Reference no: EM132997105 , Length: word count:600

MGT3SGV Sport Governance and Strategy - La Trobe University

Case Study - VicSport

VicSport is the independent (i.e. non-government) member-based organisation representing Victoria's sport and active recreation sector. Its mission is to lead the sport, active recreation and associated health agendas into the future. As Victoria's peak body for sport and active recreation, VicSport represents the needs and concerns of over 170 member groups to Government, associated statutory authorities, relevant business and private enterprises and other stakeholders with an interest in promoting sport and active recreation. VicSport‘s members include: State Sport Associations and active recreation organisations; Regional Sport Assemblies; Local Governments Authorities; university, TAFE and school sport groups; and organisations representing specific sub-groups of the sector such as the Victorian Disability Sport Advisory Council; ACHPER (Vic); and the Australian Drug Foundation. Through a variety of programs, events and services, VicSport supports over 16,000 clubs and associations, and over 1.8 million participants, workers and volunteers in the sport and active recreation sector across Victoria. The activities these organisations offer play a vital role in promoting better physical and mental health outcomes for Victorians, as well as building the capacity of metropolitan and regional communities.

VicSport , like many sport organisations, was heavily dependent upon government funding, and found itself in recent years in a challenging situation. Due to the changing nature of sport and recreation participation and funding in Victoria, VicSport's role had inadvertently and subtlety shifted towards a project-based funding model and was losing recurrent funding to support the ongoing advocacy and state support services role upon which it was founded. Short-term funding focussed the efforts of the VicSport staff and attention of the VicSport CEO on managing these funded projects, and allowed little time to set a clear and independent strategic direction separate to that of the major funding bodies.
In summary, VicSport faced the following challenges:

• Over 80% of revenue from two Government / Statutory Authority bodies, which was predominantly short-term project specific funding.
• Inherent tension in the role of at times needing to advocate for Victorian sport with (and at times against) those funding bodies.
• Small and relatively young and inexperienced staff team.
• Out-dated mission and lack of clarity in strategic direction.
On the positive side however, VicSport had an experienced CEO, a healthy balance sheet with strong financial reserves and a number of high quality programs that were delivered to organisations in the Victorian sport industry.
In 2012, the VicSport AGM saw 50% of the board turnover to new elected directors, an event that was unplanned, however appeared to be an indication from the Victorian sport community that change in the role and direction of VicSport was needed. Using this new board as an opportunity for change, VicSport began a process of strategic review and planning.

The first step of the strategic review and planning process began at the first board meeting of the 2013 board. The new board had quickly identified that the current funding model of VicSport had negatively affected the relationship with the two key funders and had resulted in a focus on project delivery and subsequently a loss of impact in the sport industry as an advocacy and support organisation for Victorian sport. A decision was made by the board to seek external facilitators to assist in the strategic planning process and a strategic planning sub-committee of board members, staff and external stakeholders was formed.

The approach involved significant work up front that established the current position of the organisation, and the environment in which it operates. This included an analysis of key performance metrics, as well as one-on-one interviews and individual preparatory work. This was followed by a series of workshops and meetings that took the planning team through each stage of the strategic thinking and planning process, using the following six steps. Please note, the strategic planning system used by VicSport includes the concept of strategic elephants. A strategic elephant is a strength, weakness, threat or opportunity, or a combination of these, which will affect your organization's performance by more than 30% now, or in the future.

The strategic planning process was designed to assist VicSport in identifying the issues that will have the largest impact on whole-of-organisation performance, develop strategies to address these, and ensure that a process was in place to execute and monitor these strategies.

At the end of the process, VicSport had designed not only a new strategic vision and clear plan for the future, but had also identified an implementation plan to realise this vision and allocated a substantial sum of its reserves towards the achievement of these goals.

CASE QUESTIONS:

1. The catalyst for the strategic planning process for VicSport was a change in membership of 50% of the board due to an election at the AGM. Discuss the role of the director and board in strategic review. What is best practice?

2. VicSport chose to use an external facilitator to assist with the strategic review and planning process. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of seeking external advice in developing strategy.

3. What are we here for? is one of the most difficult questions a board can ask itself - what key questions should a director and board consider when setting its vision for the future of the organisation?

4. VicSport's strategic planning sub-committee included board, staff and external stakeholders - using the information provided, and your understanding of the sport sector, identify what type of external stakeholders should be invited to participate in this planning process.

5. Identifying an organisation's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is an essential component of a strategic review. Using the information provided, undertake a SWOT analysis of VicSport prior to the strategic review.

6. Monitoring performance is the most neglected component of strategic planning. Review the final VicSport strategic plan