Employees: 198 full-time (including 35 professional footballers), plus 70 part-time and 500 match-day staff
Turnover: 23 million
Chairman: David Sheepshanks
Mission statements* arent something youd normally associate with a football club, but then again its not so long ago that the thought of a football club having 23 different departments including HR, finance, sales, marketing, retail outlets, new-media, catering and conferencing would probably have driven most fans to tear up their season tickets.
But like most Premier League clubs, Ipswich has come a long way since chairman David Sheepshanks took over in 1995. Surprisingly, he is grateful that the business was a mess. One of the very few things we had in our favour was that everyone had written us off in every other respect it was very hard. The club faced big debts, the team was ageing and had just been humiliated 9-0 by Manchester United. But, he argues, perhaps that made it easier to undergo such major redevelopment and to establish a long-term solution.
The day you stop being better is the day you stop being good
Six years on, his vision to be one of the best clubs in the Premiership is in his grasp. Ipswich came fifth in the league last season, but as Sheepshanks acknowledges, It will only get harder were under no illusions. We have to keep on improving. He even quotes Oliver Cromwell The day you stop being better is the day you stop being good, he says. Our whole ethos is wrapped up in continuous development.
One of the ways the club has done this is by gaining both Investors in People and ISO 9001 accreditation. Whats helpful to a board or management which is trying to drive change, he says, is to have a standard to assist them to give them a framework. ISO and IiP both provide a discipline for declaring what you want to do, then help you to do it.
Investing in talent
Sheepshanks also acknowledges that HR issues are paramount. Take recruitment and retention issues. Whats important is that we improve the squad. Our biggest test during this summer was - could we attract better players to augment our already strong squad?. Two key players, Jamie Scowcroft and Richard Wright, had gone and the team needed better replacements. The club did well to attract Finidi George (a Nigerian striker) and Matteo Sereni (an Italian goalkeeper).
I do believe the players are attracted by the very ambition of the club, says Sheepshanks. Also we endeavour to be fair in remuneration and will reward the players regularly with new contracts, and not just when they are due for renewal. Were investing in our talent.
Research among IiP accredited organisations shows that 80% have increased customer satisfaction, 70% have improved their competitive edge and productivity, while 94% of employees are satisfied in their jobs, against 37% in other firms. So perhaps we should put a tenner on Ipswich for the cup?
*Ipswichs mission statement: Through our shared commitment to teamwork, performance and continual improvement and our accountability to those we serve together we will establish Ipswich Town Football Club as one of the best clubs in the Premiership.
