During my visit to Norway for the conference, I was asked to address the Board members of Tennis Norway and the leaders of some of the top Norwegian Clubs. I was asked to speak about my experience at the ITF and my knowledge of federations in 140+ nations and to outline what I thought were some of the most important considerations for a federation to work effectively and to develop tennis in their country.
Some of the things included utilising limited resources effectively, being club and player centred, pursuing tangible tennis objectives, driven by well qualified tennis staff, encouraging great teamwork from the top downwards, ensuring that tennis is driven by user friendly play and competition at all levels and that tennis is adapted to the needs and lifestyles of the customer. It helps also if the organisation can be driven less by hierarchy and more by good ideas and initiatives that can improve the mission of more players and better players.
It was a pleasure to meet the President Mr Gisle Jentoft whom I could see is passionate about tennis and committed to further improving tennis in Norway. He has a great team around him in the board and in the staff and I see great times ahead for tennis there.
