Paco Silva, the international agent of Johan Cruyff Institute in Uruguay, reflects on his extensive career in both the sport and entertainment industries and analyzes how this Latin American country continues to deliver top-level sporting values
Paco Silva’s professional career has spanned various industries: finance, entertainment, and sport. That experience allows him to approach his work as an international agent of Johan Cruyff Institute in Uruguay with a versatile focus, emphasizing the importance of strategy, analysis, and planning. Above all, Silva highlights education as a key tool for Uruguay to continue delivering top-level sporting values worldwide.
His career included a stint at The Walt Disney Company, where Silva worked as a Sales Executive. Additionally, he has significant experience as a producer, having worked with artists such as Jaime Roos and Ney Matogrosso. Silva will be one of the participants in the first “Forum of Innovation and Sport Management,” which will take place in Montevideo, Uruguay, on September 4th and 5th, 2024. There, the most relevant trends in the sport industry and its management will be analyzed to assist in the professionalization of the sport industry in the country.
In your career, you have worked in both the sport and artistic production fields. How do these two areas complement each other in your professional life?
The management of an artistic event, whether it’s music or theater, shares several common parameters with the management of a sporting event. These include strategy, analysis, planning, method, and proposals. They are like a common trunk between both disciplines. All these sport management tools, provided by Johan Cruyff Institute, have also helped me in my projects.
How has your work at Johan Cruyff Institute influenced your vision of the sport industry in Uruguay?
I believe that Johan Cruyff Institute has had an enormous influence on me: personally, it has significantly shaped my vision. It has substantially contributed to the overall perspective of sport management in Uruguay. I think it has ushered us into the 21st century with tools and concepts that assist us and our students in the daily tasks of management. Indeed, this is what our students value most: the tools to tackle professional challenges
In your opinion, how can the sport industry in Uruguay adapt and grow in the face of global changes and new trends?
Uruguay can achieve this by training professionals, for instance, utilizing tools like those offered by Johan Cruyff Institute. This approach is key to positioning ourselves in the mainstream and becoming part of the global conversation where excellence is recognized. In football, Uruguay was crowned world champion in the Under-20 category last year, demonstrating that we are on the correct path. For the past 50 years, despite a stable population of 4 million, Uruguay has consistently produced top-level international sporting talent.
“In a world where three major football leagues dominate, the presence of a Uruguayan player in each of the leading clubs is unprecedented. As these positive developments continue, Uruguay’s significance on the world stage is set to increase.”
How does Johan Cruyff Institute contribute to fostering leadership and management in the Uruguayan sport sector?
Johan’s figure is very significant in Uruguay. I am fortunate to live in a country where many of my compatriots lived with Johan on the field, and some off it, and that’s why I have profound respect for the figure and the leadership he exerted during the many years he was active. Thinking, feeling, and doing are aligned in Johan’s actions, and that’s why I believe he’s one of those beacons we have on the path. Like a beacon, it obviously prevents you from crashing into the coast, but it also indicates paths and illuminates some of the darkness that the path also offers us with its light. Johan’s leadership on and off the field in every place he was, in sport and in social aspects related to human development, is undeniable.
Given your extensive professional background, what advice would you give to someone starting their career in any of the fields you’ve worked in?
To the young men and women who come after us, who ask us these kinds of questions and with whom we share conversations, coffee, and more, I always give the same suggestion: success and failure are fifty-fifty. One must prepare for success without forgetting that failure has a significant percentage in life, both in the entertainment world and in the sports world. Sometimes the ball hits the post and goes in, and sometimes it hits the post and goes out, and the shot was the same. I think life is like that.
“To colleagues, friends, and friend’s children, I always say: be careful that success doesn’t get to your head and that failure doesn’t hit your heart.”
What can you tell us about the International Forum on Innovation and Sport Management?
The Forum will take place on September 4th and 5th, 2024, in Montevideo. The idea was to organize an event that brings together new trends and provides tools for improving sport management. We will also introduce innovations in the sector, including numerous online content to promote innovation. It will be an event designed for professionals in the sport industry looking to update their knowledge in sport management. There will be Masterclasses given by Johan Cruyff Institute teachers and panel discussions with prominent professionals in the sector at a national level.
Considering your experience in different sectors, what lessons have you learned about capacity and innovation in the various industries?
I had quite an eventful work life, spanning different commercial and industrial sectors. The common root in all of them is acknowledging mistakes. Whoever makes a mistake initially has the impulse not to acknowledge it, and that is a factor of stagnation. So it’s important to establish a corporate culture of both acknowledging mistakes and being compassionate with those who make them. We all make mistakes, but the big issue is not acknowledging that mistake, because then valuable time is lost.
