Introduction
Sports’ planners need to understand how to draft and achieve their objectives. Exploring the functions of operations, project delivery, risk and quality management and their contribution to the core operation of organizations and companies is essential to holding a successful event. This paper draws its content from a wide range of literature. The study examines various researches conducted in different disciplines. The research explores and applies concepts, theories and professional practices in the context of events and venues. The report is an analysis of the appropriateness of the 2014 Tour de France.
The Tour de France may be the most adored and competitive cycling race across the world (Haase & Mäcken, 2013). It is a rigorous and multi-faceted event that operates in different countries. This study contextualizes the event according to type, size, location, setting and venue. It presents an analysis of a case study of the Tour de France 2014. This account analyses the operations and performances of the festival and provides suggestions of improving the event.
The objectives of the paper include finding out the history and typology of the Tour de France as an event, and how organizers manage and control the activity. In addition, the paper seeks to determine how the organizers market the project, ensure customer satisfaction, integrate security measures, manage risks, plan and control the occasion. It examines the competition in terms of its design, operations, quality and supply chain and business management. The paper suggests measures on how organizers can transform the 2014 Tour de France into a better competition.
History of the Tour de France
The Tour de France is about 110 years old. It is an ancient event that started as a newspaper publicity festival in 1903. The program was a form of entertainment and show of enormous endurance of the participants. The inaugural season’s competitors peddled for long periods in the most popular cycling race. The first event started in Paris when French, Swiss, German, Belgian and Italian riders undertook the race’s program.
The competition remained a fanciful invention of a journalist, Géo Lefèvre, initially meant to improve the spread of a sports’ newspaper. The first course covered about 1500 miles. It began in Paris and ended in the same city. It passed through other French cities like Toulouse and Marseille. The riding course was initially free of Alpine climbs. It had only 6 stages that separated the modern course that covered 21 levels. The Tour de France has different objectives in contemporary times. The main objective of the competition is to find new champions of France’s cycling. The competition also assists the youth to appreciate cycling and secure the future of the sport.
The competition promotes initiatives of the cycling sport in different parts of the world. It supports the purchase of equipment for cycling, the organization and training of riders and other cycling events in the world. The Tour de France ensures the realization of its objectives through the consolidation of regional and national funds. In addition, various committees manage the promotion of the sport across the globe. The Federation of France Cycling intends to provide financial support for master plans of sports’ areas that can promote the participation of diverse players in the cycling profession.
Typology of the Tour de France
The Tour de France develops cycling, unity and economic empowerment in France. This study outlines several typologies of events. The typologies may include cultural, private, political or state, art or entertainment, and business events. In addition, other typologies comprise of educational or scientific and recreational programs. The Tour de France falls in the category of leisure programs. It is a cycling festival that develops talent and recreation. The Tour can be described as a “mega” project. This fact is because of the publicity it attracts across the world. In addition, millions of TV viewers follow the competition throughout its course. This aspect is an indicator that the Tour de France may be a major sporting activity in the industry.
Project management and operation techniques
A project of the magnitude of the Tour de France requires effective program managers and accurate operation techniques. These aspects ensure effective control of the crowd by prioritizing the objectives of the event, marketing plans, and finances for the project for the sake of evaluating it after completion. Operations’ management may be related to the acquisition of raw materials, their transformation into finished products and consequent supply to the clients. In the case of the Tour de France, the operations’ management may involve structures that organize the riders, teams, materials, crowd and routes to ensure riders’ completion of the course.
The Tour de France 2014 may use different partners to oversee the operations’ management of the project. The managers may select different partners and stakeholders to play diverse roles in the administration of the event. This aspect may ensure that the Tour minimizes the amount of resources it uses and increases the popularity of the competition to spectators (Tum et al., 2008).
Marketing criteria
The Federation of French Cycling is the central body that controls the Tour de France. The management of the Tour communicates through the official competition’s website, cycling federation press conferences, local authorities’ websites and media advertisements. The federation is in charge of deciding the routes that the riders may follow during the competition, employment of staff, and inclusion of other essential stakeholders that may facilitate the completion of the project. After this preliminary planning about the routes, security, calendar and the involvement of other important players, the Federation of Cycling in France organizes an official launch of the Tour before the actual race. The quality control measures ensure the efficiency of the event’s project management and control procedures (Wright & Race, 2010).
Customers’ satisfaction
The Tour de France is a unique program that evaluates cycling as a profession in the world. The catchment population of the Tour de France becomes a clear indicator of the customers’ satisfaction levels of the event. The Tour usually takes place in front of about 4000 spectators. The Amaury Sport Organization may be one of the partners of the Tour de France 2014. The organization provides philanthropic services through initiatives that promote investment in sports. The organization is one of the sponsors of the French Federation of Cycling. It promotes humanitarian and social economic frameworks for the success of the Tour de France.
The organization maintains customers’ satisfaction over the years. Other youth initiatives also promote the Tour de France to prospective clients. For instance, the Tour gives numerous opportunities to young adults and children with an interest in cycling. The program offers an introduction course on the Tour de France. In addition, the management of the Tour provides a springtime version of the project, a young reporter’s initiative, and the cadets or juniors’ category that gives an advantage to the youthful audience to participate in the program (Evans et al., 2008). The management and operation of the Tour de France work under the Federation of Cycling in France.
The agency may initiate policies that enhance the participation of the youth in the Tour de France. The organization also offers economic support to marginalised groups of people as a form of incentive to encourage them to participate in cycling. This report outlines additional initiatives that improve customers’ satisfaction in the Tour de France.
The Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque Association helps the Tour de France to support children with heart disorders. The association aids children with heart ailments in developing countries to undertake surgeries in France by providing funds. This charitable initiative under the Tour increases the level of customers’ gratification in the event. In addition, the Handicap Zero Program is another unit that promotes the accessibility of the competition to diverse classes of people from the European society. This program admits visually impaired fans to the Tour de France in each edition of the competition without charging them. The visually challenged fans enjoy the competition free of charge.
The overall programme of the Tour de France 2014 may generate extensive media coverage in the months before the start of the event. Indicators show that the environment may be favourable for the 101 edition of the competition enhanced by clients’ satisfaction with the choice of cities that form the course of the race. In addition, the Tour may create satisfaction in terms of other types of entertainment like music and minor contests. The management of the competition designs competitive entertainment programs before the beginning of the event to ensure customers’ satisfaction.
Police or security’s involvement
The Tour de France 2014 may be the biggest project of the cycling calendar of the world. Therefore, the administration of the festival must involve police and heavy security personnel that can oversee the effective regulation and management of the program. The 2014 Tour de France may comprise of diverse participants. The participants may include different units of riders, staff, commissaries, motorcyclists and police. Captain Pierre-Charles Gross may be in charge of ensuring the safety of participants during the Tour de France.
The captain makes sure that the participants of the event have an assurance of their safety and formulates security measures to manage the competition. He ensures that security personnel are in the appropriate positions, and that the riders start and finish the 2000 mile course without danger. The Garde RĂ©publicaine is the central security personnel involved in the management of the Tour de France. It plays a crucial role in the maintenance of security and safety during the competition. It escorts the VIPs during the competition.
The VIPs may include the French President or other heads of state. The Garde Républicaine also has a diplomatic role of representing its nation in foreign states. It supports competitions in France like the big French races. For example, it is in charge of supporting the Critérium du Dauphiné, and the Paris-Roubaix races. It forms part of the broad French military. The security of the Tour de France is a crucial aspect of planning of the event. The police department ensures effective surveillance of the program.
The police department splits itself into two groups. The unit keeps vigil of everything that occurs in the course of the Tour. The first group comprises of the gendarmes and the police. This group positions itself along the routes of the Tour. Most of the security officials comprise of local people. The second group involves foreign police especially from France who carry out investigations about events that occur during the period of the Tour. The security department usually has an accurate safety design to ensure the success of the event.
Risk or crowd management
Risk or crowd management is a critical stage of planning of the Tour. Risk may refer to the uncertainty of the set objectives. The term may also denote the product of the prospects of a peril arising in the event. This paper explores various aspects of risk management. These components may include damages to assets, effects of the continuity of a business or profit returns, reputation, safety and health of a participant and the success of a project. The factors are essential when considering the risk or crowd management plan of a program like the Tour de France (Asset Management Handbook, 2009).
The Tour de France may contain several hazards that can derail the event. They may include crashes, crowd troubles, straying animals, and attacks from people. The chances of these incidences occurring always vary according to the stages of the Tour. However, the management of the Tour lays down necessary precautionary measures to counter the effects of a possible occurrence of a risk and control the situation. The magnitude of the Tour de France increases the probability of security and crowd trouble concerns. Different security gaps can occur in a project of the nature of the Tour de France.
Therefore, the management of the festival must adopt crowd management plans for the sake of spectators, race participants and property owners. This concern can reduce the effect of possible crowd troubles on properties or life. The 2014 Tour de France may apply the Sino Concept in the management of the crowd. The idea utilizes a customized, hot- dip, prevention device to keep the spectators safe. The device secures property from the prospects of attacks by the crowd. It also prevents interference of the track by animals (Ridley & Channing, 2008).
The Tour de France prefers the Sino Concept to other strategies of crowd management because the barriers may be suitable for the project. It provides thick durable tubes that may be capable of keeping the crowd away from the race course. The barriers contain a full seam weld, convenient carrying handle, galvanized hot-dip and proven strength to handle a crowd.
The Sino Concept may be reliable in the risk management of the Tour de France. It helps to avoid risks in the competition. The managers of the Tour consider the health and safety policies of the competition when drafting the risk management strategy. The determination of the strategy may involve organizing, audit planning, implementing, measuring and reviewing the performance of the Tour.
These processes can promote the utilization of the appropriate risk management strategy that one can apply to alleviate prospective challenges in the program. In addition, one can conduct a risk assessment audit to identify hazards and their possible targets, existing controls, records and a review plan. This fact can be necessary in drafting the risk management policy for the event. For example, the Tour de France can communicate the possible risks to the riders and other participants of the competition, prospective attack stages and constitute measures to curb the risks.
The Tour de France uses diverse techniques to draw a risk management draft for the event. The competition formulates a crowd management intelligence report on the likely crowd behaviours for the different stages of the competition, the factors that may likely influence the demeanour of the crowd, the design of the various stages of the Tour and a plan on the capacity of the different corridors where spectators may watch the riders. The adoption of the Sino Concept of crowd management of the Tour de France addresses normal emergencies that may occur at different stages of the Tour. It provides a plan for the circulation and movement of the spectators in the venues of the Tour and monitors crowd behaviour. In addition, the idea is valuable in the control of crowds, provision of first aid, medical care and crowd welfare (HSE, 2007).
Planning and control
The inauguration of the 2014 Tour de France may take place in front of thousands of fans. It may happen at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. The competition may occur in diverse settings ranging from the county of Yorkshire to the Champs-Elysées. It may include the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix, the Pyrenees and the Vosges Mountains.
The planning of the 2014 Tour de France may coalesce into a basic premise of an athletic project. The athlete who completes the tiresome and mountainous course covering about 2000 miles in the lowest total time usually wins the title. The Tour has a rich tradition, history and racing lore. It portrays the true definition of cycling prowess and world sportsmanship.
The Tour de France arena features in a rare course unlike other sports’ events where fans pay to enter into stadiums. The course extends across different countries. It traverses various types of terrains and fans, and it is free of charge for people to watch. The competition gives riders the ultimate test of patience. They battle to overcome the effects of weather, other competitors, low energy and an unfavourable terrain.
Event’s design
The Tour de France can only be likened to two other major competitions which comprise of the Vuelta an Espana of Spain and the Giro d’Italia of Italy in terms of the prestige and media attention that they attract. Among the three competitions, the Tour de France remains the oldest cycling event in the world. The program may take place in July, 2014. The racing course of the Tour varies every season. However, the format of the project remains constant. The course of the race must pass through the mountain chains of the Pyrenees, the Alps and the finishing line at the Champs-Elysee in the city of Paris.
The Tour comprises of 21 levels that cover a period of 23 days and 2,000 miles. The competition course changes from clockwise to anticlockwise circuits of France. It contains about 20 to 22 teams. 9 riders make each team. The event managers decide the timelines from start to finish. The managers do a compound calculation of the riders’ time after the finish. In addition, the management conducts other races within the competition.
These contests include the point’s classification for the sprinters, the children’s category for the cyclists under 26 years and the mountain classification for general climbing riders. The event’s administration also does a team analysis of the fastest unit of the Tour. The 2014 Tour de France may begin on Saturday, July 5th to the 27th July, 2014. The stages may involve coverage of long, flat terrains, hills and mountainous regions.
The Tour may begin in the United Kingdom before proceeding for a 20th Grand Départ or “big departure” abroad. The race may cover specific areas in Belgium and Spain. The competition may include 9 new cities for the first time. The cities in the 2014 Tour may comprise of Leeds in the start of the first stage, Harrogate in the finish of the second stage, and York City in the start of the second stage. The competition may also include Sheffield City in the finish of the second stage. In addition, Oyonnax, a new city, may feature in the finish of the eleventh stage, Risoul City in the finish of the fourteenth stage, and Maubourguet Pays du Val d’Adour in the start of stage 19.
Operations and quality services
Application of different forecasting and capacity management techniques in the Tour de France may be valuable. This fact may enable the organizers to create ways of gaining competitive advantage of yield management. In addition, the organizers may need to understand the dilemma of matching capacity to demand and how it might be inevitable, and also useful, for queues to form.
The 2014 Tour de France forecasts that there may be 4500 spectators, 23 teams of 10 riders each. These figures may provide preliminary information about the magnitude of the event’s prospective services. Therefore, it may be easy for the Federation of France Cycling, other Tour partners and organizers to gain advantage of yield control. In addition, the stakeholders may calculate how to balance the facilities of the event and the crowd. Forecasting may be necessary in understanding future demand projections. It may also help in calculating the capability of resources, allocation of time and design of control mechanisms. One can conduct economic, technological and demand forecasts (Schwandner, 2010).
Supply chain or event operations’ management
This aspect may involve the strategic structures of the project and how they intend to boost its operations and performance. The Tour de France event usually has supply and operations’ partners that provide services according to the needs of customers and other participants. This idea enables the Federation of France Cycling to make decisions on the supply and operations of the Tour (Masterman, 2009). Key players of the Tour must understand the needs of the customers of the event.
This aspect may help to determine and create clear specifications of the supply chain and appropriate supplies of the program. Customers’ needs aid the managers of the project to determine the services the event may provide to the clients, what the competition is capable of providing and the quality of the program. Therefore, the Tour provides an analysis of current and prospective ideals the competition can offer the participants (Stickel, 2009).
Recommendations
Managers may improve the planning and the impact control of the events of the Tour de France. For instance, they may pay attention to environmental control matters of the project. The administrators ought to conduct an appraisal of the program’s impact on the environment, economic effects and ecological footprints. These aspects can help to integrate diverse components of the planning and organization of the event. The planners and organizers of the Tour de France need to take into account the local and global environmental effects of the Tour. It is evident that planning an event of the nature of the Tour de France can result into massive environmental effects and economic returns. These ramifications need to be identified. The effort can reduce the negative outcomes of the Tour.
Major sports’ events need to raise the awareness of diverse challenges facing the community. Therefore, the Tour de France can adopt this approach to increase public knowledge of the needs of the community. This fact can also increase the catchment population of the competition and its overall popularity in the world. The Tour may be a channel of communication of fundamental community issues. It may also raise public awareness of diverse issues in the society (Johnson et al., 2011).
The purpose of an event is to provide essential services to the participants. An event does not exist without a purpose. Therefore, it is important to align the purpose of an event to its objectives. In addition, the managers need to describe businesses and activities that the event may deliver to the participants. It may also be necessary to define the values and organization of the event and its intentions for customers, suppliers and employees. The planners may also ensure that all organizations conduct themselves in an appropriate manner that can inspire the employees and influence the attainment of the objectives (Thompson, 2011).
In conclusion, the Tour de France may consider several factors to promote its efficiency as a major sports’ event across the globe. The Tour may take into account a range of external factors and how the strategic intent of operations and performances occurs. This aspect can help the organizers to improve the planning of the event. The Tour’s managers may also assess the importance of evaluating the needs of customers and how they meet their expectations and factors that hinder their development.
This point relates to the routes, rules and regulations of the Tour (Tour de France, 2013). In addition, the competition can improve consultations with stakeholders when planning for the provision of services and involve participants in the organization of the project. The event’s organisers need to conduct adequate research to improve operations of the Tour de France. The managers of the Tour need to adopt accurate monitoring and evaluation systems in order to track the occurrences of the competition.
The police department needs to purchase modern tracking equipments to enhance their surveillance of the event. The administration of the Tour de France also needs to conduct aggressive media campaigns to sensitize the public on the expected code of behaviour during the Tour. This idea requires a lot of funding. The directors of the Tour may source for extra funds from well-wishers, the French government, commercial banks, interested agencies and sponsors. The Tour de France remains one of the most appealing contests in the globe.
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