For Kirsten Corio, the trail to overseeing industrial operations for the USA Tennis Affiliation (USTA) wasn’t precisely linear. Actually, she studied biology earlier than beginning her profession in sports activities enterprise.
Now, Corio is the chief industrial officer for the USTA and leads a workforce answerable for producing over $500 million in income yearly, together with ticket gross sales, hospitality, world media rights, sponsorships, merchandise and digital technique.
Corio spoke to Fortune from her workplace on the USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Heart earlier this week in the course of the U.S. Open and shared her management recommendation, networking suggestions and extra.
The questions and her solutions have been edited for size and readability.
You’ve been the USTA’s chief industrial officer for a bit over three years and have been with the USTA for almost 10 years total. What does a day appear like for you earlier than the U.S. Open after which in the course of the event?
On this function, I’ve the privilege of getting oversight of the biggest traces of enterprise for the U.S. Open. That’s ticket gross sales, hospitality, world media rights, sponsorship and merchandise, every of which is supported by phenomenal, skilled groups of people that, in lots of instances, have been doing this for over 20 years.
Within the off season, the 49 weeks that we’re not working right here, we’re actually in technique, ideation, brainstorm and budgeting mode, after which we transfer the cadence to operations, planning and execution. It’s like for those who took an NBA season, and crammed it into three weeks. Whereas their cadence is a bit bit extra up and down when it comes to working, in our case the cadence is extra unfold out for the 12 months.
From my perspective, I bounce round all through these days from enterprise to enterprise to be as useful and supportive as I could be, and the place I can, coach or, as a accomplice, monitor all of the enterprise well being metrics to allow us to forecast the place we could land from a ticket gross sales or attendance perspective. We’ve obtained huge funds targets to hit, and we’ve additionally obtained enhancements to the fan expertise that we need to guarantee are made and measured.
We’re internet hosting enterprise purchasers and present companions each day and each evening, and internet hosting mates of the enterprise each day and each evening as nicely. That helps us when it comes to benchmarking greatest practices in opposition to different sports activities properties and industries and getting inspiration on how we will elevate our personal sport.
You introduced up the NBA and spent about 14 years working there earlier than becoming a member of the USTA. What was that transition like?
I believe that adjustment might be the starkest when it comes to the cadence of how the season operates versus the three weeks [at the US Open]. That was a serious adjustment. It’s a very stark change from having 70,000 followers and the power that they bring about you each single day for 3 weeks, to being in an workplace and it’s quiet, and also you’ve obtained your assembly rooms and also you’ve obtained your scheduled day.
The second factor I’ll say is the division that I spent most of my time on the NBA, the workforce advertising and marketing and enterprise operations group, is concentrated on figuring out, constructing and spreading greatest practices throughout the person groups. It’s largely a consultative function.
Having the ability to take what I discovered and put it into motion and to personal the chance of the choices that you just make and to reap the rewards of the choices that you just make [at the USTA] was an enormous change, but in addition one which I used to be actually excited for and welcomed.
One factor you talked about a minute in the past that I respect is the way you coach your workforce in the course of the event. What’s a number of the greatest teaching or management you’ve acquired in your profession?
I’ve been privileged to have a number of the greatest mentors within the enterprise, simply by happenstance and being in the appropriate place on the proper time. I’ve Stacey Allaster, who’s our CEO {of professional} tennis and the U.S. Open event director, as an amazing mentor and coach. She believes in lifting up her employees and enabling and empowering them to make selections and personal their success.
She talks rather a lot about Billie Jean King’s well-known quote, “pressure is a privilege,” and reminds us all that if you’re feeling squeezed, otherwise you’re feeling careworn or anxious, that stress is a privilege on the courtroom extends to the enterprise aspect.
She is an actual advocate for lifting up feminine management, and he or she’s been a mentor and an inspiration to these of us who could have come up in in an trade the place we didn’t see many individuals who regarded like like us round a boardroom. She’s had an excellent profession, and he or she leads with humility and kindness.
And that’s additionally true and extends to my different mentor, Lew Sherr [former USTA CEO and chief revenue officer]. The 2 of them actually embody what it means to be an empathetic chief.
On the identical time, they demand excellence and problem me, and people of us round them, to succeed in increased than we may have ever thought.
You talked about that you just do quite a lot of networking earlier than and in the course of the event. What’s a few of your networking recommendation?
Be open. You by no means know who you’re going to speak to or who you’re going to satisfy in a room which may be a future lifelong pal and potential future colleague or teammate or mentor.
Construct bridges. Don’t burn them. These of us who’ve saved these bridges intact have translated actually simply and authentically into lifelong friendships. For me, it’s actually these two issues: Be open to everybody and construct bridges, don’t burn them.
I observed in your LinkedIn that you just studied biology at Boston Faculty. I’d love to listen to your path from learning biology to the place you’re at the moment.
It’s a bit bit unorthodox and non-linear, however I let you know, the biomechanics of tennis athleticism actually tie again to my fascination with science. I grew up loving science, and I assumed I wished to be a veterinarian for many of my adolescent life, and I actually appreciated biology. I didn’t know precisely what I wished to do with that diploma, but it surely turned obvious for me shortly after commencement that I undoubtedly wanted a bit extra of a socially vibrant profession that might take me to quite a lot of completely different locations and the place I may meet quite a lot of completely different individuals and be in a extra entertainment-focused trade.
I wouldn’t say I sought it out. I used to be fortunate to be in the appropriate place on the proper time, working at a consulting agency for a software program firm that was doing enterprise with the NBA in one of many first Buyer Relationship Administration (CRM) startups, and the NBA was constructing its first CRM database. And in order that was the transition for me. That was the bridge. That was the break from post-college to sports activities enterprise.
And so it’s humorous when younger individuals ask me at the moment, ‘How do you break into the sports business industry? Tell me about your path.’ And I’m unsure mine is a replicable one, however to return to the teachings of being open and constructing bridges, good issues could observe. You by no means know. These classes served me nicely, even again then.
Editor’s be aware: The writer has coated tennis for Sports activities Illustrated, The New York Occasions, Tennis Journal and the USTA over a decade in the past.
