Member Article

Business and sports minds meet to share ideas

The chairman of Italian football giant Juventus will join 44 of the brightest minds from the sport and business worlds, to explore lessons shared between both disciplines at London Business School.

Andrea Agnelli will deliver the closing keynote address to a senior business audience at the School’s Global Leadership Summit, charting the transformation of a sports brand.

The business brains behind the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, and cricket’s Indian Premier League will also be present.

Among the business thinkers debating the global impact of major international sporting events are, Sir John Armitt, Chair of Olympic Delivery Authority; Beth Comstock, Senior Vice President & chief marketing officer of GE; and Heather Hancock, lead partner of London 2012 and managing partner for innovation and brand at Deloitte UK.

The delegates will discuss what other industries can learn from the sports industry about leveraging and staging successful events, how we evaluate the benefit to brands, cities and countries who engage with the world of sport, and how principles of teamwork, leadership and motivation in the sports world can be applied to business.

Sean Fitzpatrick, Founder, Front Row Leadership and former New Zealand All Black rugby captain will be tackling a panel on strategies for leadership, looking at the parallels between business and sport, alongside Niels de Vos, Chief Executive Officer at UK Athletics, and London Business School’s Professor Lynda Gratton.

Sir Andrew Likierman, Dean, London Business School, said: “The relationship between business and sport is not always straightforward.

“Without sponsorship, some sporting activity would not be possible. But there are criticisms about excessive commercialisation. So what is the right balance?

“With the Olympics on our doorstep, this year’s Global Leadership Summit is the perfect platform to bring together the leading lights in sports and business for, what promises to be, lively debate on this and other crucial issues.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .