WHY THE USTA NEEDS AN OUTSIDER CEO. By Javier Palenque
In a few weeks the governing body of tennis in the US, the USTA, will choose its next CEO. The last one quit after two short years due to many reasons one of which is the poor governance of the organization that refuses to address it. It was simply impossible for Mr. Dowse to act like a CEO when sections have more power than he thought and when the political environment is against common sense for the benefit of the sport. Mr. Dowse was chosen as a sort of outsider of the tennis industry and the organization, and he failed to do what was needed for the game, which is to transform the USTA. Now the board of directors has a choice to make between three kinds of candidates:
1.- Choose another traditional good old boy. (Somebody that they are very comfortable with that will shake little and change nothing, but take the game to its current path, irrelevance. Someone like Mr. Dowse but that will do what they say, not what the sport needs). This seems like a loser for the sport.
2.- Choose a figurehead from the inside pool, usually, the USTA picks people who are from a politically correct and with very little business acumen, these people are happy to be selected, but lack opinions, gravitas, and a vision to make the necessary changes to the old organization. All of these candidates fail to see the obvious need for a culture change and reinforce the poor culture of the organization and like to show their faces everywhere. Where I come from these kinds of people are called “seat warmers”. they particularly love the free food and perks. This is also a status quo candidate with the only difference of being a member of a politically correct group. This option is also a loser for the sport.
The revenue heads of the US Open have been doing the same job for years and no CEO can add much to that dynamic, so it’s a figurehead job of sorts. So, if the CEO is timid, lame, comes from a politically correct group (depends on the year), and maybe talks funny the USTA likes this as he or she keeps the non-working status quo.
3.- Choose an outsider, this is the scariest option of them all for the board and the old boys as this person would turn the organization around for the benefit of the sport and help grow the game and benefit the greatest number of kids and adults and not…
