What Can Sports Teach Us About Business Strategy

An evaluation of how the study of Organizational Behavior in sports industry is relevant to me.

If they would build the company threw acquisitions it take company away the company away from what they are best at and that is supply chain management and marketing low cost same cost all the time even after sales session, with acquisition they would be more forced to use their own factories as to use their own companies, and this could create

Some of them were acquisitions whereas others were mergers of firms in order to earn market share and power to be able to set prices and quantities they sold which maximized their profits. As a consequence, this led to more than 100% increase in premiums consumers had to incur, whereas average income of the US population had only increased by 29% over eight years, AMA stated.

For example, when the company Quaker Oats decided on a huge business decision to buy the beverage company Snapple in 1994. This decision cost almost one and a half billion dollars. Despite spending a great sum to buy Snapple, it turned out to not be profitable and the company had to sell Snapple for three hundred million dollars. This showed how since the company, Quaker Oats, wanted make a huge change in business practices by deciding to buy Snapple. This huge change resulted in the company losing more than one billion dollars.

Major companies and corporations that comprise a big part of the United States economy take advantage of certain opportunities such as going public through IPO’s, acquisitions, and mergers. These three approaches provide an additional resource and many times an advantage to expand, become more profitable, or simply save a company’s existence.

Each of the approaches for expansion – IPO, Acquisition, or Merger – also has weaknesses. An IPO can be expensive and may require 15-25% of the money raised to cover the costs of raising capital in this way. An IPO also requires a tremendous amount of reporting to meet the requirements of the SEC, both for the initial offering and for the future publicly traded company, which not only requires the time and effort of staff members but may also give valuable information to the company’s competitors. All this reporting then creates legal liability for errors and omissions in the prospectus, which adds a further layer of complication. In the end, the former owners lose some control over the business and must share future wealth with the new shareholders. Mergers

Once the goal of corporations became maximizing the value of the firm, they attracted wealthy “corporate raiders”, who used this new corporate philosophy to launch many takeover attempts on companies, with the intent on restructuring these companies, as to increase their stock prices, so that they can “refloat” them for a considerable profit. Most of these takeovers were financed with borrowed money, hence the term lever­aged buyouts, or LBOs. As the article states, “In a typical LBO, the acquirer would buy out the public stockholders and run the com­pany as a private concern, slashing costs and slimming it down. The ultimate aim was to refloat the company on the stock market at a higher valuation”. Initially this was seen as one of the best remedies for the agency issues that surfaced between shareholders and mangers. However as the economic climate changed, many realized that the LBO was not the answer. “When the economy went into a reces­sion during the early nineteen nineties, many of the firms that had gone private, such as Macy’s and Revco, couldn’t keep up their interest

Theoretically it is assumed that mergers improve the performance of the acquiring firm due to

Such companies like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and J.P. Morgan have been in business long enough to know that acquisitions have both positive and negative repercussions. Bank of America was familiar with similar acquisitions when it acquired, at their own risk, two large failed Texas banks in 1988 and several more in subsequent years. With immediate actions it “played a significant role in stabilizing the banking system,” and overall made Bank of America a stronger financial institution. In its turn, Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan due to the acquisitions of Wachovia, Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns at the end of 2008 “Wells’ assets had grown 127% over the prior year while J.P. Morgan Chase’s grew 39%.” As we can observe, right after the acquisitions the profit of the companies skyrocketed immediately. All of the companies were satisfied the moment the acquisitions brought them positive results, thereby proving their risk was worth the

While attending Michigan State University, I have enjoyed many opportunities to learn about kinesiology while developing an interest in sport management. Studying the history of American Sports and the structure of the sports industry has instilled in me a deep appreciation for sports and a desire to learn how a sport manager works in this fascinating system. Hence my desire for pursuing a master degree in your quality program of Sport Management. Once accepted, I wish to develop a solid background in the areas of leadership, management, marketing, law, economics, and finance through academic and hands-on experiences. In addition, I want to engage myself in sport industry internships and related research.

As my freshman year of college was dwindling I was busy applying for summer jobs. All I wanted was a fun summer job that wouldn’t involve washing dishes. I had applied for so many jobs that when I received a call from Human Resources with the Kraft Group I couldn’t even remember what job I had applied for. It turned out that I had applied to be a game day staff member at the Gillette Stadium Ticket Office. A few weeks later I had an interview and the next thing I knew I was working at the stadium my beloved New England Patriots played at. After working the summer at the ticket office I realized that I was really good at my job. Not only was I good at the job, I also enjoyed working for once. Working customer service and dealing with the public came to me naturally. I loved problem solving and

According to our text, innovations can develop as a result of pressures and opportunities from the environment. Environmental determinants are those that exist in the context outside of the organization that facilitate innovation or act as a barrier to innovation. Amy Howe, Ticketmaster’s CEO, sees a common thread in all the major changes the ticketing giant is pursuing. With mobile ticketing, social media – based selling, increased in – venue engagement, seat upgrades, and last minute offers, the millennial audience is in the center of all of these innovations. The entire sports industry is trying to find ways to more deeply reach customers now in their teens to mid – thirties. The millennial generation is a more digitally connected and socially oriented group, with the oldest portion of that demographic just beginning to approach their peak earning years. The millennial audience represents a quarter to a third of their overall revenue base. As baby boomers begin to become a smaller part of the audience for sport teams, millennials will soon be the

Over 30 divestitures in under 20 years in efforts to only keep business that would continue to add value

Cooper also divested many less profitable businesses over an eighteen year period from 1970 to 1988. The benefit added by the Cooper conglomerate to its business units justifies the costs associated with a corporate / centralized control. Furthermore, Cooper’s corporate management effectively managed and invested in the best opportunities for growth with little political bias.

 In general, manager’s look at competition has been too narrow. There is a broad set of competitors that need to be looked at, which are described in “The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy” by Michael E. Porter. The model explains that there are several other forces in the competition for profits that the strategist should be aware of when forming a stagey. Those forces determine the profitability of the industry and are the most important to look at when you are forming a strategy. These five forces are are the “industry structure” model which contain: New Entrants, Suppliers, Buyers, Substitutes, and Existing Competitors.