Anderson Strategy Group Increases Access to Adaptive Sports

By Apurv Awasthi (’16), George Buckley (MBA/MPH ’16), Jane Chynoweth (’15), Arthur Hu (’16), Danielle Koo (’16) and Nicholas Salameh ( FEMBA ’16)

Nick and Apurv with a coach and two athletes from Argentina. The athlete in the white shirt is sporting his new Go Bruins! pin on his backpack.

As members of the Anderson Strategy Group, our team — comprising Apurv Awasthi (’16), George Buckley (MBA/MPH ’16), Jane Chynoweth (’15), Arthur Hu (’16), Danielle Koo (’16) and Nicholas Salameh ( FEMBA ’16) — was tasked with helping our nonprofit client, Sports & Social Change, identify ways to increase access to adaptive sports. Participation in adaptive sports by people with disabilities is proven to have significant physical and mental health benefits, and so, from the start of our project, our team wanted to think about this issue within a global context so that we could have the greatest possible impact.

Although our client’s main goal was to increase access to adaptive sports, they also wanted us to analyze whether or not this could be achieved by reducing equipment costs through the use of 3-D printing manufacturing. This more specific goal resulted in several distinct work streams, including: 1) understanding the current technological capabilities and cost implications of 3-D printing; 2) understanding the current adaptive sports equipment market for sports wheelchairs, sit-skis and sports prosthetics; and 3) understanding the specific challenges, needs and price sensitivities of people with disabilities around the world.

In our secondary research, we came across the 2015 Caixa Loterias Athletics Grand Prix, an International Paralympic Committee event in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We felt that this event would provide us the greatest opportunity to speak with international adaptive athletes and uncover common barriers to accessing adaptive sports on a global level. In addition, this event’s close proximity to Rio de Janeiro provided us an additional opportunity to meet with and form an invaluable relationship with the Rio 2016 Games Committee. With the support of the UCLA Anderson Center for Global Management and the AMR office, two members of our team, Nick and Apurv, traveled to Brazil from April 22 to 28 armed with a very limited knowledge of Portuguese, surveys translated into six different languages and a bag full of UCLA Anderson swag to hand out as gifts.

The first three days of the primary research trip were spent in Sao Paulo at the Caixa Loterias Athletics Grand Prix. As a result of extensive outreach in the weeks leading up to the trip, Nick and Apurv were able to meet with various members of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee who helped them connect with athletes participating in the event. In total, the event yielded survey responses from 19 athletes from eight countries on four continents around the world, including South America, Africa, Europe and Asia. In addition to speaking with athletes, Nick and Apurv sat down with Andrew Parsons, president of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee and vice president of the International Paralympic Committee. During this meeting, they learned about several initiatives undertaken by the Brazilian Paralympic Committee that have resulted in a tenfold increase in the level of participation in adaptive sports at the grassroots level, and an increase in Brazil’s medal standings from 24th in the 2000 Sydney Paralympics to 7th in the 2012 London Paralympics.

Nick and Apurv speaking with Anderson alumna Mariana Behr (’02), director of education for Rio 2016 during the 500 days until the Games celebration.

The final two days of the trip were spent in Rio de Janeiro, where Nick and Apurv met with several members of the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee, including Mariana Behr (’02), director of education for Rio 2016.

Behr shared insights about the education initiatives of the Games, which include implementing education programs throughout Brazil, informing physical education teachers on how to coach adaptive sports, and changing negative perceptions of people with disabilities by exposing children to adaptive sports.

Overall, the primary research trip uncovered several common key issues:

1. Adaptive sports equipment is extremely difficult to obtain for both financial and logistical reasons.
2. Shipping costs, distribution layers and import tariffs result in equipment costs that are up to three times the price in the U.S.
3. There is limited availability of adaptive sports due to lack of organizations and infrastructure.

Most important, the primary research trip also revealed several key ways that access to adaptive sports is being increased in parts of the world, ways our team believes can be replicated on a global level:

1. Angola is working directly with Chinese manufacturers to purchase unassembled sports chairs costing under $200, to be assembled in Angola.
2. The Brazil Paralympic Committee’s (CPB) “Net Concept” is an exportable adaptive sports development roadmap that has helped increase participation rates by 10 times and doubled the Paralympic medal count in Brazil over the last 13 years.
3. Many global markets are large enough to support regional assembly plants, which would significantly reduce shipping costs, import tariffs and distribution layers.
4. The Brazilian Paralympic Committee has begun acting as an umbrella adaptive equipment purchasing organization, realizing scale discounts and yielding its power to negotiate import tariffs with the government on bulk purchases. Equipment is then distributed by CPB to smaller, local organizations in Brazil. For example, Brazil bought 1,000 sports chairs typically priced at $1,000 per chair at $800 per chair and was able to negotiate zero import taxes on this purchase.