Franchisor-franchisee relationship management in sports business leadership

Management of the Golden State Warriors

A franchise being a business arrangement between a franchisor (owner) and a franchisee (buyer) where the buyer pays loyalties to the franchisor can be faced by problems and conflicts due to differing expectations, goals and objectives of the franchisor and franchisee. As the new general manager of the Golden State Warriors, my role would be to ensure that franchisor-franchisee relationship is well maintained to guarantee the success of the business venture and to minimize conflicts that may arise.

A franchise business can be a risky venture if the leader does not provide excellent leadership by having the ability to resolve disputes amicably without involving third parties so as to reduce disruption to the franchise business of either the franchisee or the franchisor.

As the new general manager of Golden State Warriors I will endeavor to see that the franchise becomes a respectable, reputable and the most profitable franchise in the country. To accomplish this, I will reinforce the human resource department and give the department all my support to ensure that I have the right employees for the right job. This would also ensure that I provide proper dealings with my employees by not only being a leader, but also by being a listening and a democratic leader, to bring out the best from my employees.

Another role as the general manager of the Golden State Warriors is to provide Golden State Warriors with a dedicated, Visionary and devoted leadership in every area of business operation and maximize on the support of the franchisor in terms of consultations, business development and the marketing support so as to promote the business and enhance its value both to the customers and the public.

Goals

Before embarking on setting of the goals, I intend to carry out a SWOT analysis on the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and the threats the business franchise could be facing. This will be through self-administered questionnaires to the employees and other stakeholders. Having carried out a detailed SWOT analysis, my goals would be as follows.

Development of a vision and mission statements

To achieve the best and becoming an outstanding business, the goals of the employees should be entwined with the goals and objectives of the business. For this to happen, I would ensure that the vision and mission of the Golden State Warriors is clear, simple and proper written for every employee to become aware why we are in business and why we need to be in business. This would help employees channel their energy and effort towards the realization of such vision.

Marketing goals

The way a market is approached is very essential and can determine the success or failure of a business. With this in mind, my marketing goals would be:

To increase ticket sales by 8% in the first year, and by 15% in the second year during my tenure as the general manager of the organization.

To double the advertising expenditure by more than half in the next two years.

To increase market share by 10% in the next two years.

Financial goals

To ensure that the business meets both short-term and long-term financial obligations to the stakeholders, sound financial goals would necessary and I would intend:

To increase profits by 10% in the first year

To grow the asset base by 20% in the next three years.

To reduce expenses by 5% in the first year

Socio-economic goals

To provide a platform for employees to address personal and work issues

To create a safe and a healthy working environment for my employees

To provide an atmosphere for skills development and training

In order to achieve the above goals, I would ensure that there is a suitable organizational culture which can be followed to realize such goals like; Respecting one another, Valuing each other, and Working together as team always.

Besides having introduced a strong corporate culture, I would further integrate more innovative ideas to each of the following departments to achieve overall organizational performance.

Sales department

To maximize the sales, I will introduce a fully computerized ticket sales in order to save time, improve on the efficiency as well as save on the human resources that are currently put into the tickets sales activity.

I will also introduce online ticket sales where customers can book and pay for their tickets online without having to travel to the business premise to obtain the ticket hence attracting fans from allover USA who will not have to travel for tickets and the game but get to book online then come straight for the game.

Marketing and advertising department

Marketing and advertising are part of sales promotions. A sales promotion campaign comprises of a range of techniques used to attain sales or marketing objectives in a cost effective manner by adding value to a product or service.

In this department, I will employ skilled personnel in marketing who have the potential to nurture, and grow the ideas.

I will also introduce loyalty cards as way of marketing where customers will accumulate points from their tickets and obtain bonus tickets after accumulation of certain points.

Advertising has a direct relationship with sales and therefore I will increase the advertising budget by more than a half to boost the sales.

The media including the print media would be necessary to make the existing customers and the potential customers aware of our continued support to give them quality services.

I would also put in place a reward system where each game has its own prize after winning to motivate the players to play home games more often.

Value addition. I will ensure that all our sales promotion campaigns are consumer oriented so that customers get best and quality services out of their money.

Measurement of results. A marketing campaign will effectively be measured to determine the effect of such marketing programs on the sales and to make sure that there is no undue wastages in the process.

Coaching Staff

Coaching is very important to an organization, it helps people reach their full potential, in any area of their lives, for managers as coach, and it involves working with people to improve their performance at work.

Coaching also involves collaborating with other managers and leaders to make the workplace a high performance organization that helps everybody to perform at their best.

To effectively do this and coach my team, I will first find out what are the visions and life ambitions of my employees. Then I will move on to explore the directions in which people need to move to achieve those visions and as they try to achieve them they will be achieving the goals and visions of the organization.

I will also employ motivation as a tool to drive my employees to achieve the best and overcome obstacles by developing a philosophy of possibility and not impossibility. This will help them overcome any challenge that they may face while doing their work and where necessary, assist them in navigating their careers. I will also be involved in handling and addressing employee work-life imbalances to steer them towards nothing less than achievement.

Player development

Building a happier and a more satisfied team requires some effort to reduce conflict and improve their working relationship. Teams are the force that drives most organizations, be it a functional team, a team of managers or a project team makes work easier and more effective. My key role in player development is to mentor the team members to solve problem, make better decisions, and learn new skills so that performance and productivity don't suffer.

The team, just like any other groups will therefore need a well formed team dynamics so that we have a well modeled player who will be part of the team and not act as individuals. The commonly known dynamics that are found in teams are roles, norms, relations, need to belong, development, effects on behavior and the social influence. It is apparent that the members of a group will fulfill something more than just accomplishing the tasks that they are assigned and this is when the group can be said to be undergoing the 'group process' i.e. The understanding of the behavior of the team members who are trying to solve a problem. This is very significant since the allocation of roles in the group purely relies on the personality of each individual and this cannot be possible unless there is understanding of these personalities by each member of the team.

A team that will bear many results is one that there is balance of personalities as well. This is the inclusion of each member of the team in the process of the team work. There must be deliberate effort to include the most silent person in the discussion just as to moderate the very talkative person in the team.

A good team will also recognize the diversity that there is in the group in terms of sex, race, age, culture, religion and many other factors and utilize these traits, or encourage each other to make use of the diversity that exists in the group for the good of the group. It is also significant to note that the management of group dynamics can emerge from any part of the group and that the person selected to be the head of the group may not be necessarily the best person for the job. The group is entirely responsible for their own effectiveness (Ann Marie N. & Joyce S., 2009). These are the fundamentals that I will be looking forward to enable bring into fruition within the Golden State Warriors team.

I shall also make efforts to understand other people's perspective in a greater and keener manner and where appropriate implement their suggestions to improve relationships with them, fairly evaluate each employee and reward them accordingly.

When team members have personal goals that don't agree well with team goals, conflicts and hidden behavior is likely to crop up. As a leader, my role will be to identify the sources of competing values and come up with ways to fix them.

As a manager I will also support individual development. Team players need to learn new skills so that they can be in a position to meet team expectations by finding resources to support each person's development goals, setting individual performance goals and engaging follow up training programs to determine employee potential and areas of improvement if need be.

Effective working relationships are built by understanding each team members' needs, preferences and styles of work and this process will benefit the organization as whole.