Description
Adecco Estudiantes A Successful Experience in Growth Strategies in Professional Sport Carlos Campos and Miguel Pizarro Facultad Ciencias del Deporte. University of Extremadura.
102
Adecco Estudiantes: A Successful Experience in Growth Strategies in Professional Sport
Carlos Campos and Miguel Pizarro
Facultad Ciencias del Deporte. University of Extremadura
Introduction
Business Management literature, making use of life cycle dimension in every business, introduces the
concept of turnaround strategy (Melin, 1985; Zimmerman, 1986; O'Neill, 1986; Hoffman, 1989; Hofer,
1991; Nueno, 1991). Life cycle is usually made up of three stages: growth, instability and crisis. Each
stage needs a different kind of strategy. In the instability and crisis periods one of the possibles strategies
to be applied is that turnaround strategy
12
. In every turnaround strategy four substrategies should be
considered: cutback strategy, management strategy, growth strategy and restructuring strategy (O’Neill,
1986). The main objective of this paper is the analysis of one of these substrategies, that of growth
strategy in the profesional sport sphere. Growth strategy is characterized in the following way: those
actions programmed to boost the firm. It usually includes a series of actions such as the access to a new
area of product, the implementation of new promotion methods, and the undertaking of some purchases
and acquisitions.
To accomplish the mentioned objective, we will make use of a specific case: Adecco Estudiantes, one of
the leading basketball clubs in Spain. Its distinctive characteristics justified our selection. Anyway,
nowadays we are also analyzing another case, also in basketball: that of Joventud de Badalona, a club
sponsored by the multinational insurance company DKV which is developing some similiar experiences.
Its Marketing Manager, Raul Cipres, is being very active in very innovative approaches in the business-
sport relationship.
Method
The adopted method to review the growth strategy undertaken by Adecco Estudiantes was the interview.
The interviewed person was Luis Esgueva, its General Manager. The interview method has been
considered as an accepted method within qualitative research for the purpose of building theory
(McCracken, 1988, Holstein & Gubrium, 1995; Alvesson, 2003). Advocates of qualitative methods stress
the richness and color of qualitative arguments on the big picture and the appealing explanations of how
processes, chronological facts and causal links occur (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Also in sport
management discipline its use has been highly recommended despite the predominance of quantitative
approaches, specially by questionnaires (Olafson, 1990). On this point, Slack (1996) asserts that although
there is nothing wrong in research by questionnaires, its use has been disproportionate. Also regarding
this, Inglis (1992) recommends qualitative methodology both in research and practice.
Within our interview with Estudiantes’ General Manager the following points will be adressed:
• How the entrance of a multinational temp agency, Adecco, takes place in a professional basketball
club, Estudiantes?.
• How to initiate a sustained growth process after the normalization and profitability of the core
business (season-tickets, tickets, exploitation of billboard advertising in basketball court,...).
• The new products developed by the club within its sustatined growth strategy:
o Business Club (Club de Negocios), along with Adecco and PriceWaterHouseCoopers,
with its three areas: executive education, elite sports and activities of leisure & public
relations.
o Management Club (Club de Empresas), which emerges from teh previous one but with a
different positioning, more directed at chief executive officers.
o SMS, a sport marketing firm devoted to advertising spots’ management and which is
100% in Estudiantes ownership.
12
For a review of other posible strategies (harvest, disinvestmen, or liquidation) to be adopted in these stages characterized by instability and crisis,
Menguzzato y Renau (1991) La dirección estratégica de la empresa. Un enfoque innovador del management (“Business Strategic Management. An
innovative focus in management”) (pp. 234-238) can be consulted.
103
o Training Day, set in motion with Adecco, and which starts from the executive education
area within its Business Club.
• How to manage a critical incident, that of the fire and destruction of the sports hall where
Estudiantes played?. And how to find a new arena: Vistalegre, up to them a bullring?.
• How to achieve spectacular figures in attendance to a basketball match in Europe (14,500
people)?. And how to achieve numbers which are no less important regarding season-ticket
holders (12,500 people, including individuals and firms) and supporters (approximately 30,000
people recorded into its databases).
Results and Discussion
The growth strategy carried out by Adecco Estudiantes perfectly adjusts to the principles of every
diversification process. Otherwise, one can be said to: “let the cobbler stick to his last”. That is the main
conclusion of this paper.Every diversification process starts with a clear definition and a general
acceptation of the core business within the organization. The initial reticences of certain groups within the
club– a club with family and/or traditional culture –to the entrance of Adecco– a multinational company
within an industry (that of temporary recruitment) with certain negative connotations in some groups of
population –were clearly overcome. One of the classical problems of any strategic alliance- that of
organizational cultures clashing (Day, 1995)– was proactively faced. Luis Esgueva and his team were
extraordinally skillfull in promoting and communicating Adecco Estudiantes’ core values throughout the
organization and to current and prospective consumers and sport mass media. All the new businesses
Adecco Estudiantes has been entering into had a absolute respect to the core business as the center of
gravity or driving force of the diversification process
13
, as theory on this matter stresses (Tregoe y
Zimmerman, 1980). Additionally, the permanent seek for sinergies among all these new businesses
14
has
always characterized the management of this Spanish basketball club; not to mention the sinergies
between Estudiantes and its main partner Adecco. This association could well be consider a manifestation
of what Mahony & Howard (2001) called a growing number of combinations in the sport industry.
Paraphrasing these authors, this is an example which while to many observers may appear to be “innsane”,
to others may lead to the achievement of long-term security and success. Additionally, this kind of
alliances permits Estudiantes to better serve its business customers in a cost effective and profit
maximizing manner because this club “will be able to more effectively integrate and bundle packages of
inventory for corporate consumers (sponsors and advertisers)” (Gladden, Irwin & Sutton, 2001, p. 302).
For Adecco this association offers the possibility of establishing all kind of business contacts with those
firms participating in the different new products developed by Estudiantes in its growth strategy.
This case also illustrates the necessary evolution of the business-sport relationship since the more
traditional sponsorship concept to that more innovative and cooperative of partnership. Likewise this
experience reflects how players and coaches can be involved in the club project: prominent players as
Carlos Jimenez, Felipe Reyes or Nacho Azofra have been very participative in the devolopment of
different strategies. In professional sport the involvement of players and coaches in management and
marketing efforts has been stressed as one of the ways to to build team brand (Gladden, Irwin & Sutton,
2001).
Finally, a last aspect to be considered is how Adecco Estudiantes managed the decision adopted by the
league in which participates, ACB, of closed tv broadcasting with Canal Plus for professional basketball in
Spain. That decision made by the central league was logically detrimental to Estudiantes’ partners,
specially Addeco: a much more reduced number of tv viewers. It was also detrimental to ACB itself and
its sponsors as reality showed us later. On the other hand, Estudiantes was extraordinarily proactive in this
issue, buying tv rights and commercializing them by an ad hoc company (a company which is 100% in
Estudiantes ownership).In our viewpoint, it is very clear that Estudiantes is a magnificent example of the
future sport club. That demand formulated by Gladden, Irwin & Sutton (2001), expressed in the following
13
Centre of gravity is that factor or those factors explaining the inicial success of a company and around which this company grew (Galbraith,
1991).
14
New businesses with different game rules and operators, but always with the same driving force (Gilbert, X. & Strebel, P., 1991).
104
words, has been perfectly assumed by this Spanish basketball club: “Instead of being reactive, pro teams
will become more proactive” (p. 311).
References
Alvesson, M. (2003). “Beyond neopositivists, romantics, and localists: A reflexive approach to interviews
in organizational research”. In: Academy of Management Review, 28 (1): 13-33.
Campos, C.; McDonald, M. & Lachowetz, T. (2001). “The Turnaround of Major League Soccer in the USA”.
Abstracts Ninth European Congress on Sport Management. European Association for Sport Management.
Vitoria (Spain). Septiembre 2001.
Day, G.S. (1995). “Advantageous alliances”. In: Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 23 (4): 297-
300.
Galbraith, J. R. (1991)."Strategy and Organization Planning". In: Mintzberg, H. y Quinn, J. B. (1991).
"The Strategy Process. Concepts, Contexts, Cases". Prentice-Hall: 315-324.
Gilbert, X. & Strebel, P. (1991). "Developing Competitive Advantage". In: Mintzberg, H. & Quinn, J. B.
(1991). "The Strategy Process. Concepts, Contexts, Cases". Prentice-Hall: 82-93.
Gladden, J. M.; Irwin, R. L. & Sutton, W. A. (2001). “Managing North American Major Professional
Sport Teams in the New Millennium: A Focus on Building Brand Equity”. In: Journal of Sport
Management, 15 (4): 297-317.
Hofer, C. W. (1991). "Designing Turnaround Strategies". In: Mintzberg, H y Quinn, J. B. (1991). "The
Strategy Process. Concepts, Contexts, Cases". Prentice-Hall: 793-799.
Hoffman, R. C. (1989). "Strategies for corporate turnarounds: what do we know about them?". Journal of
General Management, 14 (13): 46-66.
Holstein, J.A. & Gubrium, J. F. (1995): “The active interview”. Sage, Thousand Oaks.
Inglis, S. (1992). “Focus Groups as a Useful Qualitative Methodology in Sport Management”. Journal of
Sport Management, 6 (3): 173-178.
Mahony, D. F. & Howard, D. R. (2001). “Sport Business in the Next Decade: A General Overview of
Expected Trends”. In: Journal of Sport Management, 15 (4): 275-296.
McCracken, G. (1988): “The long interview”. Sage, Newbury Park.
Menguzzato, M.; Renau, J. J. (1991). "La Direccion Estrategica de la Empresa. Un enfoque innovador del
management". Editorial Ariel, S. A., Barcelona.
Miles, M. & Huberman, A. M. (1994). “Qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook”. Sage,
Thousand Oaks.
O`Neill, H. M. (1986). "Turnaround and Recovery: What Strategy Do You Need?". In: Long Range
Planning, 19 (1): 80-88.
Nueno, P. (1991). "Reflotando la empresa. Corporate Turnaround". Ed. Deusto, Bilbao.
Olafson, G. A. (1990). "Research Design in Sport Management: What's Missing, What's Needed?".
Journal of Sport Management, 4: 103-120.
Slack, T. (1996). “From the Locker Room to the Board Room: Changing the Domain of Sport
Management”. In: Journal of Sport Management, 10 (1): 97-105.
Tregoe, B. & Zimmerman, I. (1980). "Top Management Strategy". Simon & Schuster, Nueva York.
Very, P. (1993). "Success in Diversification: Building on Core Competences". In: Long Range Planning, 26
(5): 80-92.
Zimmerman, F. M. (1986). "Turnaround - A Painful Learning Process". In: Long Range Planning, 19 (4):
104-114.
Contact co-ordinates authors
Autor Name: Carlos Campos
Private Address: Ciudad de Santander, 8, 5 A. 11007 Cadiz, Spain
E-mail address: [email protected]
Name and address of the university: University of Extremadura. Facultad Ciencias del Deporte. Campus
Universitario, s/n. 10071 Caceres (Spain)
Co-Author Name: Miguel Pizarro
Private Address: Plaza Oscar Arias, 7, 2 C. 06800 Merida (Badajoz), Spain
doc_276159910.pdf
Adecco Estudiantes A Successful Experience in Growth Strategies in Professional Sport Carlos Campos and Miguel Pizarro Facultad Ciencias del Deporte. University of Extremadura.
102
Adecco Estudiantes: A Successful Experience in Growth Strategies in Professional Sport
Carlos Campos and Miguel Pizarro
Facultad Ciencias del Deporte. University of Extremadura
Introduction
Business Management literature, making use of life cycle dimension in every business, introduces the
concept of turnaround strategy (Melin, 1985; Zimmerman, 1986; O'Neill, 1986; Hoffman, 1989; Hofer,
1991; Nueno, 1991). Life cycle is usually made up of three stages: growth, instability and crisis. Each
stage needs a different kind of strategy. In the instability and crisis periods one of the possibles strategies
to be applied is that turnaround strategy
12
. In every turnaround strategy four substrategies should be
considered: cutback strategy, management strategy, growth strategy and restructuring strategy (O’Neill,
1986). The main objective of this paper is the analysis of one of these substrategies, that of growth
strategy in the profesional sport sphere. Growth strategy is characterized in the following way: those
actions programmed to boost the firm. It usually includes a series of actions such as the access to a new
area of product, the implementation of new promotion methods, and the undertaking of some purchases
and acquisitions.
To accomplish the mentioned objective, we will make use of a specific case: Adecco Estudiantes, one of
the leading basketball clubs in Spain. Its distinctive characteristics justified our selection. Anyway,
nowadays we are also analyzing another case, also in basketball: that of Joventud de Badalona, a club
sponsored by the multinational insurance company DKV which is developing some similiar experiences.
Its Marketing Manager, Raul Cipres, is being very active in very innovative approaches in the business-
sport relationship.
Method
The adopted method to review the growth strategy undertaken by Adecco Estudiantes was the interview.
The interviewed person was Luis Esgueva, its General Manager. The interview method has been
considered as an accepted method within qualitative research for the purpose of building theory
(McCracken, 1988, Holstein & Gubrium, 1995; Alvesson, 2003). Advocates of qualitative methods stress
the richness and color of qualitative arguments on the big picture and the appealing explanations of how
processes, chronological facts and causal links occur (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Also in sport
management discipline its use has been highly recommended despite the predominance of quantitative
approaches, specially by questionnaires (Olafson, 1990). On this point, Slack (1996) asserts that although
there is nothing wrong in research by questionnaires, its use has been disproportionate. Also regarding
this, Inglis (1992) recommends qualitative methodology both in research and practice.
Within our interview with Estudiantes’ General Manager the following points will be adressed:
• How the entrance of a multinational temp agency, Adecco, takes place in a professional basketball
club, Estudiantes?.
• How to initiate a sustained growth process after the normalization and profitability of the core
business (season-tickets, tickets, exploitation of billboard advertising in basketball court,...).
• The new products developed by the club within its sustatined growth strategy:
o Business Club (Club de Negocios), along with Adecco and PriceWaterHouseCoopers,
with its three areas: executive education, elite sports and activities of leisure & public
relations.
o Management Club (Club de Empresas), which emerges from teh previous one but with a
different positioning, more directed at chief executive officers.
o SMS, a sport marketing firm devoted to advertising spots’ management and which is
100% in Estudiantes ownership.
12
For a review of other posible strategies (harvest, disinvestmen, or liquidation) to be adopted in these stages characterized by instability and crisis,
Menguzzato y Renau (1991) La dirección estratégica de la empresa. Un enfoque innovador del management (“Business Strategic Management. An
innovative focus in management”) (pp. 234-238) can be consulted.
103
o Training Day, set in motion with Adecco, and which starts from the executive education
area within its Business Club.
• How to manage a critical incident, that of the fire and destruction of the sports hall where
Estudiantes played?. And how to find a new arena: Vistalegre, up to them a bullring?.
• How to achieve spectacular figures in attendance to a basketball match in Europe (14,500
people)?. And how to achieve numbers which are no less important regarding season-ticket
holders (12,500 people, including individuals and firms) and supporters (approximately 30,000
people recorded into its databases).
Results and Discussion
The growth strategy carried out by Adecco Estudiantes perfectly adjusts to the principles of every
diversification process. Otherwise, one can be said to: “let the cobbler stick to his last”. That is the main
conclusion of this paper.Every diversification process starts with a clear definition and a general
acceptation of the core business within the organization. The initial reticences of certain groups within the
club– a club with family and/or traditional culture –to the entrance of Adecco– a multinational company
within an industry (that of temporary recruitment) with certain negative connotations in some groups of
population –were clearly overcome. One of the classical problems of any strategic alliance- that of
organizational cultures clashing (Day, 1995)– was proactively faced. Luis Esgueva and his team were
extraordinally skillfull in promoting and communicating Adecco Estudiantes’ core values throughout the
organization and to current and prospective consumers and sport mass media. All the new businesses
Adecco Estudiantes has been entering into had a absolute respect to the core business as the center of
gravity or driving force of the diversification process
13
, as theory on this matter stresses (Tregoe y
Zimmerman, 1980). Additionally, the permanent seek for sinergies among all these new businesses
14
has
always characterized the management of this Spanish basketball club; not to mention the sinergies
between Estudiantes and its main partner Adecco. This association could well be consider a manifestation
of what Mahony & Howard (2001) called a growing number of combinations in the sport industry.
Paraphrasing these authors, this is an example which while to many observers may appear to be “innsane”,
to others may lead to the achievement of long-term security and success. Additionally, this kind of
alliances permits Estudiantes to better serve its business customers in a cost effective and profit
maximizing manner because this club “will be able to more effectively integrate and bundle packages of
inventory for corporate consumers (sponsors and advertisers)” (Gladden, Irwin & Sutton, 2001, p. 302).
For Adecco this association offers the possibility of establishing all kind of business contacts with those
firms participating in the different new products developed by Estudiantes in its growth strategy.
This case also illustrates the necessary evolution of the business-sport relationship since the more
traditional sponsorship concept to that more innovative and cooperative of partnership. Likewise this
experience reflects how players and coaches can be involved in the club project: prominent players as
Carlos Jimenez, Felipe Reyes or Nacho Azofra have been very participative in the devolopment of
different strategies. In professional sport the involvement of players and coaches in management and
marketing efforts has been stressed as one of the ways to to build team brand (Gladden, Irwin & Sutton,
2001).
Finally, a last aspect to be considered is how Adecco Estudiantes managed the decision adopted by the
league in which participates, ACB, of closed tv broadcasting with Canal Plus for professional basketball in
Spain. That decision made by the central league was logically detrimental to Estudiantes’ partners,
specially Addeco: a much more reduced number of tv viewers. It was also detrimental to ACB itself and
its sponsors as reality showed us later. On the other hand, Estudiantes was extraordinarily proactive in this
issue, buying tv rights and commercializing them by an ad hoc company (a company which is 100% in
Estudiantes ownership).In our viewpoint, it is very clear that Estudiantes is a magnificent example of the
future sport club. That demand formulated by Gladden, Irwin & Sutton (2001), expressed in the following
13
Centre of gravity is that factor or those factors explaining the inicial success of a company and around which this company grew (Galbraith,
1991).
14
New businesses with different game rules and operators, but always with the same driving force (Gilbert, X. & Strebel, P., 1991).
104
words, has been perfectly assumed by this Spanish basketball club: “Instead of being reactive, pro teams
will become more proactive” (p. 311).
References
Alvesson, M. (2003). “Beyond neopositivists, romantics, and localists: A reflexive approach to interviews
in organizational research”. In: Academy of Management Review, 28 (1): 13-33.
Campos, C.; McDonald, M. & Lachowetz, T. (2001). “The Turnaround of Major League Soccer in the USA”.
Abstracts Ninth European Congress on Sport Management. European Association for Sport Management.
Vitoria (Spain). Septiembre 2001.
Day, G.S. (1995). “Advantageous alliances”. In: Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 23 (4): 297-
300.
Galbraith, J. R. (1991)."Strategy and Organization Planning". In: Mintzberg, H. y Quinn, J. B. (1991).
"The Strategy Process. Concepts, Contexts, Cases". Prentice-Hall: 315-324.
Gilbert, X. & Strebel, P. (1991). "Developing Competitive Advantage". In: Mintzberg, H. & Quinn, J. B.
(1991). "The Strategy Process. Concepts, Contexts, Cases". Prentice-Hall: 82-93.
Gladden, J. M.; Irwin, R. L. & Sutton, W. A. (2001). “Managing North American Major Professional
Sport Teams in the New Millennium: A Focus on Building Brand Equity”. In: Journal of Sport
Management, 15 (4): 297-317.
Hofer, C. W. (1991). "Designing Turnaround Strategies". In: Mintzberg, H y Quinn, J. B. (1991). "The
Strategy Process. Concepts, Contexts, Cases". Prentice-Hall: 793-799.
Hoffman, R. C. (1989). "Strategies for corporate turnarounds: what do we know about them?". Journal of
General Management, 14 (13): 46-66.
Holstein, J.A. & Gubrium, J. F. (1995): “The active interview”. Sage, Thousand Oaks.
Inglis, S. (1992). “Focus Groups as a Useful Qualitative Methodology in Sport Management”. Journal of
Sport Management, 6 (3): 173-178.
Mahony, D. F. & Howard, D. R. (2001). “Sport Business in the Next Decade: A General Overview of
Expected Trends”. In: Journal of Sport Management, 15 (4): 275-296.
McCracken, G. (1988): “The long interview”. Sage, Newbury Park.
Menguzzato, M.; Renau, J. J. (1991). "La Direccion Estrategica de la Empresa. Un enfoque innovador del
management". Editorial Ariel, S. A., Barcelona.
Miles, M. & Huberman, A. M. (1994). “Qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook”. Sage,
Thousand Oaks.
O`Neill, H. M. (1986). "Turnaround and Recovery: What Strategy Do You Need?". In: Long Range
Planning, 19 (1): 80-88.
Nueno, P. (1991). "Reflotando la empresa. Corporate Turnaround". Ed. Deusto, Bilbao.
Olafson, G. A. (1990). "Research Design in Sport Management: What's Missing, What's Needed?".
Journal of Sport Management, 4: 103-120.
Slack, T. (1996). “From the Locker Room to the Board Room: Changing the Domain of Sport
Management”. In: Journal of Sport Management, 10 (1): 97-105.
Tregoe, B. & Zimmerman, I. (1980). "Top Management Strategy". Simon & Schuster, Nueva York.
Very, P. (1993). "Success in Diversification: Building on Core Competences". In: Long Range Planning, 26
(5): 80-92.
Zimmerman, F. M. (1986). "Turnaround - A Painful Learning Process". In: Long Range Planning, 19 (4):
104-114.
Contact co-ordinates authors
Autor Name: Carlos Campos
Private Address: Ciudad de Santander, 8, 5 A. 11007 Cadiz, Spain
E-mail address: [email protected]
Name and address of the university: University of Extremadura. Facultad Ciencias del Deporte. Campus
Universitario, s/n. 10071 Caceres (Spain)
Co-Author Name: Miguel Pizarro
Private Address: Plaza Oscar Arias, 7, 2 C. 06800 Merida (Badajoz), Spain
doc_276159910.pdf