Opinion China - PAFC’s 2nd Five-Year Plan 2018-2023

[Lockhart Road]

“Port Adelaide’s Shanghai backer adds another five years to the Power’s ‘China Strategy’”

Eight plus One Lucky Rules

How to Ensure that PAFC in 2018-2023 Plucks All the Ripe Fruit from the China Tree, leaving behind only leaves and twigs. The Time to Give has now become the Time to Receive.

1. Partners and Sponsors - Target large entities, do not give any priority to chasing small ones. Identify these large targets in advance, study them, find the way in, and go for them. Do not wait for anything, especially anything small, to fall in our lap
2. Sports Diplomacy - Use it as a global marketing theme. For implementation outsource to a media operation based in Hong Kong that has global reach and feel. Upgrade and sophisticate the Media Department to work with the Hong Kong marketing operation.
3. Territory Focus - Do not spread thin across China just because it’s out there. Apply the 80:20 rule. Focus on a limited number of lucrative business centres and political centres. Ignore outposts such as Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing, etc.
4. Structure and Personnel - Recruit urgently two senior people with a real not manufactured, hands-on China track record; one should be ethnic Chinese and be seated in the currently empty seat on the board, the other should be taken on or commissioned to find the ethnic Chinese board member then continue to serve the Club by working hand in glove with this new director. Destroy completely the concept held in board rooms and corporations on the eastern seaboard that ‘Port Adelaide are not really serious about China, they are only pretending: look at their board’ which has not changed in any meaningful China-centric fashion since first formed in 2012, before the China expedition even took its first step.
5. International memberships (including a premium ‘executive’ international membership aimed at China) and international marketing of merchandise via e-commerce - Set these up urgently as add-on revenue streams.
6. Reach out, far and wide - Seek the attention of and HEED the advice of dedicated PAFC people across the world who know, based on their real and long experience, more about the subject than anyone at the Club does ... who do not charge for their services but seek reimbursement only in the form of respect.
7. The CEO - He should concentrate on the task of being CEO, not take on every ephemeral task that presents itself just because he feels himself to be the only one capable of successfully completing said ephemeral task.
8. China 2018-2023 Strategy Committee - Should be set up consisting of the CEO, one or two board members (Trevor Thiele plus new director as per above), one or two general managers, at least two dedicated PAFC advisors with China experience based in Hong Kong and/or Shanghai. Conference calls and meetings to be held regularly on- and off-season, especially when a project demands. Reports to be authentic, sent regularly and privately to PAFC members as a marketing tool with which to grow their numbers.

8+1. Banish all timidity forever.

 

[Grave Danger]

Eight plus One Lucky Rules

How to Ensure that PAFC in 2018-2023 Plucks All the Ripe Fruit from the China Tree, leaving behind only leaves and twigs. The Time to Give has now become the Time to Receive.

1. Partners and Sponsors - Target large entities, do not give any priority to chasing small ones. Identify these large targets in advance, study them, find the way in, and go for them. Do not wait for anything, especially anything small, to fall in our lap
2. Sports Diplomacy - Use it as a global marketing theme. For implementation outsource to a media operation based in Hong Kong that has global reach and feel. Upgrade and sophisticate the Media Department to work with the Hong Kong marketing operation.
3. Territory Focus - Do not spread thin across China just because it’s out there. Apply the 80:20 rule. Focus on a limited number of lucrative business centres and political centres. Ignore outposts such as Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing, etc.
4. Structure and Personnel - Recruit urgently two senior people with a real not manufactured, hands-on China track record; one should be ethnic Chinese and be seated in the currently empty seat on the board, the other should be taken on or commissioned to find the ethnic Chinese board member then continue to serve the Club by working hand in glove with this new director. Destroy completely the concept held in board rooms and corporations on the eastern seaboard that ‘Port Adelaide are not really serious about China, they are only pretending: look at their board’ which has not changed in any meaningful China-centric fashion since first formed in 2012, before the China expedition even took its first step.
5. International memberships (including a premium ‘executive’ international membership aimed at China) and international marketing of merchandise via e-commerce - Set these up urgently as add-on revenue streams.
6. Reach out, far and wide - Seek the attention of and HEED the advice of dedicated PAFC people across the world who know, based on their real and long experience, more about the subject than anyone at the Club does ... who do not charge for their services but seek reimbursement only in the form of respect.
7. The CEO - He should concentrate on the task of being CEO, not take on every ephemeral task that presents itself just because he feels himself to be the only one capable of successfully completing said ephemeral task.
8. China 2018-2023 Strategy Committee - Should be set up consisting of the CEO, one or two board members (Trevor Thiele plus new director as per above), one or two general managers, at least two dedicated PAFC advisors with China experience based in Hong Kong and/or Shanghai. Conference calls and meetings to be held regularly on- and off-season, especially when a project demands. Reports to be authentic, sent regularly and privately to PAFC members as a marketing tool with which to grow their numbers.

8+1. Banish all timidity forever.

LR is to PAFC as PAFC is to the AFL

 

[VineValerian]

Eight plus One Lucky Rules

8+1. Banish all timidity forever.

FAN-BLOODY-TASTIC

 

[Amarula]

Eight plus One Lucky Rules

...
8+1. Banish all timidity forever.

Brilliant.
Requires the club to see China as integral to the club's identity, rather than an added extra.
Which seems to be the direction in which things are moving.

 

[OneGreatClub]

Eight plus One Lucky Rules

How to Ensure that PAFC in 2018-2023 Plucks All the Ripe Fruit from the China Tree, leaving behind only leaves and twigs. The Time to Give has now become the Time to Receive.

1. Partners and Sponsors - Target large entities, do not give any priority to chasing small ones. Identify these large targets in advance, study them, find the way in, and go for them. Do not wait for anything, especially anything small, to fall in our lap
2. Sports Diplomacy - Use it as a global marketing theme. For implementation outsource to a media operation based in Hong Kong that has global reach and feel. Upgrade and sophisticate the Media Department to work with the Hong Kong marketing operation.
3. Territory Focus - Do not spread thin across China just because it’s out there. Apply the 80:20 rule. Focus on a limited number of lucrative business centres and political centres. Ignore outposts such as Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing, etc.
4. Structure and Personnel - Recruit urgently two senior people with a real not manufactured, hands-on China track record; one should be ethnic Chinese and be seated in the currently empty seat on the board, the other should be taken on or commissioned to find the ethnic Chinese board member then continue to serve the Club by working hand in glove with this new director. Destroy completely the concept held in board rooms and corporations on the eastern seaboard that ‘Port Adelaide are not really serious about China, they are only pretending: look at their board’ which has not changed in any meaningful China-centric fashion since first formed in 2012, before the China expedition even took its first step.
5. International memberships (including a premium ‘executive’ international membership aimed at China) and international marketing of merchandise via e-commerce - Set these up urgently as add-on revenue streams.
6. Reach out, far and wide - Seek the attention of and HEED the advice of dedicated PAFC people across the world who know, based on their real and long experience, more about the subject than anyone at the Club does ... who do not charge for their services but seek reimbursement only in the form of respect.
7. The CEO - He should concentrate on the task of being CEO, not take on every ephemeral task that presents itself just because he feels himself to be the only one capable of successfully completing said ephemeral task.
8. China 2018-2023 Strategy Committee - Should be set up consisting of the CEO, one or two board members (Trevor Thiele plus new director as per above), one or two general managers, at least two dedicated PAFC advisors with China experience based in Hong Kong and/or Shanghai. Conference calls and meetings to be held regularly on- and off-season, especially when a project demands. Reports to be authentic, sent regularly and privately to PAFC members as a marketing tool with which to grow their numbers.

8+1. Banish all timidity forever.

Wow.

 

[Macca19]

Looks good LR. Have you put any of these suggestions to the club?

 

[Lockhart Road]

Looks good LR. Have you put any of these suggestions to the club?

All of them, mate, at one time or other, more than once, some in writing, some during discussion. Some quite forcibly. The Club doesn’t necessarily like receiving advice. I have put all these minimum ‘rules’ together in one place to share them with you and others, and so that I and you can refer back to the OP at any time during the next five years and check what is happening against what should be happening.

 

[Byrons Firen]

Proud of you LR.
On behalf of all true believers we hope the club listens AND does.
The last thing we need is to be pioneering heavy lifting naive chumps, out of sight under a table set with fine china
collecting crumbs and getting kicked while doing so.

 

[Lockhart Road]

Proud of you LR.
On behalf of all true believers we hope the club listens AND does.
The last thing we need is to be pioneering heavy lifting naive chumps, out of sight under a table set with fine china
collecting crumbs and getting kicked while doing so.

Thanks mate. I have no intention of going away any time soon, and intend to be heard one way or another whilst I am still here.

 

[Lockhart Road]

Brilliant.
Requires the club to see China as integral to the club's identity, rather than an added extra.
Which seems to be the direction in which things are moving.

Succinctly put and right on target. Our own CEO has recently, upon the signing up of Mr Gui and Shanghai CRED for the next five years, described what we are doing as ‘transformational’. I urge him to prove it.

 

[Interstater]

This thread concerns me.
It resembles something that should be commercial in confidence but has been made public due to inactivity.

 

[GremioPower]

Do we have a Mandarin version of our website?

 

[Byrons Firen]

This thread concerns me.
It resembles something that should be commercial in confidence but has been made public due to inactivity.

Yeah that crossed my mind too but then again the work we have done can't be undone only wasted.
We need to be making coin even if the AFL were to phase our footy team aside. 8+1 seems about being a conduit/facilitator
as well as a gate keeper collecting entry money and a slice of as many pies as possible.

As KT said on aa the other day, a game under lights, a Shanghai Nights event is on his radar.
Don't drop the ball Port.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Having been in a lengthy discussion with Full Credit today and his doubts about what we are doing, in the main China thread, Pt 8 re this final bit - Reports to be authentic, sent regularly and privately to PAFC members as a marketing tool with which to grow their numbers - hits home hard at the moment for me.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

This thread concerns me.
It resembles something that should be commercial in confidence but has been made public due to inactivity.

None of the 8 points are trade secrets. I dont think any other club is going to steal them and use them. They are all good commonsense aspirations and strategies.

 

[Janus]

Here's what I would do to answer all the points, if I was running PAFC:

1. Start inviting Chinese and China-interested large corporations to games at the clubs expense, and really pour honey in their ears by putting on a show. Do a deal with Cathay for discounted first class tickets and fly them in to see a match and tour the state. A full five star experience. We need to get out of this mentality that we are some sort of struggling club that is lucky to get 60k members - we aren't that club anymore and haven't been for 5 years. If it means running a loss for the year, run a loss...it will be worth it.

2. Establish permanent links with AusTrade, DFAT, AustCham Shanghai and other relevant trade and tourist bodies in China and Australia...using the relevant knowledge to work with individual sports clubs across the globe to foster their own work in this space...for a fee of course.

3. Focus on three key areas - Hong Kong, Shanghai for commercial interests and Beijing for political/government interests. Other areas should only be looked at with the backing of sponsorship from those regions to facilitate the necessary personnel and infrastructure to service them.

4. Change the PAFC constitution to allow this to take place. Would require the board to accept a new way of thinking and really dedicate themselves to expansion in China, but its impossible to do the first three points with any real success without this change. As I’ve said before, Craig Aldous would be perfect IMO as the advisor due to his portion with AustCham, and Trevor Thiele used to work with Elders as COO (who Craig works for). Aldous has worked in China for over 10 years growing Elders and has come across many of the pitfalls mentioned. When I attended the first business conference in Shanghai it was his advice that impressed me the most, because he told it like it was.

5. A new membership category - 888 - which surprisingly costs $888 a year and gives access to confidential content and reports from the China Strategy committee spoken about in point 8 (regular members get a watered down version that isn’t confidential). Restricted to 110 members, it allows access to any games in Shanghai in the VIP facility as well as one match at AO in an enclosed corporate box with 9 other 888 members, along with a table at the Before the Bounce function. It also offers a personal tour of the clubs facilities by Russell Ebert (with interpreter if required) and access to the after match with the players.

6. Listen to Lockhart Road, Mr. Gui and all other relevant parties who have had experience in doing business in China in order to grow the foothold of PAFC while growing the game.

7. Ties into point 4 - the two special appointees to the board should be capable of handling the tasks that the CEO is handling at the moment. It definitely makes us look small time if KT is doing everything and not delegating menial tasks to someone else. It’s Chief Executive Officer, not Only Execuitve Officer - he should only be involved when negotiations have progressed to a point where the paperwork is to be signed.

8. Ties into 6 really

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

4. Change the PAFC constitution to allow this to take place. Would require the board to accept a new way of thinking and really dedicate themselves to expansion in China, but its impossible to do the first three points with any real success without this change. As I’ve said before, Craig Aldous would be perfect IMO as the advisor due to his portion with AustCham, and Trevor Thiele used to work with Elders as COO (who Craig works for). Aldous has worked in China for over 10 years growing Elders and has come across many of the pitfalls mentioned. When I attended the first business conference in Shanghai it was his advice that impressed me the most, because he told it like it was.

He was great in that Landline special on China in February 2017 and I posted info about and this video of him in the main China thread. Did the hard yards for a decade before seeing a profit. He and Mr Gui can talk plenty about cattle and land in both countries.

It took Elders 11 years before they turned a profit in China. Look at those prices of Aussie beef - $540 a kilo, and $424 per steak at this only Aussie beef high end restaurant in Shanghai. Read more about Craig Aldous' advise for Aussies doing business in China at
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-...dous-advises-producers-on-china-trade/8191404

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Aldous left Elders earlier this year and has taken a position with Treasury Wines in Shanghai, so he still has lots of links to SA.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-aldous-95a66319/
He joined Treasury Wine Estates in early 2018 as Commercial Director for North Asia - a region that includes Greater China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam.

 

[Lockhart Road]

Here's what I would do to answer all the points, if I was running PAFC:

1. Start inviting Chinese and China-interested large corporations to games at the clubs expense, and really pour honey in their ears by putting on a show. Do a deal with Cathay for discounted first class tickets and fly them in to see a match and tour the state. A full five star experience. We need to get out of this mentality that we are some sort of struggling club that is lucky to get 60k members - we aren't that club anymore and haven't been for 5 years. If it means running a loss for the year, run a loss...it will be worth it.

2. Establish permanent links with AusTrade, DFAT, AustCham Shanghai and other relevant trade and tourist bodies in China and Australia...using the relevant knowledge to work with individual sports clubs across the globe to foster their own work in this space...for a fee of course.

3. Focus on three key areas - Hong Kong, Shanghai for commercial interests and Beijing for political/government interests. Other areas should only be looked at with the backing of sponsorship from those regions to facilitate the necessary personnel and infrastructure to service them.

4. Change the PAFC constitution to allow this to take place. Would require the board to accept a new way of thinking and really dedicate themselves to expansion in China, but its impossible to do the first three points with any real success without this change. As I’ve said before, Craig Aldous would be perfect IMO as the advisor due to his portion with AustCham, and Trevor Thiele used to work with Elders as COO (who Craig works for). Aldous has worked in China for over 10 years growing Elders and has come across many of the pitfalls mentioned. When I attended the first business conference in Shanghai it was his advice that impressed me the most, because he told it like it was.

5. A new membership category - 888 - which surprisingly costs $888 a year and gives access to confidential content and reports from the China Strategy committee spoken about in point 8 (regular members get a watered down version that isn’t confidential). Restricted to 110 members, it allows access to any games in Shanghai in the VIP facility as well as one match at AO in an enclosed corporate box with 9 other 888 members, along with a table at the Before the Bounce function. It also offers a personal tour of the clubs facilities by Russell Ebert (with interpreter if required) and access to the after match with the players.

6. Listen to Lockhart Road, Mr. Gui and all other relevant parties who have had experience in doing business in China in order to grow the foothold of PAFC while growing the game.

7. Ties into point 4 - the two special appointees to the board should be capable of handling the tasks that the CEO is handling at the moment. It definitely makes us look small time if KT is doing everything and not delegating menial tasks to someone else. It’s Chief Executive Officer, not Only Execuitve Officer - he should only be involved when negotiations have progressed to a point where the paperwork is to be signed.

8. Ties into 6 really

I like your point 5.
An 888 Membership category could be tied into point 1.
The Club does this stuff very well.
888 membership should require special qualifications: 1. China knowledge and experience or immediate intention to gain; 2. Not necessarily resident in Oz (premium executive internationl member); 3. Invitations issued to members of high-powered visiting delegations per Janus point 1.;
Patrons: SA Governor, SA Premier, New Chinese Consul General for SA, Premier Li Keqiang, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, China’s senior Trade Minister, etc etc
The objective here being to promote the state of SA via PAFC not the rest of Australia. Thus invites to our PM, Foreign Minister and Federal Trade & Tourism Minister would only be at the behest of our existing patrons.

Imagine:
INTERNATIONAL NEWSFLASH
Long-delayed Beijng-Canberra Summit to discuss trade, tourism, joint development projects and investment to be staged at newly developed Port Club at Alberton Oval - home of Port Adelaide Football Club who are celebrating their 150th anniversary this year.
Malcolm Turnbull, Julie Bishop and Steve Ciobo will attend having been invited personally by prestigeous Club 888 members: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Allan Zeman and Lindsay Fox.

 

[El Zorro]

I think many of the individuals in your target audience for the club 888 membership would find the name a bit corny and/or patronising.

 

[Lockhart Road]

I think many of the individuals in your target audience for the club 888 membership would find the name a bit corny and/or patronising.

Disagree, and have no idea why you would think that.

Target 2023: 888 members @ $888 each = $788,544 - nothing corny or negative about that.

By May 2023 the Club is to be completely debt free and awash with Drop Dead Money.
Drop Dead Money has been acquired when you have enough of it to tell the world: “Drop Dead.”

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Sign ex ANZ CEO Mike Smith up to the 888 club.

 

[Lockhart Road]

Call out the instigators
Because there's something in the air
We've got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution's here, and you know it's right…

 

[El Zorro]

Disagree, and have no idea why you would think that.

Target 2023: 888 members @ $888 each = $788,544 - nothing corny or negative about that.

By May 2023 the Club is to be completely debt free and awash with Drop Dead Money.
Drop Dead Money has been acquired when you have enough of it to tell the world: “Drop Dead.”

The "888" part. I believe many Chinese people are trying to get away from their supersticious past. Especially the rich, progressive type. But you knows this better than me.

 

[Janus]

I think many of the individuals in your target audience for the club 888 membership would find the name a bit corny and/or patronising.

You wouldn’t call it Club 888. It wouldn’t even have a name in order to preserve the mystique and prestige - that’s just a nickname based on how much it costs to join. And you wouldn’t get a membership card or a pack, just a formal letter of acceptance, because if you’re attending a match with that level of membership, the club would have a personal liaison that would meet you and guide you to where you needed to go. And that liaison would have a guest list.

It’d be like the American Express Centurion card. Don’t leave home without it.