Long-distance relationships create quite a challenge when trying to operate and bring business and cultural changes to a sports organization.
“It’s really, really difficult when you’re not walking around the halls,” AS Roma President & Chair James Pallotta said at a Thursday morning panel on global investment at the ’16 CAA World Congress of Sports. “It’s very difficult from afar.”
And while day-to-day management is a challenge, bringing about cultural change takes even more effort.
“That’s probably one of the hardest things to work through, especially from afar, because the things we see as obvious and opportunistic, to them, this is how they’ve always done things,” AFC Bournemouth co-Owner & Chair Matt Hulsizer said. “To actually change the culture and to get them to embrace is work. It requires time and effort, and that’s not going to happen quickly.”
AEG President & CEO Dan Beckman called it “change management.”
He said, “You go into a culture that’s used to doing things a certain way. People are sort of set in the way they do things and the way they do projects and the way they entertain, and a certain mindset when it comes to sponsorship and then we come in and we have different model that can work.”
Beckman says respect is key. “It’s a very integrated approach and you want to be respectful to the culture and mindful of the way they do business, but at the same time introduce new ideas and new ways of doing business. We have had success in that. I’ve found that if you try to be respectful to the culture and the business practices, I think people welcome change.”
