Selection Process

Preparing your application for September 2021 - in partnership with Global Sports Week


About our mentoring partner


Global Sports Week is an annual international sports forum and platform that connects leaders from different horizons to share, shake and shape the future of sports and imagine radical, sports-led solutions addressing the biggest challenges facing tomorrow’s world.


We have an ongoing collaboration with Global Sports Week since the Chair's successful launch in March 2020. In 2021 the Sports Chair students helped prepare for the Global Sports Week's Annual Forum and actively took part in the event, attending and even co-moderating sessions. The topics Global Sports Week has set will form the basis of your application to the Chair.


Part of your application will be to prepare a 700-word short white paper on a current issue at the intersection between sport, business, and society. These issues below have been set by Global Sports Week in collaboration with the ESSEC Sports Chair. They bring together sport, business and society, within the framework of 6 global business and societal shifts. These represent key areas of change and opportunity for sport and business, and are pillars of Global Sports Week's editorial line :

  • Lifestyle: encompassing a range of radical shifts, driven by the younger generations – from increased urbanisation to changing cultural preferences and habits of consumption.

  • Power: from the transition of geopolitical influence to changing internal economics of sport, with shifting dynamics between athletes right holders and media.

  • Equality: from the movement towards greater gender balance to changing social attitudes and growing awareness of social injustice affecting many groups.

  • Data: the race towards a data economy, underpinned by technological advances and the wide-ranging impacts across all aspects of sport, business and society.

  • Climate: addressing the global impact of climate change, the energy transition and growing social awareness of the climate emergency from the perspective of sport.

  • Health : in a post-crisis world, exploring opportunities for greater alignment between sport and health at all levels – from the benefits of closer political integration to the evolution of sports-led fitness products and their potential to connect with new audiences

For your application, choose one or two of these topics. The focus of your white paper should be on:

  • Understanding of the selected trend/trends and the impact on the sports ecosystem

  • An analysis of the consequences for the future of sport - how will the sports industry/ institutions/governments have to adapt ?

Your white paper should include recent tangible examples coming from diverse backgrounds/countries to feed your analysis.


What is expected of you for the white paper:

  • Use a clear structure throughout, and use headlines

  • Provide a clear problem statement

  • Summarise the evidence you have uncovered in your research in a clear and concise literature review

  • Indicate the sources of data and information you draw on

  • Based on your analysis, provide clear recommendations

This is a substantial piece of work, we would expect that successful applicants would spend about 10 hours on preparing the white paper. This is not an essay or opinion piece but a short report based on your analysis.

You can find ESSEC K-Lab resources on sports business here and here.