Insights from Jordi Ferré
The role of an innovation unit, or more commonly known as the “innovation hub”, varies greatly, depending on your organization’s place within the sports industry. While no sports properties are exactly alike, there are commonalities between those which invest in innovation, albeit their goals and measurable achievements may prove to be very different compared to their peers.
Within the private sector, rights holders at club and league level focus their innovation spend on the likelihood of a return on investment (ROI), including how science and technology can improve team performance (and therefore monetary reward on the field of play), as well as the creation of digital products designed to increase fan engagement, and to boost ecommerce and ticket sales.
On the other side of the fence, and is particularly true within the Olympic Movement, albeit an ever-evolving market, revenue generation is less of a priority for National Olympic Committees (NOC), especially for those which base their innovation efforts within high-performance centers.
Medal success is a common driver for Olympic federations which choose to innovate and is often a requirement for securing ongoing public or governmental funding. This involves a cyclical approach to high performance; from talent identification through national scouting programs; to growing regional interest and engagement in their respective sports, which is often propelled by the success and the profile of their star athletes during the Olympic cycle.
“There’s evidence that more pioneers of innovation remain within the private sector, and their investment in technology is more consistent,” explains Jordi Ferré, N3XT Sports co-founder and Innovation Senior Consultant. “There are many more clubs and leagues exploring innovation-related initiatives compared to Olympic committees, of which few have the proper innovation strategies.
“Private sports entities also have a direct measurement for return of investment (ROI), which might include the performance of their teams, new digital assets that augment revenue streams, or simply the way that the organization engages the fans. Whereas, for NOCs, it is very hard to measure their ROI, since their focus is mainly on winning medals.”
BARRIERS TO INNOVATION AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIGITAL ADOPTION
There are of course sports that overlap these two realms of innovation; tennis, for example, is both a commercial commodity – driven particularly by its four, annual Grand Slams – and an Olympic and Paralympic platform supported, domestically, by its national governing bodies.
Nevertheless, innovation does not only yield high performance in the arena. Operational performance is a key part of an organization’s strategic motivations, too – whereby improvement to productivity and workflow is encouraged by the adoption of digital resources designed to connect employees and their internal workflows, while raising their data acumen.
According to N3XT Sports research, barriers to innovation inside NOCs are mainly the result of low technology adoption, including: (1) limited access to necessary resources for raising the entity’s operational capacity and development; (2) a conservative culture whereby technological buy-in, digital strategy, and change-management maturity remain relatively low; and (3) a lack of well-structured and effective strategies to implement innovation across the national federation.
“While there is a greater incentive for private entities to increase their competitive advantage through innovation, they are also considering opportunities for digital transformation and how it impacts their business model,” Ferré continues. “Inside Olympic bodies, for example, the objective could be to better manage their resources into high-potential medal candidate targets , whereby innovation helps make their operations more efficient, effective, and presents more opportunities to raise their performance wholesale.”
N3XT Sports analysis identifies ten NOCs setting benchmarks for innovation, both within their athletic and operational performance, including New Zealand, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Great Britain (GB), Canada, France, and the USA.
Whereas every NOC shows signs of digital maturity, the role of the “innovation hub” varies between them – just as it was explained at the top of the article. For example, the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) leverages an innovation unit for financing and developing projects in four key areas, covering: (1) sports science and equipment resourcing; (2) data analysis; (3) health and wellness intervention; and (4) performance coaching and injury prevention.
Research also highlights the NZOC as one of a few national bodies which has consistently increased the number of Summer Olympics medals won since the Athens 2004 Olympic Games (up from five to 20 medals at Tokyo 2020), including a balanced distribution of medals between men (45 percent) and women (55 percent). Notably, during Tokyo 2020, medals were achieved across 11 disciplines, 55 percent of which use high-impact sports equipment, such as rowing, canoeing, cycling and sailing.
NATIONAL PARTICIPATION CONDUIT FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE, TALENT IDENTIFICATION
Medal success is also consistent in sports that hold national and cultural significance within a particular market. For example, in addition to their medal success in equipment-based sports, New Zealand also won two medals during Tokyo 2020’s rugby sevens competition, including women’s gold and men’s silver. This could have been expected considering the popularity of rugby union in New Zealand and the programmes in place to identify and develop rugby talent.
With this in mind, Ferré says that innovation is considered a “strategic asset” for developing a nation’s commercially driven and non-commercial sports, and extends beyond elite training and competition.
One of the major challenges NOCs are often tasked with is how to structure their innovation initiative within the context of their sporting landscape. Thereafter, once they have built an innovation framework and overall strategy, it’s important that they understand how to manage their resources and expectations set by their key stakeholders. Whether you are an NOC or a private sports entity, presenting a clear innovation strategy is important for meeting demand.”
Jordi Ferré, co-founder and Innovation Senior Consultant, N3XT Sports
Performance tools can also be used to help identify talent within a country’s general population, which is one of the reasons why fan engagement is not only important for driving participation, but also for widening an organization’s talent search and enriching its talent pool.
For example, British Cycling announced a pilot in January 2020 to explore how its partnership with the virtual training platform Zwift can “be utilized for coaching” young riders, via the British Cycling Talent Development Programme. Joe Malik, the governing body’s Talent Development Manager, said: “The social aspect of Zwift has the potential to be huge with the riders able to [train] with expert riders and British Cycling coaches without the need to travel.” British Olympic and Paralympic sports are financed using public funding distributed by UK Sport.
“One of the major challenges for NOCs is therefore to sustain engagement between events, particularly when there is so much interest during the Olympic Games every four years,” Ferré continues. “There is an opportunity for the Olympic committees to help strategic federations to increase their fan engagement, including access to better tools and knowledge. While the right support and resources is vital for the success of national sports federations, innovation not only aids high performance, but holds an ability to nurture public participation in their respective sports.”
WHAT’S N3XT?
Considering that the digital maturity of a sports organization depends on how well its technology adoption aligns to the entity’s business objectives, the ability to innovate requires a robust digital framework capable of adapting to new tools and resources, and an ability to scale when objectives change. In order to maximize the use of technology within an organization, and therefore provide proof of concept, an innovation unit must also serve the employee experience (EX), providing staff with the products and services they need for advancing performance on multiple fronts.
“Each country is very different. Therefore, one of the challenges NOCs are often tasked with is how to structure their innovation initiative within the context of their sporting landscape,” Ferré goes on. “Thereafter, once they have built an innovation framework and overall strategy, it’s important that they understand how to manage their resources and expectations set by their key stakeholders. Whether you are an NOC or a private sports entity, presenting a clear innovation strategy is important for meeting demand.”
Our team at N3XT Sports works tirelessly to develop and implement digital strategies across a multitude of sports properties at federation level, competition level, and club level. To learn more about how digital transformation can support the growth of your organization, including the creation of a detailed innovation framework, please fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch. Our goal is to drive the digitalization of the sports industry and our clients.