The Kellogg School of Management has committed to a two-year Olympic Sport Leadership Certification program with the U.S. Olympic Committee, the school announced in a press release March 11. The Center for Nonprofit Management at Kellogg will be in charge of teaching management and leadership to 29 executives from the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) and various national governing bodies, including USA Swimming, USA Triathlon, USA Wrestling and US Speedskating.
The bulk of the curriculum will comprise general management with a specific focus on critical areas affecting nonprofits, including fundraising, marketing, board governance, finance, strategy and performance measurement, said Liz Livingston Howard, the academic director of the program and associate director of the Center for Nonprofit Management. Kellogg faculty will teach various installments of the program in Chicago and at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., which is part of the Olympic University, USOC’s training arm.
In looking to create a training program for the leadership of USOC and the National Governing Bodies, the Olympic University selected Kellogg among a couple of other institutions. According to Howard, it chose Kellogg for “a number of reasons”, including the school’s long history of teaching general management to executives and its ability to customize the program to specifically meet the needs of the individual participants, as well as the Center for Nonprofit Management’s expertise in providing executive education to nonprofit leaders.
“It is a tremendous opportunity for us as a school to work with an outstanding institution like USOC and to provide access to education that many of these leaders would not have if they were not able to participate,” Howard said, “Most of these people are not going to take the time out to come and get an MBA in person at Kellogg.”
The goal of the new program is to help the executives be more effective as leaders by providing them with Kellogg’s research in understanding and managing generations, as well as marketing theory, Howard explained. The Kellogg program has been specifically designed to address trends that have ramifications for nonprofit organizations, such as the increased competition for resources and what Howard referred to as “nanosecond” culture. The term designates the contemporary age in which the unprecedented dynamics of change in society, such as the role of the Internet, have a direct impact on the way organizations manage themselves, lead their people and deliver value to their customers.
“As leaders of organizations we need to understand not only the competitive sources that are operating within our own industry, but we also have to understand that the generation of customers has changed dramatically,” said Howard, who helped to design the program in partnership with USOC personnel, the participants, and Kellogg’s faculty.
This is the first time Kellogg has partnered with the U.S. Olympic Committee, even though the school has sent graduates to be fellows and employees of USOC. Kellogg also welcomed Jim Scherr, CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee and a Kellogg alumnus, as speaker last fall.