If you were CEO

[Dan]

I thought this would be a fun topic to start. Best reply gets Honorary CEO of Silvertails for a day.

- If you were the CEO of the Sea Eagles, what would you do, what would you change, who would you speak with, who would you approach.

In short, if you replaced Graham Lowe tomorrow, what would be your plan from that day and for the next 5 years and how would you go about achieving it?

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Get funding for major Brookie upgrade, attract several major sponsors, and triple our membership.

No idea why Lowe never thought of this.

 

[Dan]

Get funding for major Brookie upgrade, attract several major sponsors, and triple our membership.

No idea why Lowe never thought of this.

I guess I should add, and How?.

 

[mudgeagle]

OK i will go 1st ,  hire a media savvy person to run the membership , forum,web site , and media releases  2ND get the manly name out in the public with players and coaches to be more media friendly , 3rd put pressure on governments local, state and federal about the state of brookie , a huge membership drive and i don't just mean in the manly area all over the footie world (eg England), approach a surf style company to go in partnership with manly , as they would just seem to go hand in hand , on the football side i don't think we are going that bad injury has hurt us since we won the comp and theres not a lot you can do about that , crusher and Des seem to have a fair idea of what we need and as you all know once you win the comp our players come under more notice of rep teams and thus bonuses and new contracts come into play there , probably need to look at who is going to be our coach once Des steps down ..

 

[Dan]

Yeah good answer.

That brings up a point I have always thought on actually.

Should the business side of the company have any bearing, or decision making capacity on the footballs side?

IMO the CEO and Footy staff should never cross paths, with only a middle man who reports on the financial and business decisions, and a media manager to manage engagements.

I'd like to see a CEO hired from a PR, Marketing or Sales background, even someone without CEO experience.

I would like to also see someone who comes in and decides how things should be done, not one who is basically given the role to run the same as their predecessor.

 

[DSM5]

Dan, off the top of the head, firstly set the vision thing.
Mighty Sea Eagles - Best Club in best game.
First thing I would do is divide the club up into four responsibilities;
1 front office including payroll, accounts etc,
2 sponsorship & promotion,
3 coaching staff including player purchase and retention and
4 forward planning, including grounds.  
Each group would be given a time line and tasks to complete.  
Current personnel would be interviewed and assessed as to whether they could perform at a level acceptable to me.
I would hope that something like this exists and all it needs is some bright spark to kick it along.    

 

[Matabele]

Dan, off the top of the head, firstly set the vision thing.
Mighty Sea Eagles - Best Club in best game.
First thing I would do is divide the club up into four responsibilities;
1 front office including payroll, accounts etc,
2 sponsorship & promotion,
3 coaching staff including player purchase and retention and
4 forward planning, including grounds. 
Each group would be given a time line and tasks to complete. 
Current personnel would be interviewed and assessed as to whether they could perform at a level acceptable to me.
I would hope that something like this exists and all it needs is some bright spark to kick it along.   

you wouldn't happen to be available would you?

I'd add a 5th department - player/crisis management.

 

[Heatseeker]

I would get Grant Mayer back

 

[G-land Express]

OK i will go 1st ,  hire a media savvy person to run the membership , forum,web site , and media releases  2ND get the manly name out in the public with players and coaches to be more media friendly , 3rd put pressure on governments local, state and federal about the state of brookie , a huge membership drive and i don't just mean in the manly area all over the footie world (eg England), approach a surf style company to go in partnership with manly , as they would just seem to go hand in hand , on the football side i don't think we are going that bad injury has hurt us since we won the comp and theres not a lot you can do about that , crusher and Des seem to have a fair idea of what we need and as you all know once you win the comp our players come under more notice of rep teams and thus bonuses and new contracts come into play there , probably need to look at who is going to be our coach once Des steps down ..

It'd be hard to get any surf companies involved in footy. RL as a sport is mass market  and surfing companies make their money sponsoring surfers with magazine ads portraying a more street core or anti-establishment theme. Funny because it's the mass market that buys the surf clothes these days. Not many suburban surf shops even have boards now. That's why companies like addidas, nike etc will never get a look in with the "core" surf market as well. All the ASP comps are sponsored by the core companies. It's been a mates club since the 70's.

 

[Flight]

I thought this would be a fun topic to start. Best reply gets Honorary CEO of Silvertails for a day.

- If you were the CEO of the Sea Eagles, what would you do, what would you change, who would you speak with, who would you approach.

In short, if you replaced Graham Lowe tomorrow, what would be your plan from that day and for the next 5 years and how would you go about achieving it?

I'll take the challenge Dan! I will assume from your 5 year outlook, my tender is for that period.

Mid-Term:
Everything i detail here is for realisation by at maximum, the 5 year deadline; and I will consider it 'strategy', with tactics to be regarded in a shorter time span, but of course, in line with the overall strategy.

1) What will our market (by market, this encompasses all external matters of the FC) look like in 5 years time? This has to be fundamental in shaping the the overall 5 year plan. (btw, i would never make myself look good over a tenure period if the resultant position after this was a dire mess)
1.a) What position should MWSE have in this anticipated market? Fans/Board/historical influences play a large part here.
1.b) What is the most appropriate funding model to take advantage of this anticipated environ?
1.c) What roadblocks, speedhumps or opportunities do we have in achieving our strategic goals? and how (or even if) we should deal with them?
1.d) How do we measure our success over this time period? (I believe in a high level of visibility here not only to shareholders, but the fans as well).

Shorter Term: 2-3 years.
2) Are we on track, does there need to be any alteration in our market predictions and or tactics leading us to our goals?
2.a) By now, i would fully expect to see the MWSE outperforming our competitors in every key field identified in 1.d). e.g. revenue growth, membership or whatever the measurement is.

Immediate term:
3) Kickoff 1)
3.a) Take instant action (positive or negative) against the "big" and "important" items  from 1.c). These can be structural or quite commonly personal...
3.b) Heavily manage expectations both external and internal.

I haven't delved deep into tactics, as its hard to identify these without knowing where you need to be first.

In essence, identify whats important, set things in motion; and make sure you, the fans and the club are always true to strategy, in EVERY, EVERY single thing you do.

thoughts?

Flight

 

[Nthn NSW]

The first thing?  Sack our incompetent media manager.Replace him with someone thats not living in the 70's.

 

[Andrew..]

Excuse my lack of writing skill.
1.I'd make the Manly name more friendly and appealing (as DSM has stated) "no one likes us" is not conducive to mass appeal.
2. I would be willing for the team to play 300k under the cap and invest that money in the most astute business person/ceo I could find as I imagine the short term loss would inevitably make long term gains.
3. Employ a media manager /troubleshooter who actually listens to feedback and is computer and marketing savvy.
4. I would make a funding submission to one of the major drug companies for sponsorship (you have no idea how much money they have to throw around.
5. I would make it my personal business to hound and I mean virtually harass every government dept, local, state, federal for funding towards Brookie.
Finally, I would suck up to Sarah Murdoch and help promote her as one of the faces of Manly, she's beautiful, well connected  has family values and international connections (not to mention Lachlan).

 

[Chip and Chase]

Mine is a much more simple plan.

1. Success breeds success.
2. Build it and they will come.
3. Win the Premiership and the rest falls into place *

* Disclaimer - if private owners engage in very public slanging match and if star player is subjected to false accusations of sexual misconduct then plan may fail.

 

[Ryan]

I've done this before, haven't I?

Hehehehehe....

 

[Garts]

Cut and paste it Ryan, that post was a good one!!!

 

[Jatz Crackers]

First thing I would do is divide the club up into four responsibilities;
1 front office including payroll, accounts etc,
2 sponsorship & promotion,
3 coaching staff including player purchase and retention and
4 forward planning, including grounds. 

Well,  no offfense but youve forgotten the whole community based fan aspect of the club. And dont tell me thats in point 2.

Oh sh!t...this management thing is very much harder from the stands.

 

[eagles2win]

It's a fact of life that we're not the most popular team in the NRL. No if's or but's about it.

So I can see that they've actually done a smart thing today and embraced the 'Silvertail' moniker.
If you think being the most hated club in a league is a bad thing have a look at these teams : Man U, Wigan, NY Yankees, Dallas Cowboys or Pittsburgh Steelers, Collingwood.

While being the most hated teams in there respective competition's they are also the market leaders in merchandise sold etc.

 

[Fro]

I'd give myself a golden handshake and retire

 

[Dan]

I'd give myself a golden handshake and retire

and a hummer?

 

[DSM5]

Ant, the teams you have mentioned don't go out of their way to announce to the world that no one likes them.  They succeed because everyone wants to emulate their success.  We have been successful on the field, but it hasn't generated to off the field.  I'd like to think that we could become a dominant team off the field as well as on it by sticking with the 'silvertail' aspect of the brand and moving it into high end sponsorship deals.  This means pissing off the bogan media manager and approaching the selling of the club in a professional manner.    
I must add that I think the hummer thing is silly.  Why not approach Manly taxi company or some such hire car company with a deal to sponsor the club.  Discounted fares etc.  The hummer just looks tacky and makes the boys look irresponsible.  I like the look of the bus however.