Experience, the best learning tool

Entrepreneurs and former students of the Johan Cruyff Institute shared their experience as a learning tool with the students of the Official Master’s Degree in Sport Management

Former students of the Johan Cruyff Institute were the protagonists of this day in which they shared with the current students how their master’s final project, and the knowledge and contacts they acquired during the master’s degree, helped them to start a business in the sports sector and/or develop their career in the field of sport management.  

“Now, with more perspective after finishing the master’s degree two years ago, I think it is very useful to have this type of meeting, because it helps you being able to ask about your doubts, to see how the market really is and to be up to date,” said former student Mercè Humedas, who redirected her professional career to the sports sector and now heads the marketing area of the Granollers Swimming Club.

Also participating in the conference were the two entrepreneurs Sergi Garcia-Alsina, founder of the Catalan startup Pista Negra Sports, and Sergi Cortés, CEO of Coach Studio.

“Anything that they might have explained to me before I started, the more the better. All the experiences, all the theories … everything you know before starting out on a journey helps you. It is very good, because the theory is one thing but the practice is another”, explained the creator of Coach Studio, a platform that offers digital tools for basketball coaches to better manage their teams and improve their performance, which is promoted by the Catalan Baskeball Federation and was winner (in the Partnership category) of the Empresa i Esport awards, given by the Catalan sports industry cluster, INDESCAT.

“That they can compare and contrast the problems that we entrepreneurs encounter is very different from everything they can be taught in class,” said Garcia-Alsina. The CEO of the Catalan startup has developed boots that can be used both for skiing and as street shoes.

The objective of this type of conference is “to learn from another perspective—that of people who a few years ago were in their place and who can now see, also in perspective, how they have benefited from all the time and effort dedicated to their master’s degree,” said Yolanda Tarango, professor at the Johan Cruyff Institute. She went on to add that: “Beyond that, they also talked about how they had overcome the initial difficulties. The usefulness of sharing these experiences is that the students who listen to them can accelerate the process of incorporation into the market since they have now more information about what works best.”

“Listening to former classmates and being able to assess their experience seems very useful to me. It is a way to take advantage of their advice for when it is our turn to be in the same situation,” concluded Alberto Manso, a student of the Official UAB Master’s Degree in Sport Management.