The 2024, 2026 and 2028 Olympic Games host city crisis solved in a stroke

In my previous blog, I argued that the IOC needed to adopt a totally different approach to selecting host cities for the Olympic Games. My key recommendations were, first, to put an end to the current open bidding system. Instead, the IOC should proactively approach potential host countries/cities and negotiate directly with them. Second, no taxpayers’ dollars should be spent on hosting any...

A new bidding strategy for the Olympic Games

In my previous blog, I said that the lack of a long-term strategy and vision has blinkered the IOC in its ability to anticipate the current dearth of viable host cities for the Olympic Games. We should have seen this crisis looming some 10 years ago… It is not just an issue around the quantity of potential host cities, but also of the quality of these candidates. Although the IOC would not admit...

Resolving the Olympic host city crisis with professional long-term marketing

Just after I graduated, in 1964, I worked for the marketing departments of a number of US food companies, where I soon learnt that “good marketing” had everything to do with (long-term) anticipation. As a Brand Manager, I was responsible for marketing brands or products and I was tasked with improving both sales and profitability year-on-year. I needed to develop plans for the long term (more...