Applying Fayol’s 5 elements of Classical Management to competitive tournament structures

1. Managing a Phenomenon
Applying Fayol’s 5 elements of Classical Management to competitive tournament structures
Cody Martell

2. Article Review
• FFG released an article back in November about their 2017 World-Wide
tournament bracket. It was simply an announcement and something to wet the
player base’s appetite.
• It was the first step however in planning and organizing a major event. Something
that takes countless days of preparation and organizing.
• FFG hosting the System Open Series 2017 (from here on referred to as SOS 17’) is
no small feat, and one they couldn’t do without Fayol’s 5 Elements of Classical
Management.

3. Fayol’s 5 Elements of Classical Management
• Since the early 1900’s, Fayol’s method of Classical Management has been
utilized by many people. It consists of what is necessary to operating and
managing a business smoothly and efficiently.
• The 5 Elements being: Planning, Organizing, Commanding, Coordinating,
and Controlling. These serve as the backbone of efficient task management
and in a proper order.
• While FFG is a major company, operating a World-Class tournament
requires these 5 Elements all on its own

4. 1. Planning
• In order for a world-wide tournament to be held, it goes without saying that
a thorough plan is needed. There are many factors that weigh into that plan
going through. Some basic things being:
• Scheduling
• Prize Support
• Recruitment
• ‘Hype’
The planning phase of Fayol’s elements
is rather self-explanatory, but must still
be held to the same regard as the rest in
terms of importance. If not more so.

5. More Planning
• The System Open Series takes place in eight
venues around the world. FFG took the time
to find prime locations for each of these for
the 2017 season.
• For example the ‘Hoth Open’ takes place later
this month from March 23 – 26 at Adepticon
in Chicago. Adepticon being one of the
biggest annual board-gaming convention on
the planet. (I’ll be in attendance this year)

6. Even More Planning
• Simply scheduling the event doesn’t “seal the deal”.
The tournament organizers (from here on referred
to as T/O’s) always need to come up with prizes
and reasons for players to want to attend. While
many play for glory, the prize support is key for
many other players.
• In the case of the SOS 17’ event, they decided to
select prizes that would be relevant to the current
popular things in the game. A wise decision.

7. 2. Organizing
• Once the basic plan of anything is set, organizing the actual activity is what
comes next. In the case of SOS 17’ this included officially releasing more
information, as well as getting official judges for the events.
• Putting together the materials and labor required is the first real step in
progress. For FFG, the material and labor are information and judges.

8. Placing the Pieces
• “Division of Work” is one of the principles of Fayol’s Theory, essentially that
different kinds of workers are needed for different jobs. FFG takes note of this by
remotely hiring a diverse staff for each event.
• Some people will work as judges for rule calls, some people are equipment
technicians for the live-streaming of the event and matches, and some are data
collectors to keep everything moving smoothly.
• Every worker is independent of other evetns, only working one job, rather than
being a year-round employee. For example, last year at the Mid-West Regional I was
hired to be a judge for the event.

9. 3. Commanding
• Commanding in management can be explained as the
flow of information and authority throughout the (in
this case) tournament. For the Hoth Open, some
individuals will have more authority than others. Some
will have reign over the actions of others.
• This is to keep things moving smoothly and so that
judges all act on the same level. Rule callings remain
linear across the event and not changeable from match-
to-match.

10. The Flow of Power
• The structure of a tournament is the same no matter where you go, but that
doesn’t mean everyone is necessarily on the same page. Having an order of
power and information keeps the events moving. For FFG events, the flow
looks like this:
• Players Judges Data Collectors T/O’s Event Chief
When everyone in attendance understand who has say over what, everything can run
smoother. Players are monitored by judges, who pass info to data collectors, who report to
the T/O’s, who are overseen by the Even Chief.

11. 4. Coordinate
• While Commanding serves as the chain of information
and power within the structure, real coordination is what
happens at each checkpoint in that structure.
• This applies both in the tournament scene as it happens
and in the overall organization of the entire SOS 17’.
• Each interaction that takes place must understand where
the outcome the interaction is going. Much like workers
on a production line.

12. Coordinating at a Larger Scale
• The flow of information displayed two slides ago described the happenings
of just one event. But coordinating applies at higher levels as well. While one
event carries about its business, others are in the works and organically
reacting to the events taking place.
• During the run time of the SOS 17’, more information still released about
the overall structure of the tournament.

13. 5. Controlling
• Decisions made before and during the SOS
17’ are all in attempt to keep things moving
according to the original plan and goal. Each
step carries out its purpose and relays that
information appropriately to its superior.
• Eventually that information reaches a point
where the individuals who make big
decisions will utilize for any number of
reasons.

14. According to Plan
• The initial goal of SOS 17’ was purely for FFG to run the biggest X-Wing
tournament ever over the course of four months. But the game itself never
changed. The game still holds its mission statement of allowing players to have fun.
• So once information had reached developers about how the current state of the
game was in the middle of a major tournament season, a decision was made to alter
and errata some parts of the game.
• This was done to uphold the game’s mission statement and continue with SOS 17’
being a big deal on more than one level.

15. How is it Now?
• The System Open Series 2017 is still underway. The first of the eight
preliminary events took place in late January, with the eighth being later this
month. After that, the winners of each event move onto the final event.
• It’s been a bit of a rocky journey, given that a new wave of content released
in the middle of the season, and some major changes had been made.
• Overall, players seem to be happy. But could things have gone a little
smoother?

16. Timing. Is Key
• Although it’s not over yet, FFG can still reflect on how SOS 17’ has been
running. There have been some hiccups as mentioned previously. How can
they avoid these issues for SOS 18’?
• Going back to the Planning and Organizing elements, having a plan and
arranging it to come into fruition is vital. FFG could have pushed up or even
delayed the release of some content in order for all eight events to have the
same advantages.

17. Realizing Potential
• Another issue FFG had with the
organization of when SOS 17’ took
place was how spread out it has
been. At a glance, running eight
tournaments seems like a lot, even
over four months. But since FFG
operates these events by remotely
hiring individuals per event, it
shouldn’t be quite as difficult.

18. Knowing When to Ask for Help
• Most any large game can house an SOS
tournament, and any would be happy to do it for
the business alone. It might be fun for events to
take place at things like Adepticon, but if FFG
wants quality tournaments they need to look at the
even as a whole and not just its location.
• There are countless local game stores in any region.
All of which are fully staffed and love to do
business with game creators. Rather than always
pushing for a shiny venue, FFG could easily reach
out and offer family owned businesses the
opportunity to run them, with remote assistance.

19. Recap
• The System Open Series is a major world-wide tournament bracket held each
year by FFG. Given its size and ambition, clear and concise management
needs to be in place.
• FFG does a fine job upholding Fayol’s 5 Elements of Classical Management
in order to execute its tournament, but does falter in some areas.
• None the less, the System Open Series is a fine example of Classical
Management being the ideal structure for most any complex scenarios.

20. Works Cited
• FFG. "A Shadow Across the Galaxy." Fantasy Flight Games. FFG, 2 Feb.
2017. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.
• FFG. "Bringing Balance to the Force." Fantasy Flight Games. FFG, 6 Mar.
2017. Web. 06 Mar. 2017.
• FFG. "2017 Open Briefing." Fantasy Flight Games. FFG, 8 Nov. 2016. Web.
06 Mar. 2017.
• FFG. "2017 System Open Spoils." Fantasy Flight Games. FFG, 6 Jan. 2017.
Web. 06 Mar. 2017.