Play To Win – Lessons From Sport In The Business School Classroom

“It will no longer be accepted,” the former president of the French Tennis Federation, Bernard Giudicelli told reporters in 2018. He was speaking about the black catsuit worn by female tennis legend Serena Williams at that year’s French Open grand slam, to promote her new clothing line.

The situation was quickly smoothed over, with Serena saying “Everything’s fine, guys.” At the US Open a few months later, she was not so easily deterred from her new venture. The following year, she was appointed to the board of directors of online fashion marketplace, Poshmark.

Since leaving the tennis circuit she has devoted time to being a venture capitalist, raising $111 million for Serena Ventures, which with the motto ‘Play to Win’ has invested in over 60 start-ups. One of the greatest tennis players of all time, ranked world #1 for 319 weeks in her career, is now the #4 female seed investor.

Williams is just one of many international sports stars to pursue a successful secondary career in business, proving that skills learned on the court are just as applicable in the boardroom.

As former WWE wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who has since launched a successful tequila brand, alarm clock app, and YouTube channel in addition to breaking big in Hollywood, summed it up, “Just point yourself to the top and go.”

There is a long list of athletes that have headed to business school to prepare for the next chapter of their careers. Shaquille O’Neal completed his MBA while still playing in the NBA, while Maria Sharapova headed to Harvard Business School for a two-week course during her suspension by the International Tennis Federation. The former Belgium and Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany earned a distinction for his final project during his MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School, while French rugby internationals Sébastien Chabal and Frédéric Michalak headed to emlyon business school which offers a program for elite athletes.

As we head into a summer of sport, from Wimbledon and the Women’s World Cup to The Ashes and the Ryder Cup, it’s a perfect opportunity to shine a light on the young athletes at business school, who showcase the compatibility of business studies with competitive sports.

“All I’ve ever known is competition,” says Ryan Baird, professional rugby player and student on the Bachelor’s in Computer Science and Business at Trinity Business School. Growing up with two younger brothers, he remembers weekends packed with sports activities, including the annual Baird Cup Tennis Trophy.

“My parents were big believers in playing many sports. They believed it provides a well-rounded skill set: hand-eye coordination from GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) and golf, speed and acceleration from athletics, mental toughness from tennis, and the importance of being part of a team from GAA and rugby,” he adds.

Ryan’s Ireland national rugby union team coach, Paul O’Connell always tells him, “Under pressure, we are our habits.” So, when it comes to juggling his professional sports career with studies, planning forms a key part of his approach. He believes it comes down to prioritizing what is important to you. “Everyone has the same number of hours in the day; it’s all about how you use them,” he says.

He is aware that certain training days are so intense he will not have the mental capacity to study. So, he plans college work and meetings for recovery days when it is easier to focus. Though he is currently performing at the elite level, Ryan acknowledges it has been drilled into him that this will not last forever, hence why his academic studies are so important to him.

Trinity Business School has enabled Ryan to prepare for the future, providing him with the means to study and compete at the same time. Crucially, Ryan is able to spread the average annual workload over a two-year period. Slow-tracking his degree will be especially important if he is selected for the Rugby World Cup this year.

In entering the next phase of his career, Ryan hopes to use his degree to become the sort of leader who can set an example and lead others to reach their full potential too. His view of corporate workplaces is deeply influenced by his experiences on sports teams. He believes the culture and environment leaders create in work environments defines the team they are involved with.

“The greatest part of being a professional athlete is the person and athlete you become. Being involved in sports and recognising the interest people have in it has given me a great opportunity to meet some extraordinary individuals in the business world,” he says.

Read more of Ryan’s story here.

Amandine Chantal Henry is a defensive midfielder for Angel City FC and captained the France women’s national football team from 2017-2020. Her journey in football began as an amateur player at the age of five. Now, like Ryan, she is combining her professional sports career with studying a specialised executive programme at emlyon business school.

“Football has allowed me to grow as an athlete, but also as a woman through values such as respect, surpassing oneself, and a sense of sacrifice,” she says.

The Unlimited Players Major Program is run in partnership between emlyon and the UNFP (Union Nationale des Footballeurs Professionels), and is tailored to the unique profiles of footballers. Participants receive personalised support and learning freedom, allowing them to have access to both core programmes and their chosen specialisations, according to their expectations and individual needs.

UNFP finances her studies, and the programme’s flexibility gives Amandine access to special coaching if she wants it, and longer deadlines when she needs them. She also appreciates having numerous points of contact who help coordinate between the business school and athletes.

This arrangement helps Amandine manage her schedule between training sessions and lessons. “We have an online platform that allows us to catch up on our lessons, and we can also work at our own pace, even when we’re travelling.”

Amandine hopes studying at emlyon will open up job opportunities in the corporate world. She believes it gives her a solid grounding in different areas such as management, accounting, human resources, and more. Later on, she would like to work in sports management.

“I think it’s a real plus to have a dual project because it keeps your mind occupied if you need to, and allows you to take a step back from situations that are sometimes complicated to understand. But it also means you can plan ahead for a change of career,” she says.

Read more of Amandine’s story here.

Antoine Lecourtois’ father was a basketball player and this, combined with being especially tall for his age, naturally led him to pursuing his own career in the sport. Antoine started out at a small local club when he was 10 and worked his way up, accepting a place with a club in the Le Havre region which supported him in competing on a reduced training regime so that he could keep his hand in while at prep school.

As a 20-year-old, he now plays professionally for Rouen Métropole Basket while studying a Master’s in Management at NEOMA Business School.

“I’m a person who likes to be stimulated and not just sit around doing nothing, and the combination of physical and intellectual stimulation suits me perfectly,” Antoine says. “I’ve been playing basketball at a high level for four years now, so I’ve established a habit of precise organisation, rigor, and above all priority management”.

Now a postgraduate, he finds NEOMA’s flexibility and support a vital part of enabling him to prioritize both his sport and his studies, as well as gain some work/life balance.

As he explains, “I have training every day of the week and matches every weekend, with trips of two or three hours sometimes, so it is complicated for me to go back home for a weekend to see my family. NEOMA has put in place various arrangements to help me combine sport and study, including leniency for certain absences when I had important deadlines and follow-up opportunities on courses if I had any difficulties.”

Antoine plans to pursue a career in finance, having identified an internship as a financial auditor with KPMG as his next step. From January 2024 onwards, he acknowledges he will need to put his career as a top athlete on hold. However, he still intends to play basketball.

“High-level sports and the business world are two very similar entities. In my case, I learned a lot about myself, my adaptability at work, and especially my response to difficulties through sport,” he says. “Moreover, high-level sport has enabled me to develop qualities that are essential in the business world, such as teamwork, resistance to stress, and work ethic.”

Read more of Antoine’s story here.

At the end of March this year, Team Unique travelled from Finland to the US for the World Synchronized Skating Championships. Among the 19 elite athletes, who went on to win bronze medals, was Aino Äijö, currently in her first year on the Bachelor’s in Business programme at Aalto University School of Business.

Aino has been skating for 14 years, and attending competitions for as long as she can remember. Team Unique is Helsingfors Skridskoklubb’s Finish Championship senior team, and training is a serious commitment of around 25 hours per week. Factoring in travel times, this can increase to as much as 30 hours.

“Balancing academics and athletics requires personal discipline, effective planning, and flexibility. It is important to find a routine and an approach that works best for you while keeping your long-term goals in mind. At Aalto University School of Business, I’ve especially appreciated the possibility of being able to create your own study schedules for the busy parts of the athletic season,” says Aino.

Aalto University School of Business has been partnered with Helsinki Metropolitan Area sports academy Urhea since 2015. Urhea is officially approved by, and works in close cooperation with the elite sports unit of the Finnish Olympic Committee.

For Aino, the partnership has been essential in balancing her academic and athletic life. “During the first academic year, I have received valuable information about different possibilities to combine studies and sports. I’ve also appreciated having a contact person through Urhea, for example, in case I need to extend coursework deadlines,” she explains.

In the long run, she sees sports remaining a part of her life, but would be interested in finding and creating new opportunities in other fields in her future career – something which her bachelors programme at Aalto, and her major studies in September is helping to make a reality.

“Business and sports are both competitive environments and require a competitive mindset,” Anio says. “They have a lot in common psychologically.”

Read more of Aino’s story here.

Growing up, Katie Mullan had her eye on the Olympics. As a teenager, she played a lot of camogie, the national sport of her native Ireland, alongside hockey, before the latter became her primary focus. In 2010, she represented her country at the Youth Olympics in Singapore. She describes the journey since then as one “full of ups and downs”.

“The heartache of not qualifying for the Olympics in 2016 to the highs of winning a silver medal at the World Cup, not to mention a few injury struggles along the way,” she explains. However, like those before her, the positive mental attitude and resilience that sports has built into her, allowed her to learn from those experiences and work harder.

Since she was 15 years old, Katie has balanced performing academically and athletically, and is currently studying an MBA at Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin. Without the school’s support, including two scholarship programmes from Trinity MBA and Trinity Sport, studying for a full-time MBA at such a prestigious institution would not have been a possibility.

“I have three key principles to balancing my hockey and academia. The first is time management. I always know my training schedule in advance, so planning my study opportunities around it is key. Secondly, I have a fantastic support network, both in my hockey teammates and MBA peers. Lastly, I am a strong believer that there are many benefits to having both major commitments in my life,” she says.

Trinity provided Katie with an academic mentor to support her with managing schedule conflicts, access to world-class training facilities and coaching on campus, and additional learning opportunities from lecturers for periods when she has been away.

She looks forward to a future career that will integrate the skills she has learned from elite sports. In particular, the support that can come from working as part of a team is something that she believes will be vital for her future professional development.

“My sporting experience has given me the best opportunity to grow as a leader and someone who strives to get the best out of those around me. I hope to continue to develop both in my career. The network that the Trinity MBA has helped me create, along with the practical and theoretical learning, in all modules, has given me perspective and understanding of what I want my next career step to be.”

Read more of Katie’s story here.

While many would be excused for not seeing Chess as a sport, the mental agility and competitiveness of the game is certainly akin to the most high pressure sporting competitions. Benjamin Haldorsen credits his experiences as a competitive chess player with shaping his determination, discipline, and strategic thinking. He first took up the 64 squares at six years old, and has gone on to join Offerspill chess club, founded by former world champion and fellow Norwegian Magnus Carlsen.

Benjamin won the Norwegian Blitz Championship in 2018, and travelled to Kazakhstan in 2022 to participate in the World Rapid and Blitz Championship, where he faced formidable opponents from around the world. He’s also a student on the Bachelor’s in Economics and Business Administration at NHH Norwegian School of Economics.

As with any chess game, having a solid strategy and focusing on future moves, is a vital part of his success. “I’ve adopted a strategic approach to managing my busy timetable. Throughout the academic year, I split up my schedule, prioritising chess training and tournaments at the beginning of each semester. Conversely, during exam periods, I shift my focus primarily towards my studies, ensuring I have ample time for thorough preparation and academic success,” he says.

NHH has been instrumental in helping Benjamin juggle his studies with training. The school has granted him exemptions from attending certain classes in person, giving him more time to devote to developing his chess skills, and competing at an international level.

This hybrid lifestyle has also afforded Benjamin a unique networking opportunity. “Having a foot in the worlds of both business and sports has given me several exciting opportunities that have shaped my time at business school. One significant advantage is the opportunity to interact with successful business professionals through chess-related events,” he explains.

These encounters have given Benjamin a practical understanding of many of the concepts he learns about in class. In combination, he finds the worlds of sport and academia enrich each other, bridging the gap between theory and practice.

“Simultaneously, my studies in business provide a solid foundation and open doors to various career opportunities, enabling me to apply my analytical skills and business acumen in both the short and long-term. Currently, I am particularly interested in finance, but I remain open and flexible to adapt to potential opportunities that may arise.”

Read more of Benjamin’s story here.

Austin Beech now works as a consultant in global consulting firm Protiviti’s Los Angeles office. He looks back fondly on his time studying a Master’s in Management (Finance) at Durham University Business School. “I hope that my career can take me back overseas, as I enjoyed my time so much while I was in Durham, Belfast, and travelling Europe that I can’t wait to get back!” he says.

Basketball has been an important element in Austin’s life for as long as he can remember – as much a part of his daily routine as his schooling. Before he came to the British Isles, Austin, from the US, spent four years with a Division 2 team at Adelphi University in New York. In seeking to embark upon an MBA, it was the sports community he reached out to in helping him to find an institution that could support both his academic and sporting dreams.

“Initially, in my search for an opportunity to get into business school while being able to still participate in basketball, I was assisted by the Student Athlete Network, which put me in contact with top academic and sports universities in the UK, which is when I connected with Durham University,” Austin explains.

From there, he recalls Durham’s pro-active approach to helping him get settled. “Team Durham assisted me through the entire process of applying to the university, finding housing, and gaining access to facilities once arriving in Durham. Financially, Team Durham was able to offer a partial scholarship towards my Master’s programme while I was a member of Team Durham’s Men’s Basketball first team.”

During his MSc, Austin represented Durham University on the basketball court, and between submitting his dissertation and graduating, he played for the Belfast Star Basketball Club in the Ireland Men’s Super League 2021-2022 season.

Austin believes his time as a sportsperson greatly shaped his career after graduation. The attention to detail, teamwork and communication skills, perseverance, and drive to keep improving through adversity, are all skills that have been incredibly useful since earning his Master’s, he says.

“Both worlds cross over, and I pushed myself as a professional and an athlete. As for my future plans, I want to continue being a lifelong learner in my professional career, as well as continuing to play basketball in any capacity I can.”

What do you do when you know your career is likely to end in your 30s, a reality for many sportsmen and women? Business education often acts as an effective bridge to a new chapter in your career, as three students on the University of Bradford School of Management MBA programme believe.

“Sport is pretty unique as a career in the sense it can be short-lived or quite extensive. I’ve been fortunate that mine has been longer than most, but you always have in the back of your mind that it could end soon and abruptly,” says Australian rugby player Luke Morahan. Luke plays professionally for Bayonne in France. He developed a taste for business running two cafés in Bristol.

Jannes Kirsten, from South Africa, played rugby for the Exeter Chiefs from 2019 until the end of the end of the 2022-2023 season. He is now signed to a three-year deal with the Vodacom Bulls. It was the Covid-19 pandemic which prompted him to enrol in the online MBA. The flexibility of the programme is what appealed most to him. “At Bradford, you can do the MBA in your own time, at your own pace, all online.”

Footballer Marvin Potzmann recently transferred from LASK in the Austrian Bundesliga to FK Austria Wien. Marvin started playing at age 14 and sees the MBA as a way of enlarging his skills in other directions apart from sports. “Football gave me a lot of spare time and I wanted to use it to train my brain and do something that would be good for my future,” he says.

Much like the first-born child being predestined to one day take over the family business, Fetze Andringa’s journey in sports began even before she was born. Both her parents were competitive athletes, with her mother even playing volleyball at the national level. Fetze herself started out in football and baseball. At the time, her family were living abroad in the US. Upon returning to the Netherlands, Fetze started to develop her skills at hockey, tennis, and sailing, the first of which gradually became her main focus over the years.

Now studying a Bachelor’s in Business Administration at Nyenrode Business University, Fetze believes she benefits from many advantages of playing for her local team, Gooische Hockeyclub, while studying a business degree.

“One of the biggest is that you need to have discipline to combine the two things, and this discipline is going to come back further on in my life. It’s nice when I come back home and can go to the club I played at when I was growing up. The energy I get from this I take back with me to Nyenrode, which is a benefit because studying can be hard,” she says.

At the same time, Fetze acknowledges that when it comes to prioritising how to spend her time, it can be challenging to factor in social time outside of sports and classes. “It is indeed difficult to combine sometimes, but for me it was a matter of making choices. I chose to play hockey, so this means I sometimes had to miss out on fun times with friends to go train. Planning is very important, because you have less time than other students may have to complete the homework or revise for tests.”

The university is actively looking for ways to ensure students are able to combine athletic activities with their studies as seamlessly as possible. For Fetze, the positives that she takes from her time as a competitive hockey player will last with her in her future career.

“I am still unsure what I am going to do next year with sports, however I can say that even until now I have learned a lot about teamwork and discipline from competitive sports,” she says.

Read more of Fetze’s story here.

And what about the world of sport standing at the front of the business school classroom? The Manchester United legend, Sir Alex Ferguson left the Old Trafford Theatre of Dreams in 2013. The following year he was appointed to a long-term teaching position in Executive Education by Harvard Business School. He gave classes to senior executives from around the world as part of ‘The Business of Entertainment, Media and Sports’ program.

For a man who never played for a draw in his life, and achieved unmatched success in English football over 26 seasons, my only question is whether his students could understand his Scottish accent.