IF Gnistan is one of Finland’s major football organizations, combining a strong grassroot community with ambitious top-level football. The club has nearly 1,500 players and both its men’s and women’s teams compete at the highest level in Finland. Gnistan is building competitive teams with long-term sporting ambitions and commercial organization with corporate partners, and at same time also serving a large football community of juniors, seniors, fans, volunteers, and owners. This creates a challenge: how to combine these two angles under one strategy.
Gnistan wanted to do things differently and instead of hiring a development director or a consultant they explored AI opportunities and found Suunta.ai. Suunta.ai helped Gnistan to create strategy with stakeholders and support strategic thinking. In the future, Gnistan also sees Suunta.ai as a development director and partner in turning strategy into concrete actions and growth.
The challenge: How to focus on strategy work with limited resources
For CEO Ilkka Vanala, the goal for the strategy work was clear: to develop one shared strategy that connects participation, community, elite performance, financial perspective and development management. “We decided that the direction we want to go is to enable participation with a huge number of juniors and seniors, but at the same time to compete at the highest level in Finland and be in Europe in the future. We want to be one club, one Gnistan”, says Vanala.
Gnistan already had previous strategic work in place, but the operating environment had changed significantly. The stadium had burned down and a new temporary stand had been built. The women’s team had reached the top league, the men’s team was also competing at the highest level, and the club’s ambitions had grown.
Like many football clubs, Gnistan’s small team is deeply involved in daily operations. There is no separate development director whose only job is to lead long-term direction. This responsibility often falls on the CEO, who already has many operational priorities. “We knew it was really the time to upgrade and renew the strategy but our resources were limited. So we wanted to try if AI could help us in this process.”
Documentation and stakeholder input into one place
Gnistan chose Suunta.ai as a tool to support the strategy renewal process and two things were especially important. First, they wanted a secure and focused environment where existing strategic material and documentation could be brought together. Second, they wanted to involve a wide group of stakeholders in a structured way.
Gnistan uploaded previous materials into Suunta.ai, including earlier strategy documents and relevant football strategy frameworks from UEFA and the Finnish Football Association. Gnistan also used Suunta.ai’s strategic survey to gather input from owners, fans, volunteers, corporate partners, the board and the organization. Almost 100 responses were collected and used as input for the strategy development.
From scattered input to strategic focus
Suunta.ai helped Gnistan to bring together existing documentation, board input, organizational insight and community feedback into one strategy process. Suunta.ai analyzed large amounts of information and identified the most important themes. Our collaboration also included co-development. Gnistan was the first external user of Suunta.ai’s second version, and the pilot helped develop features related to community involvement and input prioritization.
Gnistan is now finalizing the strategy with the board and Vanala is satisfied with the help of Suunta.ai: “When I look at the AI’s answers and feedback, it has covered all the most important topics from our board input. So it’s working.”
Suunta.ai as a development director
The value of Suunta.ai does not end when the strategy is approved. Gnistan sees AI as a long-term support for strategic development, follow-up and operational planning. Instead of treating strategy as a fixed document for the next three to five years, Gnistan wants to keep it alive, review it regularly and update it when needed.
Vanala describes Suunta.ai as something that could take the role of a “development director” inside the organization, helping to develop sub-strategies, action plans and daily operational work across areas such as community, competition, marketing and sales. “In the future, in the organizational map, I will put Suunta.ai there as a development director.”
As Gnistan continues to grow, Suunta.ai can also support project-based work, including major future initiatives such as stadium development. “For us, Suunta.ai is not only a tool for creating a strategy. It is becoming a practical partner for keeping strategy alive and turning it into concrete action.”, Vanala continues.
For us, Suunta.ai is not only a tool for creating a strategy. It is becoming a practical partner for keeping strategy alive and turning it into concrete action. In the future, in the organizational map, I will put Suunta.ai there as a development director.