Ping Pong Club Report Sports

Ping Pong Club Report

Sports normally operate on a different level than business companies do. But sports games also face similar challenges because, like business, sports games are also about competition. Competition in sports also requires team work and a clear strategy that will guarantee success. For example, when business managers talk about strategy, they mean winning in the marketplace or winning the customers. But sports also involves strategy that requires winning -- whether winning to become the number one or improving on the past performances. For these reasons, some of the concepts for developing business companies may be helpful in understanding sports organizations. In this paper, I am going to explain the internal and external environment and the organizational strategy of a ping pong club of which I am a member.

I was attracted to this ping pong club because of its both stable internal environment and its potential successes in the external environments. The club has the management which is responsible for making decisions on allocating resources, hiring, recruiting strategy, defending the club's position within ping pong and sports organizations, and promotes the club members in ping pong competitions as well as for potential donors and sponsors. There is also internal stability that allows the club to function properly. While the management is responsible for major important decisions related to the club, the coaches play the major role in the recruitment process and developing a strategy for improving the performance of club members. Coaches also help in eliminating the weaknesses of the club. In ping pong and other sports organizations as such, conflicts may arise between coaches and the management because of conflicting interests, but the management of my club is quite flexible in this regard. They allow the coaches to participate in recruitment strategy and the promotion of this or that club member in tournaments because this is sports and not only business for the sake of business. The management understands that the wisdom of sports leaders is necessary for the success of the club.

Our club's external environment is not as positive as its internal environment although there are a number of weaknesses in the internal environment as well. There are a number of threats and challenges emanating from outside. There is enormous competition in our town and the region. Some other clubs have the luxury of greater support from sports organizations and rich donors. This allows other ping pong clubs to allocate more resources for training, recruiting better coaches, and supporting its members materially and through other means so that they perform better. Another external challenge in our club is that we heavily depend on volunteer support. The problem with the volunteer support is that it is not stable; the support may end or be disrupted at any time. And also volunteers do not invest or dedicate time in the same manner as do those who work for salary or invest in this enterprise. These are the major external difficulties our club faces. There are also opportunities. Chief among them is government support for youth sports, which is non-discriminatory and supports on an equal basis. There is also an opportunity to have better TV coverage of our club and our activities due to increasing government support for school sports.

The identification of internal and external environment of the club may help us develop a clear strategy. Strategy basically is a plan of action designed to achieve a specific goal. Application of business strategy may be helpful here. The most common analysis that is used to develop a business strategy is SWOT analysis. SWOT means strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strengths and weaknesses are positive features of an internal environment, while opportunities and threats are features of an external environment. For developing the strategy, it is also important that our club exercises honesty in facing both internal and external problems. We need to take a broad approach so that we do not ignore relevant issues or miss anything. We need to examine the past challenges and learn from the mistakes. We also need to seek opinions and the perceptions of other professional managers and coaches so that we use all the available intellectual and material resources.

The following table shows the SWOT analysis of the club:

Strengths

Good management team

Good financial systems and regular audits

Good coaches

Promising club members (especially, the young)

Reputation of the coaches and the club members

Lots of practice time

Availability of training resources (books, CD/DVDs, manuals)

Decent equipment

The coaches are flexible, allowing club members to make suggestions on changing the tactics and game strategies

The availability of devoted transportation bus to allow club members to participate in away games

Availability of devoted volunteers

Weaknesses

Lack of professional team for developing a clear strategy

Funding sources are not diverse, making the availability of sources unstable

Some of the volunteer support is shaky; some volunteers are not passionate about the club

Stubbornness of some adult members of the club; e.g. they are reluctant to free the equipment for younger members

Unavailability of the video crew to record games for later review