Women’s Tennis Association in Asia
Introduction
Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) is a non-profit organization that was established to enable women to access the sport. The organization was specifically established to counter the monopoly that the Association of Tennis Professions (ATP) enjoyed. The latter association was mainly dealing with men as opposed to women. This triggered women to form the Women Tennis Association. Through this association, women could access tennis trainings and tournaments with ease. In any case, the ATP had put much emphasis on men. The Women’s Tennis Association is managed by Larry Scott who is the chief executive officer. Nonetheless, many operations of the organization are under control of the chief operations officer (COO) known as David Shoemaker. The headquarters of this organization are located in St. Petersburg, Florida. Being a non-profit organization, the Women’s Tennis Association does not have an independent source of money. Consequently, it depends on charities and donations from charitable individuals as well as organizations. This discourse discerns and analyses the aspects that characterize the Women’s Tennis Association. Much emphasis shall be put on the positive and negative tenets of this association. At the end, recommendations shall be given on how the institution can be ameliorated.
What Is Going "Right" in This Organization?
From the plans that the chief operations officer is laying down, one can deduce that the organization is unquestionably in good hands of leadership. Management is a key issue in any kind of organization. Padaki and Vaz (2005) averred that without proper management, any organization will crumble without any single achievement. According to the article, there are a lot of plans aimed at expanding the association to Asian countries. This implies that David Shoemaker is a visionary leader of the organization. For example, it is stated that the chief operations officer is pondering on whether to erect the association’s offices in Shanghai or Beijing. These two cities are economically viable. Hence, their residents will afford to buy tickets to attend tennis sports events across either city. In consequence, a multitude will be interested in associating with tennis as a game. When Shoemaker contemplated establishing a branch of this association, he was simply dreaming to have the association be a hit in the world. What else does an association require if not this kind of astounding management?
Positivity associated with the Women’s Tennis Association is the fact that the association has managed to offer a stiff competition to the Association of Tennis Professionals. Initially, the ATP was mandated to cater for all genders as far as tennis was concerned. Unfortunately, this association gave little attention to women gender. The good news is that the Women’s Tennis Association salvaged the image of women within the tennis domain. For instance, it has raised famous female tennis icons such as Sharapova and the two Williams sisters. These are just but a few members who have immensely benefited from this association. Today, the Women’s Tennis Association has reached the heights of the Association of Tennis Professionals.
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It is factual that non-profit organizations do find it hard to execute their policies. In fact, a number of them do fail due to inadequate funds (Rowe & Dato-on, 2013). On the contrary, the Women’s Tennis Association has gone against all the odds to overcome most challenges that cripple non-profit organizations. For instance, this association has attracted much sponsorship from various corporate bodies such as Ericson among others. Apart from corporate sponsorships, this association has managed to raise revenue through advertisers and tournaments. The major tournaments that have financially uplifted this association include the Australian Open, The Madrid Open, The US Open, and the Wimbledon. On the general scale, WTA has successfully organized more than 56 mega tournaments across the world. Such tournaments did not only garner funds for the association but also put the association in the limelight. Such achievements are definitely positive to the association.
For any organization to cause the management contemplate opening a new branch, there must be something good going on within the organization. Thus, the fact that Shoemaker wants to open the association branches in Beijing or Shanghai is an overt indicator that the organization is soaring high.
What Is Going "Wrong" in This Organization?
Although there are positives, it is categorical that the association is facing some challenges. Among the challenges is the pull out of tennis icons from the association tournaments. It has been stated that there have been a number of tournaments which star tennis players such as Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams have avoided. This has served a blow to the organization since these icons are the major centers of attraction in any tournament. As a result, their occasional absence in tournaments has led to a drop in fans base. Whenever these aces miss out the tournament, there is a low turnout of spectators. The association gets more funds from the television exhibitions of its games and tournaments. However, there is a worrying trend where people are no longer watching tennis, especially when the best tennis players miss out the tourney. This translates to low income to the association. In essence, the drop in income generation has forces Shoemaker to seek a solution.
The COO is finding it difficult to set branches of the association in China. This is ascribed to the stringent rules of the Chinese government with regard to the introduction of the association to China. Language barrier is another factor. It may become an extra burden whereby association members will be required to learn Chinese language in order to promulgate the sport in China. Other option that the COO prefers is establishing the association offices in Japan. However, the challenge of language barrier exists.
In his plans, the COO of the association supposes that the association may not be allowed to establish offices in either Beijing or Shanghai. In case the prospect is true, the effort to popularize this game could be hampered since there are few people associated with tennis outside the two Chinese cities.
Recommendations
To avert the challenge of financial depreciation, the COO should make a deal with the great tennis players such as Sharapova and the Williams sisters (Seidner, Zietlow, & Hankin, 2007). This deal should be contractual in order to avoid cases where these stars indiscriminately skip tournaments. By so doing, the fan base will automatically grow. This will increase the television advertisements and purchase of tournament tickets. Ultimately, the association will rake in endless dimes from the sport.
With regard to establishment of the association branch in China, the management of the association should be ready to abide the Chinese government instructions regarding the establishment of branches in Beijing or Shanghai. The management should start from any city that the Chinese government will offer. If Shoemaker is not happy with whichever city the Chinese government will offer, he should ask for a better deal. In case the deal fails, the only option is to start low. Provided that the association sticks to its course, there is no doubt that many Chinese people will get affiliated with tennis as well as the Women’s Tennis Association.
Lastly, the issue of language barrier should not barred the association from forging ahead with its plans. The association can employ language translators to help in spreading its word across Asia countries. Alternatively, they can employ Chinese or Japanese speakers in offices located in non-English speaking nations.
