TiE-ISB Connect 2006 - Sports and Fitness Track Summary

Growth of Sports in India was one of the main tracks covered during the three day Tie-ISB Connect meet. An eminent panel of guests addressed a number of delegates from various organizations as well as the ISB student body. Pullela Gopichand, the former All England Badminton Champion, delivered the key note address. He painted a bright picture for the future of sporting activity in the country and said that “Sports in India has come of age.”  He emphasized a need for better infrastructural facilities so that our country can produce world class players. According to him, health and fitness are moving up the priority list of the population just the way infrastructure is becoming a focus area for the government. He said that this change is coming about because Indians have largely had a very sedentary lifestyle and health problems are pushing people to become physically active. Also, people are realizing that one can get involved in sports for excellence or for fun and recreation. Moreover, given the work pressures, sports can be used as a stress reliever.    

Pullela was happy with the fact that more and more parents are willing to spend money to groom their children in various sporting activities. He strongly emphasized the need for a school with sporting excellence as well as academic excellence so that children would have an opportunity to experience the best of both worlds. This would give them the opportunity to identify their strengths and accordingly pursue careers.

After hearing the views of a sportsperson, it was time to listen to a business perspective from Anirban Das Blah, co-founder and Vice-President of Globosport. He manages leading Indian players in tennis, badminton, squash and cricket. He advocated three key strategies to achieve dominance in a given sport. The strategies being world class action closer home, emergence of an icon and media overdrive. He emphasized the need for a better understanding of sports management and various market opportunities.  He said sports management in India currently means cricket management. There is a need for focusing on other sports and he suggested ways and means of doing the same. He said that sports should be build in a way that transcends the sports page of a newspaper and becomes a part of people’s lives just the way cricket has in our country.

He got strong support from Ashok Ahuja, Head of Department, Sports medicine at NIS. In fact, he took the discussion forward by identifying various business opportunities for the country in the field of sports. He highlighted the fact that most of the sports equipments in India are imported from various countries. Ashok strongly urged young entrepreneurs to take a leap forward and develop capabilities for equipment like Electrotherapy machines, microwave diathermy, motion analyzers, etc.  

Dheeraj Koneru, MD of Latitudes Pro, brought a totally different perspective to the discussion by highlighting the key advancements and opportunities in fitness and healthcare. According to him, “high quality service” and “tangible results” were the secret behind competitive advantage in the business of health and fitness. He emphasized that weight loss is an emotional topic for most people and should be dealt with care and sensitivity. He also underlined that execution was more important than innovation in the field of fitness.

The last speaker for the day was Rajbir Rai, a student of law and an entrepreneur with the experience of running a shopping mall and restaurants in the US. He has also worked as an investor advisor to a mega-sports brand. He is currently helping set up India’s largest sport shoe manufacturing plant at Hyderabad. He was very optimistic about the opportunities in sports manufacturing industry in India.

The talk was followed by a Q & A session where Anil Singh, M.D. Pro cam International energized the crowd by his experiences and un-conventional ideas. The audience was delighted and the whole session was an insightful and a learning experience.