featuring a collection of articles from across the world of Sport. The business of Sport continues to be a rapidly changing landscape increasing the need for exceptional executives and senior management to deliver consistent growth and to meet the needs of both consumers and commercial partners.

We are delighted to have such an impressive list of contributors and are extremely grateful to each of them for their time and effort in writing these pieces and indeed sharing their thoughts and providing an interesting insight in to their respective organisations.

Portfolio specialises in executive and senior management recruitment within the sports, leisure and hospitality sectors working in partnership with an ever increasing number of high profile professional Clubs, Stadia/Venues, Associations and Governing Bodies, see Representative Assignments.

All of our consultants have expert knowledge and extensive networks delivering outstanding results and exceptional levels of service to Clients and Candidates. I would therefore also like to use this issue to put the spotlight on this committed and knowledgeable team - see Sports and Leisure Contacts - within both Portfolio and PSD who have developed an enviable track record of success at Executive, Operational and Functional level.

I very much hope you enjoy reading the articles and if you require any further information or indeed have any feedback, please do let me know.

Kit Taylor
Tel: +44 (0)207 108 1010

Our Values are simply the things that are most important to us. They are clearly defined. Firstly we look to be Pioneers, driving forward; unafraid to be the benchmark and to try something new. We also seek to be Open and Inclusive in every sense, including the way we work with each other. Breaking down internal barriers and greater interdepartmental working has sparked some fantastic new ideas from employees who may not have ordinarily had the chance to get involved. Service Excellence is next and this is perhaps the most simple to understand but the toughest to achieve. Pushing the standards in everything we do. Being Confident Custodians is extremely important to us and particularly to our Chairman. This is about putting the supporters at the heart of everything we do. Everyone at the Club has a responsibility to those whose lives are touched by what we do. Our duty is to leave a lasting legacy for the generations of Fulham fans who will stand by our Club long after our time here. Finally, we need to be Action Orientated. Football moves quickly and we must too. A sense of urgency and a desire to get things done is key for all of us.

Employee engagement is being talked about a lot at the moment, particularly in the HR press.
In my view, it is a common sense approach to ensuring everyone at our Club feels a part of the journey we are on. That means ensuring people understand the business objectives, understand their role in achieving these and recognising those who achieve their goals with a truly values centric approach.
The last few seasons have seen a fantastic turnaround for the Club. We must ensure that we celebrate together, and, at times reflect together. Most importantly we must ensure that everyone at the Club understands their responsibility in shaping Fulham’s future and making history.

The key issues for us are creating a long term sustainable business model for the club. The Rec is a fabulous location, but it has its challenges in terms of developing a state of the art stadium for the 21st century. We have eked out capacity to 11,700 and may be able to squeeze in a few more. But if you look at Leicester, they are already at 24,500 and planning 31,000.
If we are to remain competitive, and be consistently competing and beating the top teams in England and Europe we need a bigger capacity to generate more revenue for the club.
We are doing all of the business modelling now and are looking at at least 20,000 capacity and to provide appropriate facilities for all our spectators.

I think in any stadium redevelopment, it has to be a broader leisure offering. In an ideal world, we should be able to use the space available on match days equally as effectively for other events than non-match days. At Epsom, we did over 500 events per year outside of racing and with the demand for good space for events in Bath, there is a similar opportunity here.
There is significant demand for space to host larger events such as a dinner for 200. At the moment you would have to go the Bristol. To have a hotel as part of the redevelopment would be great, but there are clearly limitations on what is available in the heart of a historic city.

Initially our drive was to ensure the core product was in place, giving the business the platform to expand. I have recruited eight apprentices, to give young chefs the opportunity that I had and all of whom grown within our business - two have moved in to front of house managerial roles and the remaining six at various stages of our own NVQ training course. Moreover, with the business being quiet in the first few months of this year, two of them went with the senior members of our brigade to work at the Australia v Pakistan, Test Match in Tasmania.

At the World Cup T/20 I was on route to one of the restaurants and had sat down in a spare seat at the start of a new over. Mark Ramprakash hits a incredible six which is heading for me at the top of the Grandstand and the TV screen in the ground follows the ball rapidly descending on a lonely Chef sitting with his whites and this large upright hat on. Despite the cheers getting louder and louder, I had some explaining to do to my brigade as unfortunately I did not catch the ball!