01 cover sbi 152.indd - FIFA/CIES International University Network

sAiling inTo
The fuTure
As PrinciPAl of TeAm origin, sir KeiTh mills hAs Two goAls - win The AmericA’s
cuP And reduce globAl cArbon emissions. buT ThAT’s noT All. As he Told Kevin
roberTs, he Also wAnTs To helP chAnge The wAy The world’s oldesT regulAr
inTernATionAl sPorTs evenT is governed.
By hIS own admISSIon, Sir Keith Mills is
not the world’s best sailor. He may be a globally
revered marketer and entrepreneur who has been
writing the cheques that have kept Team Origin,
the UK’s America’s Cup contender, in the water
these past two and a half years, but he has a
realistic take on where his talents begin and end.
“Other team principles like (Ernesto) Bertarelli
and (Larry) Ellison are both part of their race
teams and are on the boat. But I won’t be sailing.
The only people on a boat in Team Origin Colours
will be the best in the world. In the same way, the
only people in our design team will be the best in
the world.”
That’s more of a declaration of intent on behalf
of Team Origin than an assessment of his own
abilities. And it is made despite his having been
part of a winning crew in the Clipper Round The
World Race, a sporting achievement which would
buy many people a lifetime of bragging rights.
But Sir Keith isn’t about bragging. He is about
influence rather than profile as evidenced by his
involvement at the heart of London’s successful
bid to bring the 2012 Olympic Games to the UK
capital and his role as deputy to Lord Coe on
the Organising Committee. He’s also a board
member of Premier League club Tottenham
Hotspur and an advisor to the England campaign
to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Elsewhere he is in a highly publicised battle
with Coutts, the private bank, over its advice and
handling of his investment of some £65 million in
AIG Life - an investment which cost him some
£30 million of the reported £160 million share
of the proceeds of the sale of LMG, the company
which owned Nectar, the loyalty scheme operator.
His sporting loves are illustrated in his office
in Pall Mall, London, where a framed picture of
Spurs centre back Jonathan Woodgate (“Oh that’s
Woody”) sits alongside an impressive model of an
America’s Cup Class boat in Team Origin colours.
But one can only guess that, even for a man
clearly adept at juggling projects, Team Origin
must be top of mind right now.
In many respects, Team Origin is blazing a trail
for sport and sports marketing in an age where
discussions over the power of sport to play a role in
helping protect the environment have generated as
much heat as light.
There’s been a lot of talk, but action has been
thin on the ground and on those occasions when
sports and brands have put their heads above the
environmental parapet, there have almost always
been accusations of ‘greenwashing’.
Team Origin is a project that Mills sees as both
a “very, very serious bid to win the America’s
Cup” and to have “a real impact on carbon
emissions worldwide.”
And that is one hell of a challenge. “Last year
we sat down and talked about how we should
position Team Origin and to me it was pretty clear
that the world really has changed and the way in
which companies are marketing their products and
services has changed,” Mills says. “The levels of
corporate social responsibility shown by companies
and their awareness of environmental issues have
changed for the better. I felt that we, as a team,
needed to be reflective of those changes.
“When we launched two and a half years ago we
had put in place a grass roots sailing programme
with the RYA called On Board and this is getting
500,000 kids in the UK into sailing. But we
wanted to see if we could do more that that in
terms of making our contributions to society.”
It became obvious to Mills and the team
that their sport provided them with a unique
opportunity. The America’s Cup represents the
very pinnacle of a sport which delivers the most
obvious and consistent example of how natural
energy - the wind and waves - are used to generate
excellence in sporting performance.
“We asked ourselves whether there was a way we
could use that extraordinary phenomenon to help
reduce our carbon footprint and promote the race
against climate change,” Mills explains.
Consultants McKinsey were drafted in to examine
the possibilities and advise on whether the vision
could be turned into a marketing reality which
delivered value for a range of different partners.
“From the outset we were aware that we needed
a partner if we were going to make this work. It
is a complex area and one that we alone didn’t
understand enough of.”
26 SportBusiness International • No.152 • 12.09