My attention has been drawn to your excellent new era medium and in particular to your articles on the upcoming elections at the Barbados Olympic Association. As you correctly indicate, I am a candidate for the position of President, as is Mr. Steve Stoute who has held that post for the past 16 years.
I wanted to take the opportunity to explain that mine is not at all a negative campaign against the incumbent. Indeed I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for Mr. Stoute – who has contributed a large part of his adult life to the service of sport.
My interest is in moving local sport to the point where it can realize its true potential as a National Developmental Tool, and where the unquestionable talents of our youth can be harnessed for their own personal benefit, and for the national good. All the basic requirements are in place for sport to be a major success story in Barbados.
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The talent is outstanding and abundant
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The climate is near perfect
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The opportunities are unprecedented
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The resources are there for the taking
What is lacking is the leadership vision and management skills that are necessary in order to convert these basic assets into a successful high-performance sport industry. A casual glance at any successful sporting jurisdiction will show that the application of high level management skills is the most critical factor for success.
No national organization can seriously expect to be competitive at the international level without a well thought out Strategic Plan; without a Long Term Development program for coaches, athletes and officials; and without a structured program for infrastructural development. Unless the kind of leadership is put into place that can understand, apply and implement such programs, all the best intentions in the world will come to naught.
It has become very clear to me that while the incumbent is well-intentioned and committed, his skills which would have suited the organization back in the 1980s and 1990s, are no longer able to cope with the complexities of modern organizational management. There is an urgent organizational need for change at the leadership level.
I have been fortunate to benefit from the highest possible level of modern Sport Management training through the BOA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This training has prepared me with the kind of management skills needed by modern sport organizations. My candidature in this election therefore gives our membership the option to make choices about the kind of future that they wish to have for the organization.
My own position is that the leadership of a national organization such as the BOA is not a marathon event, but is more of a relay, where fresh legs are employed at stages in the race in order to accelerate the organization forward to greater success.
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