Mysuru: Playing sports and managing sports are entirely different, said Vijay Lancy, CEO, Prakash Padukone Sports Management (PSM).
Addressing the students of Post Graduate Programme in Sports Management of Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara-Institute for Management (SDM-IMD) at the MDP Hall here on Tuesday, January 22, he narrated his personal sporting journey and how he earned a career in the sports industry over a period of time and how his passion and love towards badminton had brought him to PSM. He gave a deep insight of how PSM started and what goes into running a sports academy. Narrating his personal experience, he took the students on a career path tour. In his narration, he told the students how his career took different directions in various fields and how every single experience gave him a great learning curve.
“One should focus on learning the skills. Students these days look out for dream jobs immediately after graduation. But to be honest, getting a dream job immediately is not good. One should work from the ground level and learn the various intricacies. They need to enjoy pressure that would mold them into better persons. Sport is also a form of business and it is vital for a sports management professional to learn the fundamentals of managing business and the first two years after graduation is very critical in the long run. Budding students should take up any job opportunity that knocks their way and must learn all the skills that come along, which will definitely prove handy in the long run. It is always advisable to know your domain well. When you step into the industry, be prepared for anything.
‘Sports Industry will mature immensely in India in a couple of years’
“There are several domains such as operations, venue and crowd management, sports sciences, sports retail, sports marketing, sports branding etc. Sport is one such field wherein development of one domain leads to the development of its related domains. Nowadays, the access to sport has become convenient compared to earlier days. To improve the game standards, better coaches are required, which will also inturn increase the participants and also promote the sports retail industry and on the whole, the sports industry expands”, he said.
Emphasising on the importance of the business of sport, he said, “Packaging of sport in very vital. This packaging needs to be done by the sports management guys to make the sport more attractive, which will make the league more interesting. Leagues are very much important for the sustenance of sport. In any sports academy, 60 to 70 percent of the candidates are from the grassroot level or beginner level. Operational work is a very important aspect of sports management. Only by working at the ground level will a person be able to understand the fundamentals of sports management.”
Parental Pressure has become one of the major sporting concerns in a child’s sporting development. The parents put immense pressure on the kids to perform. Stressing on the parental pressure, Vijay said, “The trend is that parents want to fulfill their dreams which they couldn’t accomplish in their lives through their children. They want their children to live their dreams and the pressure affects the child. Parental education is also very important.”
The talk concluded with a question and answer session. H Gayathri, Programme Director, Sports Management Course, SDM-IMD, Mysuru and other faculty members were also present on the occasion.
