When I signed up to take Global Entrepreneurship Lab, I had no idea what the projects would be. I just knew that it would be somewhere in Latin America (most likely in Brazil). I was actually a little worried because I was on the wait list for the class, and we had to start forming teams on the first day of class. The wait list situation thankfully resolved itself by the second class, and my newly formed team began evaluating projects. Scanning through the list, one name caught our eye that just did not seem to belong. ESPN do Brasil....Yes, the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" was one of the G-Lab projects.
For my team of four guys who are also rabid sports fanatics and huge ESPN supporters, this HAD to be our project. There is a matching process for the teams and projects, and this definitely includes a little strategy (and maybe some coalition building as well). Each team is required to submit an application for their top three projects, ranked in order, that includes a writeup of the composition of the team and why the team is right for this project. Lucky for us, our team had ringer, and his name is Jordan Kogler. Before business school, Jordan just happened to work for the Boston Red Sox doing sports marketing, and he will be happy to show you his 2004 World Series Ring.
If your reaction was anything like mine, you would say to yourself, "what is a company like ESPN doing in this class?" Well, the answer has become clear after numerous conference calls with the team in Brazil and a visit to the ESPN headquarters and studios this past week. First of all, any company looking to grow in an emerging market like Brazil is going to be facing any number of large challenges to begin with. Our task was to evaluate and prioritize their existing media channels (print, web, tv, mobile, and radio) and leverage connections here in the US, such as the MIT Media Lab, to create a digital media innovation strategy moving forward. Secondly, the ESPN brand is not nearly the same abroad as it is here in the US.
During our trek to the ESPN headquarters in Bristol, CT, our team was set to meet with all the heads of the different divisions of ESPN International, and our meetings were extremely revealing as we began to define each of the stakeholders and motivations behind decisions that were being made. I never thought it would happen, but I actually began to recal material from my Organizational Processes class in the core.
In addition to the meetings, we got a complete tour of the facilities and studios. Needless to say, I think each of us fulfilled a lifelong dream that day. We ate in the ESPN Cafe, sitting at a table next to Mike and Mike (from Mike and Mike in the morning) in the same place where several of the commercials we have come to know and love have been filmed. Through a stroke of luck, it also happened to be the day of the ESPN Expo where each of the departments sets up a booth to display what it is they do. The three of us on the trip got to play Stump the Schwab, with the Schwab himself! We got to see the newest innovations in 3-D television and how everything else was operated (analytics, research, HR, legal, etc) at ESPN. And of course, when touring the set of our favorite shows, we snapped a few pictures to remind us of the moment we stepped into our dreams....
The next step is a three week internship at ESPN do Brasil in Sao Paulo during the month of January. As part of the class, each of the sponsor companies pays for transportation and lodging over that period, and we have taken it upon ourselves to do an additional week of traveling before the internship begins, partly to acclimate ourselves with the atmosphere in South America and Brazil. Either way, this has been an amazing experience thus far, and we have not even gotten to the best part.
