ONE Championship credits creativity, resilience in surviving pandemic
FACING the challenges brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, one could either sink or swim. For ONE Championship, it has chosen the latter, banking on its team’s collective creativity and resilience.
Speaking at a worldwide conference call for its latest event “ONE: Reign of Dynasties” on Wednesday, ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong shared that the episode with the pandemic has challenged them greatly as an organization, but he was happy to report they have been managing by being on the same page on the direction they want to take.
“I told my team when we had a company meeting at the very beginning of the pandemic that the keys to success in this environment are twofold. One is creativity, because we are going to be faced with problems we’ve never seen before. So, we have to be even more creative about solutions and products that we launch,” Mr. Sityodtong said.
“And then resilience — we are going to get more rejections and failures and obstacles and setbacks and mistakes than ever before. And having the resilience and grit to fight through all that,” he added.
ONE was forced to suspend its live events following its last show in
Singapore on Feb. 28 this year as the coronavirus pandemic began to take further toll in the Asian region.
It was able to resume in June with a series of events in China and beginning in July till September it staged more events in Thailand.
During the long break it had, Mr. Sityodtong said they were able to reassess their thrust and actually developed as an organization.
“You know, we’ve evolved from much more than just a sports media property. We’re truly now you know, a media company with a diverse content stack, and I think this is something that COVID has brought out in us,” he said.
Mr. Sityodtong cited online tournaments they had through their esports division as well as coming up with new content stacks that are not tied to their shows, like The Apprentice, as examples of ways they are going about it.
“All in all, I’m very proud of my team. I mean, the fact that we’ve been up and running almost every other week, it’s been a testament to how incredible the team at ONE Championship is.”
ONE: Reign of Dynasties happening on Oct. 9 in Singapore marks the first time the promotion will play the islandnation since February.
It will be headlined by the Strawweight Muay Thai World Championship fight between champion Sam-A Gaiyanghadao of Thailand and challenger Josh Tonna of Australia.
Co-headlining is the flyweight clash of Finland’s Aleksi Toivonen and Australia’s Reece McLaren.
For Mr. Sityodtong, they are taking the latest Singapore event as a positive development and a continued encouragement for them to forge ahead.
“I hate to sound trite but the show must go on… And one quote that comes to mind, always is, you know: ‘Ships are not made for the calm waters of the harbor, ships are made for the rough seas in search of new horizons’ … ONE Championship is thriving in this environment. The show must go on. You will only see more and more shows from [us].” —