Powering Pelotonia
OM Blog: July 7, 2010
By Ken Boyer, Fisher College of Business and Rohit Verma, Cornell University
Authors: Operations and Supply Chain Management for the 21st Century, 2009, Southwestern Cengage Publishing
The early weeks of July include the famous Tour de France, which Lance Armstrong is trying to win for, what, the millionth time? There are numerous other cycling events around the world. In its second year, the Pelotonia is a grassroots bike tour with one goal: to end cancer. Pelotonia raises money for innovative and life saving cancer research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. Driven by the passion of its cyclists and volunteers, and their family and friends, Pelotonia’s annual cycling experience will be a place of hope, energy and determination. Pelotonia proudly directs 100% of every dollar raised to research. It is a community of people coming together to chase down cancer and defeat it.
Pelotonia Logo
A noble purpose and a fun event for the ~3000 participants that ride – but what does this have to do with managing operations? A lot. Let’s start with a list of volunteer opportunities from the Pelotonia website:
- Pre-Event Course Preparation
- Expo Area Setup
- Site Logistics
- Food and Beverage Service
- Registration / Information Tables
- Bike Maintenance
- Communications Crew
- Road Crew/Support Vehicles
- Bike Corral & Storage
- Bag Check & Luggage Management
- Merchandise Sales
- Site Beautification
There is another link that describes volunteer opportunities in detail. There is a mechanical crew that provides mechanical assistance to riders along the route. There is a luggage management team to organize transportation, delivery and tracking of riders’ baggage during the event. There is a route signage team that puts up route signs at the beginning of the event and then takes them down on completion. I hope this team is good with its GPS – imagine hundreds of lost, hot and tired riders!
Putting together an event like this requires excellent project management, careful inventory management (remember those luggage bags and imagine trying to get all of them to the right place – plus food management, signs, parts etc.), scheduling and numerous other activities. The Pelotonia is sponsored by Huntington Bank, the Limited Brands foundation and Peggy and Richard Santulli. This group has committed $8 million in funding over five years so that 100% of funds raised by riders go directly to support cancer research. The thousands of riders and volunteers raised $4.5 million in 2009 and are hoping to better that amount in 2010. So, grab your bike, or find a rider to sponsor – it is for a great cause!
Sponsor a Pelotonia Rider:
- http://www.pelotonia.org/ride/about.jsp
