Barça, a case for study at Harvard

FC Barcelona has become a brand with a global impact, yet despite this Barça has been able to maintain its very essence and commitment to Catalonia. Under this premise, the prestigious American university Harvard are building course contents, under the theme of Creative Industries, in which Barça’s success will be studied.

The academic in charge of the course is Anita Elberse, who has carried out similar studies of successful cases in the world of sport and entertainment such as those of LeBron James, the NFL and Alex Ferguson, according to the newspaper La Vanguardia.

FC Barcelona’s success is the perfect marriage between the Club’s global reach and its commitment to more local issues, conclude the experts from one of the United States’ most famous educational institutions following on from several meetings with Club executives.

The seminar will focus on various different aspects of the Club: la Masia, its particular style of play, its commitment to Catalonia and the images of stars such as Neymar, Leo Messi and Luis Suárez. It will also touch on the need to bring together the Club’s desire to become a global force and at the same time retain its local roots.

This is how, according to those in charge of the course, FC Barcelona is able to safeguard the sporting excellent of its teams and consequently the success of its business model.

Digital success

One of the successes of the Barça brand has been in the area of new technology. Barça glocal (global + digital) is digital. Aside from its sporting success, the Club maintains a business model in the digital arena, having become according to the magazine Adweek the principal producer of digital sports contents in the world.