On September 28, Munich Business School will launch the newly designed extra-occupational Digital Sports Business Manager course to actively support the sporting goods industry on its path to digital transformation. The further education program is offered in cooperation with the Bundesverband der Deutschen Sportartikel-Industrie e.V. (BSI), the sporting goods magazine SAZsport and the consulting firm The Retail Performance Company.
Digitalization has become an integral part of our lives and work, not least as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the sporting goods industry as well, digitalization opens up the opportunity to further develop existing business models and position themselves for a successful future. The fact that these opportunities often remain untapped, particularly in many medium-sized companies in the sports industry, is often not due to a lack of recognition of digitalization as a necessity, but rather to a lack of expertise. Often, employees and managers do not have the necessary skills to understand the full scope of digitalization, to deal creatively and innovatively with its opportunities and challenges, and to apply them in a way that benefits their company.
This is precisely where Munich Business School comes in with its new training program Digital Sports Business Manager. In six modules, participants will build up and expand their digitalization skills by learning proven tools, methods, and best practices tailored to the sporting goods industry, enabling them to drive digital transformation in their own companies after successfully completing the course. The course was designed in collaboration with the Bundesverband der Deutschen Sportartikel-Industrie e.V. (BSI), the sports and outdoor retail magazine SAZsport, and the consulting firm for customer-centric transformation The Retail Performance Company. “The idea of offering a training course tailored for the sporting goods industry was born back in the fall of 2020 under the impression of the behavioral changes of the pandemic,” says BSI CEO Stefan Rosenkranz. “Especially in the area of digitalization, we still have a lot of potential in our industry in terms of optimizing market processes such as CRM or social media communication.”
The Digital Sports Business Manager course focuses on various aspects of digitalization in the sports industry. While the first module provides an overview of digitalization processes in the sporting goods market, modules 2 and 3 focus on digital business models in the sports business and professional data management. Equipped with this knowledge, participants will then develop a new digital business model for their company or department based on a prototype and learn how to convince key stakeholders of their vision using agile transformation management. At the end of the course, all the content learned will be bundled into a digital roadmap for digitalization. With an individual 100-day plan, the course graduates will be able to implement the strategy they have developed and guide their company into the digital future.
The course will be led by MBS Professor for International Management Dr. Heiko Seif and Christoph Kunz, founding partner of The Retail Performance Company. Heiko Seif, who will also be the academic director of the master’s program Sports Business and Communication at MBS from September on, is looking forward to the course: “At MBS, sound research and relevant practical experience come together. I am proud and pleased that our executive education program now also includes a program for smaller medium-sized companies in the sporting goods industry and that in this way, we can give the digital transformation a further boost. All executives from middle and upper management in the sporting goods industry who would like to deepen their digitalization skills and advance and intensify the digital transformation in their company are welcome!”
Further information on the course content, the trainers and cooperation partners as well as on enrollment can be found here.
