Yasmeen Malik

Smith, Anthony F. and Hollihan, Keith. ESPN The Company: The Story and Lessons Behind the Most Fanatical Brand in Sports. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc. 2009

ESPN The Company

ESPN monopolizes the sports media industry today, but it grew from humble beginnings. Anthony Smith, who worked as a management consultant for ESPN, documents the rapid growth of this sports giant through the last 30 years in his book, ESPN The Company. The most central part of ESPN is it’s mission statement – to serve fans, no matter where they are or who their favorite team is. Throughout the book this essential phrase is brought up repeatedly. Smith points to specific moments in ESPN history where the question, “how is this going to help us serve fans better?” swayed managerial decisions one way or another.

The book touches on a hiring myth at ESPN – that they only hire you if you’re a fanatic. Fanaticism was never a requirement to work at ESPN, but a love of sports seemed natural if you were willing to move to Bristol for a job. ESPN prides itself on valuing teamwork, but unlike many of its competitors it has developed training, measurement, consequences and rewards for that cornerstone. The belief is that you cannot highlight something as a value if you are unwilling to hold people accountable for their actions in the workplace. One of ESPN’s greatest strengths is the clarity of values. No matter how large the corporation has become, ESPN has held true to its principle values and managed to stay lax on rules and produce fast and inexpensive programming.

Smith describes each stage of leadership that ESPN has undergone, detailing the pros and cons of each president and the lasting marks each left on the company as a whole. One walks away with an overarching understanding that every stage of an organization’s growth demands different styles of leadership. Instead of surrounding themselves with those who held similar views and types of leadership, every president of ESPN evaluated their strengths and weaknesses and filled in the gaps with lower management positions. Just 15 years after ESPN’s founding, the company came under the acquisition of Disney. A key element of that partnership involved “clarifying the goals, roles, and procedures up front.” Disney and ESPN collaborated to gain the most from each other’s organizations and to work together toward common goals and a beneficial relationship on both ends.

ESPN’s leadership and management style reflects Mary Parker Follett’s collaborative management model. Executives rarely make decisions alone; every project requires expertise from areas across the company. This method keeps departments open to suggestions and flexibility within the organization that allows for friendships and cooperation that wouldn’t otherwise exist. Within ESPN there are countless stories of entry-level employees becoming high-level management, a great example is current ESPN President George Bodenheimer. He was hired as a mailroom clerk and worked his way up through the ranks. At ESPN knowledge, not seniority, determines who is promoted. Smith portrays ESPN as an all hands on deck environment.

This book is not just for sports lovers. Smith does an excellent job of breaking down individual strengths and weaknesses of the company and how they relate to businesses practices on a larger scale. As a book about a sports mogul you expect excessive sports jargon, but Smith minimizes this, only using catch phrases where it works and is justified. The dreamer and the entrepreneur can appreciate this book for its honesty; the businessman can relate to the hard work, long hours and management risks taken by the founders of ESPN. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants an insight into what it takes to run a start-up and how to build and grow a brand.