IBF call for EGM 07 August 2006 The Council of the International Badminton Federation has called for an Extraordinary General Meeting on 24 September 2006 in Madrid, Spain. This is the third Extraordinary meeting in four years that has seen 7 General Meetings of the IBF. The purpose of the meeting is to change the constitution of the IBF herunder change the name to Badminton World Federation. The meeting will also address the formation of a company limited by shares to take control of the major business elements of the federation. The Council of IBF have been working hard since the last AGM in Tokyo in May 2006 to get the paperwork ready. Now it is up to the IBF Membership to evaluate the work done. The Membership has been given 14 days to send amendments to what seems to be the most comprehensive set of changes that a General Meeting of the IBF has seen.
I'm for the image makeover, but if the same people stay in charge in the same HQ...will that change anything? I mean regards to the shift in power to Asia. Can we relate any of this to Punch befriending the rich Russian guy?
well, this part caught my eyes: that to me sounds positive. but is it really a different entity driven by different people, or just the same old IBF staff doing the same thing under a different color umbrella?
Another EGM meeting??.. cxytdn, thanks for the info... whoah, now what??..what now??..another EGM meeting and ANOTHER change??...didn't badminton just had a "major" change abt 4-5 months ago??..boy, by the rate of this is going, esp. with the agenda and items Mr. Gunalan is presenting in this major EGM meetings, whenever he feels necessary, who knows in abt 2 yrs if IBF will be recognizable to the rest of the people who has been following the sport or not(hopefully not).. On that note, we shall wait upon our own Sally Yeh to update us on this meeting..(Ms. Yeh, are you going to the WC next month??)...
I think the two issues are separate. The name change is one, the other is to set up a separate company to run the business side of the IBF more like a separate business. The IBF council big wigs will probably still be charge. The separate company will be run like a separate business entity, with almost complete autonomy, and reporting to the IBF, who together with the various national federations are the shareholders, on its profitability at least once a year. If this is what it is then this is a very daring and innovative move. If the board of the new business company fails to bring in the profits the IBF can replace them with a new board, who will probably be professional managers.
The IBF or its new replacement entity is an elected group of people chosen by the various national badminton federations to run the IBF. This will not change. The separate business entity is a good idea because as the business of running badminton worldwide gets really big, these elected captains of the IBF should stick to their role of elected council chiefs and they should transfer the business of running its business to professionals through a limited company. Maybe the various national federations will get their vote entitlements converted to shares. If run professionally this company can generate profits for some national badminton federations who always complain of a shortage of funds. Look, I for one would be interested to get some of this company's shares if and when they have their first IPO.
Promoting sports and getting sponsors is more about business side. Not as much the actual sport. Look at NASCAR. The formation of a wholly business side of the newly named WBF is hopefully a step in the right direction. I hope they can bring in people with actual buisness degrees who specialize in different aspects such as 1. Marketing - The most important factor early in development, showing how sponsoring badminton will increase sales, and determining the most marketable aspects of badminton (Lin Dan, Fu Haifeng, Zhang Ning?, speed, athleticism, etc) and getting them to the second important part. 2. Advertising - Getting the most marketable icons, abilities, and showing the world what badminton is. This is the most expensive part and most risky because they may incurr a debt to try to promote badminton. 3. Accounting & Finance - don't break the budget books Hopefully more information will be made public soon. It would be really cool if the business they are getting to do this is public, or goes public so we could all see financial reports and goals / vision. I would buy shares just to get my opinion heard.
You must be rich to buy enough shares to be heard. If you can get a bit over 50% of the shares, you can do anything you like with the company. But this is unlikely, because the major shareholders are still going to be the big guns of badminton, i.e. China, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Denmark, Indonesia, etc.
You just need one share to be heard and attend shareholders meetings. Of course you won't have as much clout as the major owners but you can bring something fresh to the table.
You may not be aware that there is another IBF and it is the International Boxing Federation! At least for now badminton has its own identity which does not confuse/or conflict with that of the world boxing community.
Too bad the shares will be given to Executive Board of the IBF. Maybe they will give you a few. The countries you mention will not have shares. Only the usual guys.
i am cautiously optimistic on this new proposal. The new name, BWF, is good if we want to market it as badminton and dont have to explain to non-badminton executive it's not boxing, basketball or baseball. This is the real world, where money should attract good management team. IBF had tried to foster badminton bottom up. Now, they are trying top down approach. With these 2 initiatives, i hope badminton popularity would and should accelerate.
