Blog 2 Sports Organisation Strategic Plans

Hawthorn Football Club; Strategic Plan

The Hawthorn Football club’s strategic plan for the period of 2013-2017 is a thorough plan which consists of all the vital components of a strategic plan. However, a would like to emphasis the importance of the vision in the strategic planning process. A vision has two components; a mission that describes the firms makeup (reason for existence) and the “picture” of the firm as it hopes to exist in a future time period (Olsen 2012).

The Hawthorn Football club’s vision is to be “The destination Club…a place where the very best people come to join our ongoing pursuit of excellence, unity and success.” The vision is arguably the most important part of a strategic plan as it outlines the direction an organisation intends on going (Olsen 2012). Hawthorn is an AFL club based in Melbourne that competes with 7 other professional clubs also based in Melbourne. With continued success over the last few years in the AFL, it is interesting the club has aimed to position itself as the ‘ultimate destination’ in Melbourne (Hawthorn 2013).

Six strategic pillars have been outlined to reach this vision including;

-          Football operations

-          Financial Management

-          Fan & Community Engagement

-          Commercial Operations

-          People & Culture

-          Facilities and Infrastructure

Moreover, the club recognises the commitment to sustainable growth to reach its vision, which is an important factor for the ongoing success of the club. Sustainable growth involves the realistically attainable growth a business could maintain with limited risk (Schermerhorn 2011). The club has split the growth framework into three sectors which include’

Core- maintaining members, sponsors

Emerging- Ascertaining revenue from other avenues

Exploratory- Reaching and developing new relationships that will benefit the clubs long term growth.

So how effective is the clubs vision?

Ten characteristics have been identified to establish an effective strategic vision including;

Future focused (What will the club look like in 5-10 years’ time?)

Directional

Clear (easy to understand)

Relevant

Purpose driven (larger sense of meaning for the organisation and shareholders)

Values Based (connects people to its core values)

Challenging

Unique (reflective of the organisation)

Vivid (describes a future that is easy to imagine and to picture in the mind’s eye

Inspiring (inspires people to commit to a cause)

Bradford & Duncan 2000

The club’s vision complements these characteristics, with the strategic goals and values working towards achieving the vision. Form a strategic perspective, the most effective vision is one that can adapt to the current environment and cope with change. Most importantly, a vision ensures’s everyone in the organisation is out to achieve the same objective, thus a vital component of the strategic management process (Olsen 2012).