For Kirsten Corio, the trail to overseeing industrial operations for america Tennis Affiliation (USTA) wasn’t precisely linear. In reality, 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 Middle earlier this week throughout the U.S. Open and shared her management recommendation, networking ideas and extra.
The questions and her solutions have been edited for size and readability.
You’ve been the USTA’s chief industrial officer for just a little over three years and have been with the USTA for almost 10 years total. What does a day seem like for you earlier than the U.S. Open after which throughout the match?
On this position, 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 when you took an NBA season, and crammed it into three weeks. Whereas their cadence is just a little bit extra up and down by way of 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 might be, and the place I can, coach or, as a associate, monitor all of the enterprise well being metrics to allow us to forecast the place we might land from a ticket gross sales or attendance perspective. We’ve obtained massive finances objectives 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 on daily basis and each evening, and internet hosting associates of the enterprise on daily basis and each evening as nicely. That helps us by way of 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 by way of 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 carry 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 targeted on figuring out, constructing and spreading greatest practices throughout the person groups. It’s largely a consultative position.
With the ability to take what I discovered and put it into motion and to personal the danger of the choices that you simply make and to reap the rewards of the choices that you simply make [at the USTA] was a giant 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 recognize is the way you coach your workforce throughout the match. What’s among the greatest teaching or management you’ve obtained in your profession?
I’ve been privileged to have among the greatest mentors within the enterprise, simply by happenstance and being in the precise place on the proper time. I’ve Stacey Allaster, who’s our CEO {of professional} tennis and the U.S. Open match director, as an incredible mentor and coach. She believes in lifting up her workers 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, “strain is a privilege,” and reminds us all that if you’re feeling squeezed, otherwise you’re feeling pressured or anxious, that strain is a privilege on the court docket 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 might have come up in in an business 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 similar time, they demand excellence and problem me, and people of us round them, to achieve increased than we might have ever thought.
You talked about that you simply do plenty of networking earlier than and throughout the match. 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 fulfill in a room which may be a future lifelong buddy 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 seen in your LinkedIn that you simply studied biology at Boston School. I’d love to listen to your path from learning biology to the place you’re as we speak.
It’s just a little bit unorthodox and non-linear, however I inform you, 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 favored biology. I didn’t know precisely what I wished to do with that diploma, but it surely grew to become obvious for me shortly after commencement that I positively wanted a bit extra of a socially vibrant profession that may take me to plenty of completely different locations and the place I might meet plenty of completely different individuals and be in a extra entertainment-focused business.
I wouldn’t say I sought it out. I used to be fortunate to be in the precise 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 as we speak, ‘How do you break into the sports activities enterprise business? Inform 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 might comply with. You by no means know. These classes served me nicely, even again then.
Editor’s be aware: The creator has coated tennis for Sports activities Illustrated, The New York Instances, Tennis Journal and the USTA over a decade in the past.
