"Change or Die" and change won
. . .

Let’s look at a solid example: rugby league clubs – in fact, all sporting organisations – stand or fall on how they embrace their audiences. The Warriors’ Glenn Critchley, General Manager, Commercial, takes up the story: “What we used to be was a club where, after home games, the players would be put in front of the fans."

“What you’d see would be the fans, sometimes a bit awkward at being suddenly in front of their idols. They’d be keen to see Roger Tuivasa-Sheck or Tohu Harris or whoever, but they would suddenly be confronted with their stars and it could be confronting for them.”

When Covid-19 occurred, the team was re-routed, based in Australia, so there was no direct contact with fans. But digital ways of connection were available – and Glenn Harris says that development spurred the Warriors to investigate new ways of doing things and new ways to deliver value.

“The whole sporting landscape has changed [because of Covid-19],” he says. “Previously, we had what I would call a stadium experience. It was voyeuristic, if you like – a bit like going to the movies or going to a show. You were there and things were happening in front of you, but it was a mostly one-way conversation.”

Instead, the club, with the help of Vodafone, bridged the transtasman gap by instituting player Zoom or Teams calls with small groups of fans – about five or six at a time.

“What we’ve seen,” says Harris, “is that this is a much better one-on-one engagement for fans. There’s still a bit of hesitation at the beginning but then they realise their Vodafone Warriors heroes are just people working through the same challenges of a new and uncertain Covid world. It creates a common interest and conversation comes easily.

Nor is this just an anecdotal achievement. The enhanced and increased use of the Warriors’ social channels saw engagement rise by 20 per cent last year. This year, compared to the same period last year, it’s up by 40 per cent.

The Warriors play in front of live crowds now – but haven’t been able to at Mt Smart. There is some talk of the transtasman bubble enabling that but the club is still taking a cautious view of that, as any re-application of lockdown and/or halting the bubble would be potentially damaging.

Of course, the Warriors cannot just be about player-fan interaction, important though that is. Covid-19 split the club into two geographic entities – New Zealand and Australia. The office staff has also been through a metamorphosis which, in its own way, has been just as significant as the players’.

“We’ve been through a fundamental transformation in terms of how we interact with people and how we present our shop window,” says Harris.

“When it comes to commercial engagement,” says Critchley, “We have had to change to make sure we are delivering value to our sponsors, our partners and our owners – and again the answer has been digital, ensuring we are digitally focused.”

They learned, he says, to be better at connecting bits of the business from all over the world and to use the digital tools available to build the capability of their staff. It’s now commonplace to have a Microsoft Teams session, with football, high performance, marketing, communications, membership, commercial, executive, and even the club  owners, all on one call, all hearing information, and the same information, at the same time.

“It also allows us the flexibility to define working environments based on our employees’ needs – so we are able to figure out the right level of productivity and efficiency that works around their life as well.

Office life has not been forsaken. The whole Auckland team meets on Mondays but other days are a mixture of work-from-office and working free-range – whether that be at home or elsewhere: “All you need is a laptop and a reliable internet connection,” says Critchley, “and we find we can communicate, share files and collaborate with our colleagues even faster, at speed and in real time.

“We have been so lucky to have been involved with Vodafone for the past 23 years,” he says. “I can’t overstate the importance of having them with us to help us make this change. That integration and their whole suite of Free Range Work products has just been vital for us.”

It ranges across mobility and collaboration tools, including secure cloud-based applications such as email, storage and productivity apps, in addition to their range of mobile phone plans. Critchley says it’s different for different people – he likes being in the office; in some cases, team members are in the office only once in a few weeks.

That’s the new world we are in, he says, with staff trusted to do their jobs in new ways and with other new digital tools, such as an online tool for managing schedules, player movements and more

“It’s about enabling people to deliver what they need to deliver, when, where, and how they need to do it. That’s the world we now live in, and you can get the best out of people. You don’t necessarily need a physical office. With the right tools, people are always reachable.”