
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SUPPORT
We need to provide the necessary RESOURCES AND TOOLS
STRATEGIC AREAS OF IMPACT
How do we develop across the entire club?
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EXPERTISE
We need to expand our existing KNOWLEDGE
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EDUCATION
We need to be free to think and promote the desire to LEARN
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CREATIVITY
We need to allow people to develop outside-the-box solutions
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SELF-RESPONSIBILITY
We need to facilitate people to take on INITIATIVE
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KPIs
We need to set objective and relevant PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
STRATEGIC AREAS OF IMPACT
How can we be sustainable across the entire club?
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PRUDENCY
We need to know how we are going to pay for our activities
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TRANSPARENCY
We need to be able to explain clearly all our plans and actions
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INVESTMENT
We need to deliver strategic resources to grow our operative base
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LONG TERM PLANNING
We need to carefully consider future risks and challenges
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CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY
We need to act in accordance with the position of Hajduk in society
IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Strategic plan
A strategic plan is not about producing a complete roadmap with detailed instructions of how to get from A to B with all the intermediate turns and stops. It is more about identifying the destination and setting some parameters of how the journey should be undertaken.
In fact, Hajduk’s strategic plan will help the club and those who care about it to get a better understanding of what the club wants to achieve, and how it plans to go about it in fairly broad terms.
It identifies some key challenges that the organisation will have to face over the coming years whether it wants it or not, and will lead to the development of a sustainable Hajduk, which is ready and able to win on a continuous basis.
And, crucially, it will give Hajduk an anchor to deal with any storms and allow the club to reach its desired destination!
IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Current Report Card
IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Report Card Target - 2020
IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Report Card Target - 2025
IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Strengths, challenges, risks
Strengths
- Winning tradition and heritage
- Recognisable, unique, rich and multidimensional club history
- Organised, motivated and mobilised body of die-hard supporters
- Traditionally significant source of football talent in Dalmatian region
- Dominant position in Split, Dalmatia and wider Adriatic Coast region
- Large number of sympathisers in all of Croatia
- Significant number of sympathisers across Balkan region
- Significant number of club supporters amongst Croatian business, political and cultural elites
- Large Croatian diaspora in countries such as USA, Canada, Germany or Australia
- Iconic character
- Iconic stadium
- Iconic players and managers from the past
Challenges
- Expectation levels from supporters
- Implication level of supporters
- Recent long-term lack of sporting achievements
- Scrutiny and influence of die-hard supporters
- Diminishing source of football talent
- Lack of competition in Split, Dalmatia and wider Adriatic Coast region
- Low implication from sympathisers in Croatia
- Loss of position in Balkan region due to lack of success
- Zagreb-centred economic, political and cultural life in Croatia
- Disconnection from diaspora
- Old stadium and poor training facilities
- Uneven quality of staff
- Loss of credibility by former club legends and no new generation of legends
Risks
- Lack of time
- Lack of continuity
- Lack of focus
- Lack of resources
- Lack of credibility
- Lack of authenticity
- Lack of communication
- Lack of transparency
- Lack of knowledge
- Lack of human capital
- Lack of ideas
- Lack of creativity
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It helps
TO WIN -
It helps
TO DEVELOP -
It helps TO BE SUSTAINABLE
IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Internal benefits
- it enables taking a step back and looking at the whole picture
- it allows re-examining the business model and challenging some "eternal truths "
- it allows re-examining the business model and challenging some "eternal truths "
- it helps re-allocate resources to optimise performance and results
- it supports positive change in the structure of the organisation
- it protects club from strategic roaming based on individual thinking
- it ensures continuity based on set values and defined strategic aims
- it facilitates better understanding of management processes for club members and stakeholders
- it offers tangible and universally accepted protection to the club in times of uncertainty
- it concentrates the minds of leaders, managers, staff and supporters
- it promotes joined-up holistic thinking
- it challenges the organisation to explain its raison d'etre
- it focuses on core issues of identity and values
- it boosts rational and responsible planning within the organisation
- it identifies the leaders within the organisation who are able to effect change
- it brings a common understanding of issues and a team mentality
- it solves structural challenges within the organisation
IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLEMENTATION
EXTERNAL BENEFITS
What will the stakeholders get?
- Members & Nas Hajduk: Transparency, sustainability, improved sporting performance, club development
- Supporters: Improved sporting performance, improved spectating conditions
- Sympathisers: Improved sporting performance, club pride
- City of Split: Transparency, sustainability, improved community contact, successful organisation
- Torcida: Transparency, improved sporting performance, club pride
- Business community: Transparency, improved business opportunities
- Local civil society: Sustainability, improved community contact, improved CSR
- Local sports clubs: Sustainability, improved community contact, reliable partner
- Local academic institutions: Improved community contact, improved knowledge opportunities, research opportunities
- Media: Transparency, improved sporting performance
- Sport employees: Improved sporting performance, improved knowledge opportunities
- Non-sport employees: Club pride, improved knowledge opportunities
- Club management: Sustainability, improved sporting performance, improved governance
- Players: Improved sporting performance, improved knowledge opportunities
- Player families: Improved community contact, improved knowledge opportunities
- Former players: Improved community contact, club pride, transparency
BUSINESS ACTIVITIES
STRATEGIC AREAS OF IMPACT: Practical Steps
- In practical terms, there are three core components to a modern football club: Sport, Business and Community. But whilst Sport and Community are what creates a club’s identity, the Business side is not a goal in itself: it is functional and serves as a source of resources for the other two, and this must not be forgotten.
STRATEGIC PATHWAY
Business long term pathway
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CRITICAL ISSUE
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10-YEAR TARGET
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WHICH STRATEGIC AIMS ARE COVERED?
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HOW TO ACHIEVE?
- Budget Stability
- To work with a self-sustainable operative budget and invest in growth opportunities
- To Develop
To Be Sustainable - Grow commercial revenues; develop strategic investment aspects; optimise costs; implement culture of responsible/sustainable budgeting, risk assessment and risk management
- Stadium Facilities
- To have the best stadium facilities possible
- To Develop
To Be Sustainable - Re-develop Poljud to modern standards or construct new stadium
- Training Facilities
- To have the best training facilities possible
- To Win
To Develop
To Be Sustainable - Construct new training facilitiesm
IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Resources
From a resource point of view, the sporting aim of regularly challenging for the domestic title, and especially for regular participation in group stages of continental club competitions, requires two basic conditions:
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Quality Players -
Quality Coaches
To be satisfied, both conditions, and in particular the first one, require superior financial resources.
IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Resources
Presently, in order to be amongst the top-50 clubs in the UEFA ranking an average budget of over €200m is required. This goes down to around €120m for positions 31-50 on the list.
Taking UEFA’s average growth rate in European football of 9.3%, in 10 years the average budget for a top-level European football club will have to be around €300m. Having said that, the two smallest clubs in the top-50 of the European rankings have budgets of €10m and €15m, so in 10 years they will need to be making €24m and €35m respectively.
Assuming that the access framework for European competitions remains similar, it is an achievable target for Hajduk to aim for in the long run.
In order to successfully achieve its strategic aim of winning, Hajduk Split will need to develop its business model so as to be able to offer this kind of budget level to its football department, and do it in a sustainable way, meaning the costs would need to be balanced with revenues and no debt is incurred to cover operative outlays.
CLUB'S GOVERNANCE AND OPERATIONS
STRATEGIC TASK
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The strategic task for the club is to ensure that all departments of Hajduk go through a rational, analytical and continuous process of considering what each one of the three strategic aims means for its activities, and for each individual person connected with Hajduk to know what they need to do in order to achieve those aims.
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A first team player has different objectives to those of a stadium maintenance engineer or a marketing specialist, but all three have a role to play in the overall win. The key issue for the leaders of the club is to make sure that all three know what they need to do, why they need to do it, how they need to do it, and equip them with the tools necessary to achieve the objective, whether it is better training methods, better grass cutting equipment or a bigger marketing budget.
STRATEGIC PATHWAY
Club's governance and operations long term pathway
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CRITICAL ISSUE
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10-YEAR TARGET
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WHICH STRATEGIC AIMS ARE COVERED?
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HOW TO ACHIEVE?
- Hajduk Identity
- To play, work and live according to the Hajduk philosophy
- To Win
To Develop
To Be Sustainable - Develop club identity and philosophy components to fit the operative requirements
- Ownership Structure
- To have a stable and effective ownership structure that can satisfy the long-term needs
- To Win
To Develop
To Be Sustainable - Adopt a workable supporter ownership mechanism for the club and structure shareholding accordingly
- Governance Structure
- To have a stable and effective governance structure that can satisfy the medium-term needs of Hajduk
- To Win
To Develop
To Be Sustainable - Improve the current governance structure to create better checks and balances
COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
The unique and indomitable spirit of Kaliterna and Torcida, of Ivic and Poljud, of rebels and trendsetters, is here to live forever!
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Recognising the intrinsic value of people, a crucial success factor for implementation of the strategic plan is the engagement with individuals across the entire spectrum of the club’s environment, both on the inside and outside of the organisation.
- People who identify themselves with Hajduk and have the capacity to lead, innovate and deliver, must be given the opportunity to connect with the strategic plan and become its guardians, helping to drive it on the ground, to feed it with energy and feedback, to give it a sustainable life, and to provide a demonstration Hajduk is more than just a football club.
STRATEGIC PATHWAY
Community long term pathway
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CRITICAL ISSUE
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10-YEAR TARGET
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WHICH STRATEGIC AIMS ARE COVERED?
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HOW TO ACHIEVE?
- Stakeholder Relations
- To place Hajduk as an integratory and developing force within all the communities around it
- To Develop
To Be Sustainable - Develop organized vehicles for stakeholder inclusion across all key groups; develop the Hajduk Hubs project; organize dedicated community department at the club; implement integrated CRM system
- Domestic Football Market
- To play in a sportingly and economically competitive domestic league in Croatia
- To Win
To Develop - Ensure a re-formatting of Croatian domestic football with a creation of a transparent, fair and democratic system
- International Football Market
- To earn the opportunity to be competitive at the European level on a consistent basis
- To Win
To Be Sustainable - Develop a strong enough squad and club operations to satisfy the demands of European competitions
STRATEGIC SOLUTION
VALUE BASED MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
Transformation of the Club
The fundamental change requires adapting community strengths, structures, processes administrative services, to drive efficiencies and to improve internal services in support of operational outcomes.
The Club can increase the value of its operations through transformation programs that achieve tangible outcomes for the organization and community. Transformation as the continual evolution and alignment of an club’s strategic and financial objectives, its sport performance, operating, functional, and human capital models, and its ability to deploy change and adapt within continually changing external environments.
STRATEGIC SOLUTION
VALUE BASED MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
Strategic Hub Development
A strategic approach to holistic club development is to view and develop Hajduk as a central hub for key activity areas: the three core club pillars of Sport, Business and Community, and the three core development pathways, which are Knowledge, Innovation and Leadership.
These hubs will serve as crucial integration, interaction and interchange incubators, sitting between the club and its environment, enabling the successful transfer of ideas, skills, energy and resources, ensuring the role of the club goes beyond that of pure provider of sport-based entertainment, serving to cement the relationship between the club and all potential stakeholders in the vicinity, and allowing the club to maximise its potential by always being at the cutting edge of knowledge in areas of strategic importance to its long-term viability and growth.
STRATEGIC SOLUTION
HAJDUK HUBS
Hajduk is uniquely placed in Split and the region of Dalmatia to play a unifying role, both as a major force with which many of the region’s inhabitants, knowledge developers, influence makers and power brokers identify, and as a real source of needs and ideas to develop the sports industry itself, as well as other linked industries including medical, construction, tourism and leisure, media etc.
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CLUB
Needs
Know-how
Resources
Network
Infrastructure
Human capital
Ideas
Implementation opportunities
Development focus
Hajduk brand association -
HUB
Synthethise
Research
Development
Innovation
Influence
Personal development
Verification
Project management
Specialist prestige
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ENVIRONMENT
Needs
Know-how
Resources
Network
Infrastructure
Human capital
Ideas
Implementation opportunities
Wider market
Other brand associations
STRATEGIC SOLUTION
HAJDUK HUBS
KNOWLEDGE PATHWAY
Club activities touch upon many fields of knowledge. Internal expertise needs to be developed to help achieve better results in these fields by club operatives, and at the same time the club can act as a locomotive for knowledge development: both as an experimental case and as a recognised focal point that is in a unique position to bring together the sports, business, academic and political worlds for optimal and wide-reaching results. Hajduk should aim to become a key non-governmental education and knowledge development platform.
INNOVATION PATHWAY
Traditionally, the football industry has been extremely conservative. One simple example of this is the endurance of the football laws of the game, which have been largely preserved for more than a century. In terms of technology, the game is also typically lagging behind other sports, both as a user and as a source of development.
Nevertheless, changes are happening in football across the entire operational spectrum, from the field to the infrastructure and specialised enterprise management solutions, and beyond. To become a local, regional and national leader in the innovation stakes, Hajduk should develop an innovation approach focused on the club itself, using the club’s facilities and attractiveness for the community as two key success factors, with the club’s needs acting as a source of inspiration.
LEADERSHIP PATHWAY
The concept of leadership is easy to recognise and talk about, but extremely challenging to define and understand. Whilst there is no definitive all-encompassing theory that can be taken as the ultimate word on leadership, in the case of the football industry the focus on leaders and leadership has traditionally been on the football field, where players and coaches take up much of the limelight and are commonly judged on whether they are good leaders or not.
As with other walks of life, it seems that the ultimate measure of good leadership is... success. Hajduk should aim to become a key leader and leadership development platform across its core interests.
IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Football clubs are unique institutions in that there are many people who are not necessarily on the inside who care deeply about what is happening with them. This is a great asset, but also a tremendous responsibility for club leadership to deal with.
Ultimately, the knowledge, enthusiasm and integrity of all individuals involved in the process will determine the success of the strategy and its implementation.
Hajduk’s people will enable it to flourish again, and begin a new virtuous cycle in the history of the club.
STRATEGIC SOLUTION
Hajduk Hubs
STRATEGIC SOLUTIONS
Hajduk Hubs
Operating along the three pathways, the Hubs will be organised by the club using internal resources and facilities, with external assistance and in partnership with key stakeholders. From the club’s side a dedicated project manager will need to oversee each hub, acting as a central point of contact. The club will provide facilities, play a leading role in setting the agenda for the operation of these hubs, and will play an active role in seeking resources, which may be internal or external in nature.
IMPLICATIONS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Working Community
New Relationship Map
SPORT ACTIVITIES
STRATEGIC TASK
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What should be the relationship between club management and the football department?
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One thing is clear: with increasing complexity of the processes being run within a football department, and with increasing levels of impact that sporting decisions have on the life of a football club, senior management must be clearer than ever in terms of engaging its football leaders in the decision-making process, and being able to verify performances on a multi-level approach that should go way beyond a simple arithmetic of wins and losses for the A team.
STRATEGIC PATHWAY
Sport long term pathway
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CRITICAL ISSUE
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10-YEAR TARGET
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WHICH STRATEGIC AIMS ARE COVERED?
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HOW TO ACHIEVE?
- Human Capital
- To consistently attract and retain the necessary quality and level of people in all areas of the club.
- To Win
To Develop
To Be Sustainable - Develop informed recruitment processes within the club Develop succession planning and knowledge transfer systems
- Productive Capacity
- To help the Human Capital of the club perform as effectively as possible within all environments and challenges
- To Win
To Develop - Develop robust HCM process with strong motivation factors and quality performance assessment systems; create a culture of knowledge; implement integrated ERP system; implement ISO & GRI international standards
SUMMARY: LET'S DO IT!
At the other end of the implementation process, Hajduk should be an organisation transformed:
- With a defined and easy to transmit identity
- Acting responsibly and transparently based on strong values
- Using the full power of its human and social capital
- Consistently striving to become better
- Adaptable and flexible
- Trendsetting and innovative
- Logical in preparation, passionate in delivery
- Focused on achieving results
- Focused on development
- All so that current and future generations could not just hear about famous glories of the past, but actually experience the history of the club being written TODAY AND TOMORROW!
PRIORITIES
It is complicated to focus on many strategic actions simultaneously, and in any case there is always a natural progression, where completing or even initiating one action will enable other ones to take place and be more successful:
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EXTERNAL PROJECTION
Playing philosophy; memorandum of understanding with City
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INTERNAL PROJECTION
Coaching methodology; financial optimization; HRM; working culture
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NETWORK PROJECTION
Hajduk Hubs; Community, Business and Sport Advisory Groups
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GROWTH PROJECTION
Business growth road map; club re-branding; domestic league improvement
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INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTION
Stadium and training facilities projects; club offices