Cam Vale, CEO, Hockey Australia
It is always interesting when hockey players and supporters gather together in a social setting and ‘chew the fat’ about their love of hockey and what’s happening in their hockey circles. It is part of hockey community life. However I stand to be corrected but a majority of hockey players in Australia do not know who sits at the helm of hockey organisation in their country, and what are his values and outcomes which underpin the future of direction for hockey.
It is the view of Go Hockey News that the position of CEO of Hockey Australia holds great responsibility and accountability as it is considered our sport is at the crossroads. We are still dependent on a ‘volunteer’ approach to organisational management but in great need of moving towards professionalizing organisational management at both macro and micro levels throughout the country. This encompasses areas relating to competition structures, management and training, common organisation visions communicated effectively to the hockey population, marketing (growing the sport, professionalizing elite competitions, capitalising on opportunities to monetise our sport and subsequently fund organisational change).
Recently I asked three seasoned hockey players, who not only play at State masters level but hold different club management positions, as to who is the new CEO of Hockey Australia. Not one could name Cam Vale but all have long established views of hockey development in Australia. Therefore it important to profile our CEO of Hockey Australia who ultimately leads in taking hockey in Australia and all who form part of it into the future. A future where hopefully hockey becomes like its sports competitors who have moved from a ‘volunteer’ approach to organisation management to become a ‘professional sport’, i.e., football, cricket, basketball and more recently netball.
The following article about Cam Vale, CEO of Hockey Australia, comes from Hockey Australia news releases. He comes qualified and only new to the position therefore time will dictate many things. Certainly what he outlines below indicates he is quickly positioning hockey to meet its future challenges as outline above.
About Cam Vale
Cam Vale joined Hockey Australia as its Chief Executive at the start of August. With 13 years’ experience of working in professional sport in finance and senior strategic roles, Cam joined Hockey Australia on the back of five years with AFL club North Melbourne where he was most recently Chief Operating Officer. In his time with NMFC, he held a broad strategic role across all parts of the business and in 2012 spent nine months as interim CEO. At North Melbourne he oversaw and implemented the club’s five year strategic plan, including responsibility for its new market growth plans in Tasmania, Ballarat and North West Melbourne. He was responsible for a number of other special projects across debt reduction, sponsorship, and facility and oval redevelopments. As interim CEO he oversaw the club’s biggest ever profit and the team playing finals football for the first time since 2007.
Cam gives his initial impressions after six weeks in the job
After a whirlwind first few weeks Cam gives an insight into his early impressions of hockey and his new role and explains what’s in store for the next few months.
What has your first month involved?
My focus in the first month has really covered three main areas. Overall this has involved connecting with “hockey people”.
- Understanding the culture of hockey, what has made the sport so successful and the participants so passionate about hockey by connecting with the state associations
[Go Hockey New view: yes and from this a new vision for what hockey is as a marketable sport. A must in the strategic plan being developed as indicated below.] - Getting to know the staff and athletes who represent the organisation in Perth and Melbourne
[Go Hockey News view: yes but to go further to reach those hockey players and supporters who have been playing and involved at sport management at the grassroots level for scores of years. Many of whom are business entrepreneurs themselves and the stakeholders mentioned below.] - Getting to as many key stakeholders as possible across all parts of the organisation Specifically, a large amount of time has been spent understanding the implications and requirements of the new Winning Edge Australian Sports Commission funding that is critical to the sport’s success.
[Go hockey News view: yes it is critical but none more critical than becoming less reliable on government funding and more proactive on monetising what we have already as a sport. As indicated below as one of his challenges.]
I’ve also been working on a plan around potential future FIH events across 2015 – 2018 and whether Australia can host any of these key events. As you may have seen recently, we’ve submitted potential bids for future tournaments including a World Cup in 2018. There’s plenty of work still to do on those before the FIH announces the winning bidders on 7 November.
These are some of the direct initial items that have needed my attention early on.
What has impressed you?
In short, the people and the culture of the sport have impressed me. Despite not being a hockey tragic or player, I have had a good awareness of the sport and its success without a detailed knowledge. But the number of people who play the sport at all levels, from the youngest to the Masters and everything in between, is impressive and something the sport should be proud of.
In fact, I think we compare very favourably to a number of sports that often speak a lot about their numbers publicly. The importance of clubs in everything we do at Hockey Australia is also something that is impressive and huge asset for our sport.
The communication of our sport in the broader media is a strong and successful message that will surprise a few non-hockey people and other sports. Again, we are a strong sport that compares well to other sports in this country. Another thing that has impressed me so far is that the vast majority of people engaged with hockey who aren’t participants – sponsors, government and other funding partners like ASC and state organisations – all speak very highly of their roles in the sport and the importance of Hockey Australia and, in particular, our teams, the Hockeyroos and Kookaburras. Again, another strong indicator about the people in the sport being successful.
Where do you see the challenges for hockey?
The challenges whilst tough are also the opportunities for the sport:
- How do we grow the exposure of hockey to the wider community outside the Commonwealth and Olympic Games?
- How do we generate increased revenue to invest in all levels of the sport, from grass roots to clubs and to the national program?
- How do we remain Australia’s most successful team sport in a truly international sport?
- How do we keep all levels of participation in the sport easy to access and affordable?
All great challenges, but all areas in which I am confident we can succeed.
It is important to never be complacent with your sport. As Australia is such a competitive market for exposure, talent, commercial and other revenue we need to be continually growing and setting the benchmark for success as high as possible.
So, what’s next for the coming months?
After completing my people engagement strategy to understand the culture of hockey, the key priority for the next few months is to develop our new strategic plan for 2014 onwards. It is critical that the initial knowledge I learn from all stakeholders, combined with my strategic sports experience enables us to implement a ‘whole of sport’ strategic plan that represents everything our organisation is responsible for.
[Go Hockey News view: Totally agree with these challenges outlined. Each one of them has a foundational start point and that is the need for dollars. The question is how? Traditional methods of chasing the corporate dollar is a tough road as hockey organisational management realise. With traditional media exposure comes the potential for revenue. However that is always a challenge to break the dominance of high profile professional sports or share in the media coverage given to sport. Again the question is how? The answer lies in the ability to monetise what everyone [associations, clubs, hockey individuals, non hockey individuals] has access to, and does not have a high cost set up because of viral potential …….www…, social media, You Tube, mobile phones – and what is linked to these; database development. We need to engage the expertise of the best in internet marketers and for them to replicate systems at all hockey levels of organisation. Bring the people, market the advantages and the revenue will follow. Then the corporate dollar will be attracted. Why? – Because they can see a return on their investment and the professional support they will receive.]
May the hockey community get behind him in support and may he be our best CEO yet. Go Hockey News welcomes your views also as we are on the same page – wanting to see the sport we love grow.
Source: Hockey Australia News, Author: Lawrence West
