This upcoming school term, Dr. Tim Koba from High Point University invited our President and Chief Data officer in to work with his students in his strategic management class for sports organizations. Neil will be joining the class via Zoom on 3 separate occasions starting in late August.
According to Dr. Koba, “we wanted to invite Neil into our class to help students learn how to integrate data of all sorts into their work in strategic planning and development”. Koba continues, “Neil and I spoke multiple times to ensure that what he is planning to do fits in with our course description and objectives.” Neil suggested that we break students into teams of two and choose topics that interest them focused on College Sports. Below is the course description and student objectives.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is designed to provide students with specific knowledge related to the strategic management of sport and fitness organizations. The course involves numerous case studies and simulation exercises, which are used to develop managerial effectiveness and skills. In addition, students learn the importance of strategic management through a major project spanning a significant portion of the semester. Strong emphasis will be placed on case study method learning and application. Student Objectives: The purpose of this course is to provide students with the ability to integrate their previous education into better understanding their relationship to strategy. Students will learn about strategic directions, different strategic planning and strategy tools, effectively communicating a strategic direction and working to articulate a strategic direction. At the conclusion of this course, students should be able to:
- Define theoretical underpinnings of strategic management
- Apply theories to practical problems as presented through case studies and examples
- Become familiar with concepts fundamental to strategic planning and management, such as environmental analysis, competitive advantage, industry forces, and others
- Integrate previous sport management training in the development of a business strategy plan
- Connect strategic management to related fields
- Develop strategic management concepts to solving industry problems integrating
- the various functional areas of sport management and organizational management
- Effectively present on strategic opportunities and articulate a strategic direction
- Enhance data literacy through the effective use of charts, graphs and analysis to convey information
It’s Neil’s plan to help students de-mystify the process of integrating data into all phases of the strategic planning process. We plan to start slow and have students work with 1-2 data points only. Between classes number 1-2, the goal will be to help students understand how to create a basic data visualization and then add insights and tell a short story using the data in class. We will be showcasing the new premium level data that goes down to team level. By the end of the 3rd in class presentation, my hope is that students will better understand how to integrate data into the class projects and will not feel intimidated. Using data can be fun when used properly and our goal will be to bring data in from the SBRnet site and even perform some light data modeling and analytics.
Both Neil and Mark are always available to join your classes to help students better understand how much data will play a role in their respective futures and how the data from SBRnet can be a big part of that process. Data driven decision making starts with great data.
Reach out to Neil and Mark at: neil@sbrnet.com or mark@sbnet.com