Since February 2007, the British Judo Association (BJA) and G4S have been engaged in a special partnership.
In the UK, G4S invests in a Youth Judo programme, which it runs in partnership with the British Judo Association.
The initiative aims to encourage employees’ children to take up judo, a physically demanding sport that is renowned for its emphasis on discipline and self-control.
In 2009 more than 130 children benefited from the scheme, through subsidised judo tuition and contributions towards their kit, licensing and grading.
This investment is part of the FTSE-British Olympic Association initiative, under which major British firms partner a national governing body of Olympic sport and transfer their business acumen, skills and knowledge to help secure the sport’s long-term future.
The children enjoy the opportunity:
“I go to Judo once a week 13 for an hour. I like going because it’s good exercise and it’s really fun. The outfit is very comfortable – it’s like a coat.” said Priya Parekh, age 9.
“I have an hour-long session at a local school every Thursday. I’ve been doing it for nearly a year now and I enjoy being able to fight in a safe environment.” says Dominic Vidal, age 15.
As part of the FTSE-British Olympic Association Initiative, a primary objective of the partnership between the British Judo Association (BJA) and G4S is to help the association develop into a world class, autonomous organisation.
Initially the two organisations identified the specific areas of expertise which have driven G4S to become the world's leading security solutions group and which may be transferable to a national governing body of sport.
Key ideas included the sharing of G4S’s best practice methods for the development of the BJA’s executive management team. This involves high-level coaching, mentoring and training, setting up employee partnerships in various areas of business, and the sharing of ideas across the two organisations.
Scott McCarthy, CEO of the BJA, explained, “We are growing quickly and realised that our organisation was too flat and therefore lacking in expert knowledge and leadership. Consequently we have begun to implement restructuring within available resources, succession planning and increased levels of training in order to address the skills gap.”
G4S were attracted by the opportunity for the organisation and its many UK employees to engage with British sport and contribute to sports development in its home market.
On the other side of the partnership coin, Debbie McGrath, G4S Group Communications Director, described one of the ways in which G4S is benefiting from the relationship with judo, “The staff turnover rate in our industry is 30%, so anything we can do to engage our employees by exciting them and giving them something over and above the norm is helpful.”
Individual judo athletes have also benefited directly from the partnership with G4S providing much needed computer equipment. Meanwhile, G4S’s advisory role and provision of security resources for judo events is reciprocated by the BJA holding judo demonstrations at G4S internal events and conferences.
“We feel the partnership is going extremely well and becoming a very productive relationship. We have covered a lot of ground already and there have been positive spin-offs at many levels within our organisation,” said McCarthy.
G4S are looking forward to furthering their learning from sport. McGrath acknowledged that “There are thousands of G4S staff members in 110 countries that might be interested in judo. It is an exciting challenge for G4S to engage with and inspire them.”