Football Club Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Football Club Management - Assignment Example The ManU's strategy of survival and its core policies though not necessarily its strategy for growth has been explained in its club charter which is a document which is publicly available and gives out various core aspects such as, consultation processes, ticketing, membership benefits, community activities, merchandising, standards of staff conduct and complaints procedure. (http://www.manutd.com). The ManU has a social orientation which is designed to contribute to the social culture and sporting life, a common bond which is created by the community of football clubs in Britain. (Morrow : 2003). The business potential of ManU lies in its strong brand awareness which is increasingly attracting multinationals as Nike which has taken over the uniform-replica merchandising business run by the Club internally earlier. The other partners include, Vodafone, PepsiCo and Anheuser Busch. (Maidment:2004). The marketing mix of ManU lies in the plethora of sporting and sports related business activities such as an outstanding football team, merchandising, television rights, marketing of sports venue at Old Trafford, sale of products, promotional activities and branding as a premium product. (http://www.thetimes100.co.uk). ManU thus has retained the top position for eighth year in a row in the English league with an income of 259 million. The lead position achieved by the Club in earning large quantum of revenues has been a result of an increasing proclivity to tap markets beyond Britain. (http://www.deloitte.com) Growth has to be both organic and inorganic, in a globalised world the potential for growth lies in the international markets which can be achieved by a planned strategy based on an innate understanding of the culture and structure of the organization in line with the environmental realities. ManU has the potential for unstinted growth and has to determine its strategy for the same in a cogent manner. Strategy Review - ManU "Strategy is the direction and scope of an organisation over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfil stakeholder expectations". (Johnson : 2001). Strategy has been viewed with varied connotations by management pedagogues. The Mintzberg model for instance has classified the main forms of strategies into planned, entrepreneurial, ideological, umbrella, process, connected, consensus and imposed. As is implied in the strategies named thus, it would be evident that thus far ManU has not been following a "planned" strategy for growth, its strong football team and supporter population more than making up for any divergent business requirements and profits were being generated through its brand image. It had perhaps a one point agenda that of winning each and every encounter in the English league and club matches in Europe. This it had been consistently do ing with a strong line up of football stars led by David Beckham till very recently. Diversification