A career in sporting goods retailer
When we talk about having a career in the sports industry, companies like Decathlon offer great career opportunities for students and young professionals
Today, you will have the opportunity to learn from Daniel Busatto experience in the sports industry, challenges and what he is doing to pursue his dream job in the industry.
Enjoy the interview, connect with Daniel and get some tips for your career.
Thanks for joining us, Daniel.
Daniel, could you share with us your background and your professional experience?
I am from Ribeirão Preto, a medium-sized city in the northeast of the state of São Paulo. I was always that kid who wanted to be a soccer player, but ended up paying more attention to his studies. Even so, I always remained passionate about football, playing in school, club and college teams. I graduated in Public Administration, worked for a while in the area, but ended up going to the private sector, more specifically in the party balloon industry. In 2015, I decided to follow my dream, which was to work with sports, leaving the job I was in and starting to take courses, attend events and things happened little by little. I worked at the youth academy of my city’s team, Comercial FC, and also for a while at a startup organizing football championships. But things really started to fall into place when I joined Decathlon, as a department manager, managing the sales team, among other responsibilities, but mainly because I was responsible for several sports in the store, and football was one of them. I spent more than five years there, the last two as Store Director. It was a really important time for my career, which brought me a fantastic experience in the field of sporting goods.
Such expressive positions in a worldwide company must have brought a variety of skills and insights. What are some key skills you developed?
The first one I can mention is resilience. Retail is very dynamic, and if we can’t have that skill, it’s very difficult to stay for a long time. Adaptability is also very important, as I dealt with different situations every day, whether with colleagues, leaders, people on my team, and customers. So every day it was necessary to learn and know how to use these learnings when new difficult situations arise. In addition to these, communication and interpersonal relationships. Especially in a leadership position, if you cannot relate well to people, with business partners, with customers, you cannot do your job well.
You more than anyone knows the effect the pandemic and covid-19 had on the sport industry. Could you comment on how much it affected the sports production segment?
It was really a very difficult and sad period for everyone. When we talk about the economy, sporting goods retail was one of the most affected sectors, due to a series of factors. If, on the one hand, people started to practice more sports, and some of them had a very large increase in demand, stores had to be closed for a long time, and many suppliers suffered from a lack of products to guarantee supply. Outdoor sports, or sports that could be done at home, such as fitness, running and cycling, had a significant increase, but team and contact sports, such as football, basketball and martial arts, were the most affected. In Brazil, especially, we suffered a lot with the comings and goings of the pandemic, and the closing of gyms and parks, in addition to the closing of stores, had a very strong impact on sales. On the other hand, digital transformation had to be accelerated at a pace that was not expected, such as online sales and remote service.
From your experiences working with sports production and sports promotion, if you could choose one of them to specialize in, what would it be and why?
Both are very important in the sports industry, but I think I would choose Sports Promotion. I think it is very necessary to encourage more and more people to play sports, stay active, meet and exchange about it, take care of their health. We’ve seen how we missed this during the pandemic, and now it’s a market that’s making a comeback in full force.
Connect with Daniel: https://www.sportinglobal.com/user/profile/04caf403-3732-0a75-9ed6-e9b8dcfb370c
We have a partnership with FUNDACE, which you studied at a while ago. What advice would you give to the MBA and Sport Management students?
I would say to highly value the relationships made with colleagues and teachers along the way. I believe that is one of the main advantages of attending an MBA at an institution like this. Not being afraid to ask questions in class, exchange experiences, be open to learning, are very important attitudes that will make you both grow and be seen.
What are your expectations of the SportIn Global mentorship program? What do you expect to develop along with your mentor?
I’m really excited from the start, and really curious about what the process would be like. I thought a lot that the program would help guide the way towards growing relationships, as well as challenging me to go further. I believe that is exactly what will happen together with my mentor, Juliana Soares.
Final message to our audience?
First of all, thank you for the opportunity to talk about my professional trajectory and my vision of the market. I really believe in the power of networking in the sports industry, and that networks dedicated to it, like SportIn, can help a lot in this process. Do not hesitate to contact me to talk about these matters, and especially about football, as we are getting so close to the world cup! ;)
Connect with Daniel: https://www.sportinglobal.com/user/profile/04caf403-3732-0a75-9ed6-e9b8dcfb370c
