Leaders Worth Knowing Podcast

Out of Dana White's head and onto UFC Fight Island | The logistics behind a ready-made sports bubble | the new Covid-era fan data driving sport's decision-making processes. Episode 98 of the Leaders Sport Business Podcast - brought to you in partnership with Arc - features a conversation with UFC COO Lawrence Epstein (begins at 7:15) on the eve of the MMA promotion's latest event on 'Fight Island' in Abu Dhabi. Epstein has been a driving force within the UFC since 2007, under the previous ownership of Zuffa and the Fertittas, and, since the $4 billion acquisition in 2016, under Endeavor. On the conversational agenda: - How the UFC managed to come back first with Fight Island; - The Making of UFC Fight Island; - The operational challenges - and efficiencies - that Covid-era, fanless fights entail; - Why and how the UFC's media deal with ESPN has proved transformative; - How life has changed under Endeavor; - What the UFC knows about its fans and how it knows it; - Dana White: the frontman, motivator, spirit and ethos. This episode of the Leaders Sport Business podcast is supported by global Facilities management firm Arc. ARC has proudly brought some amazing imagery and stunning visual vibrancy back to the heart of London with the most incredible range of graphics. Team ARC embraced its client’s design brief and has quite literary transformed many of London’s iconic development sites into some of the most visually impacting areas in Europe. visit www.e-arc.co.uk for more information.

Transforming a football business into a media and entertainment investment firm | Buying into Leeds United | The 4-point plan driving 49ers Enterprises | Why date nights are sacrosanct in the pandemic. Episode 97 of the Leaders Sport Business Podcast - brought to you in partnership with Arc - features a conversation with Paraag Marathe (first part begins at 05:12, second part begins at 46:21), EVP of Football Operations at the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, President of 49ers Enterprises, board member at Premier League side Leeds United, and Chairman of USA Cricket. Having been with the 49ers since 2001, Marathe has developed into one of the most versatile and broad-minded senior executives in sport. His current responsibilities include the management of the 49ers player contracts and salary cap; the strategic direction and day-to-day oversight of 49ers Enterprises, the franchise's innovative, growth-focused investment vehicle; representing the 49ers' viewpoint on the board of Leeds United, in which the 49ers took a 10% stake in 2018; and the development of a Twenty20 cricket league in the US. On the conversational agenda: - Why managing an NFL salary cap is like managing an investment fund portfolio; - The 2014 decision that transformed the 49ers from a "billion-dollar lemonade stand" to a media and entertainment juggernaut; - The 4-point plan driving 49ers Enterprises: 1) Incubate; 2) Invest; 3) Consult; 4) Capitalise; - The dynamics of attraction between sport and the VC world; - Why the 49ers invested in Leeds United, and why a further investment could be around the corner; - Switching off from work through a commitment to running and date nights. Elsewhere in the podcast, James Emmett and David Cushnan reflect on some of the key themes covered at Leaders Week Direct, including the process for preparing venues to reopen to crowds after a pause for the pandemic. They're joined for the discussion (which starts at 33:20) by Suri Suriyakumar, CEO of Arc. ARC is at the forefront of reshaping the way the world’s businesses have remained operational with their unique range of social distancing signage, safety products and services. Their consultation and on-site and on-line survey process have transformed a complex problem into a simple solution for thousands of global clients. For more information, visit e-arc.co.uk. We're grateful to Suri and his team for their support.

The plight of athletes in a pandemic | Building businesses off the field | The new environment for social justice campaigning in sport. Episode 96 of the Leaders Sport Business Podcast - brought to you in partnership with Onside Law - features a conversation with two current NFL athletes: Michael Thomas, a safety for the Houston Texans, and Brandon Copeland, linebacker for the New England Patriots (discussion begins at 14:02). They’ve been in the league for eight and seven years respectively, and both play active leadership roles in the NFL Players union - the NFLPA. In fact, Michael and Brandon are high achieving examples of what the NFLPA calls #AthleteAnd - a programme of activity that helps NFL athletes build businesses and interests away from the field of play and to define themselves as more than an athlete. Both players have numerous business interests, charitable endeavours, and qualifications - Brandon is even a professor of financial literacy - and we delve into all of that, as well as the fight for racial justice that is playing out across the front line of sport. Before that though, we speak to Sophie Wilkinson, partner at our partners at Onside Law, to set the scene briefly from this side of the Atlantic, to reflect on some of the major issues athletes are experiencing as sport stutters back, and to look at where flexibility and an open mindset have paid dividends. On the conversational agenda: - Flexibility in endorsement contract options and partnership opportunities; - The fight for racial justice and how the mood has shifted among the players in the NFL; - Taking the opportunities presented by the players union; - Setting up systems to spread and filter the education and benefits that come from the NFL down through communities; - Leveraging your status as an athlete to get calls returned, emails answered, and businesses set for the future; - The experience of playing in front of empty stadiums; - The biggest mistakes Michael and Brandon ever made.

Rebuilding an international race calendar through Covid | New tracks, new formats, a new future | The next set of challenges major rights holders face. Episode 95 of the Leaders Sport Business Podcast - brought to you in partnership with Onside Law - features a conversation with Formula 1's Global Director of Promoters and Business Relations Chloe Targett-Adams (discussion starts at 11.50). Having joined the global motorsports series in 2009 as a senior legal counsel, Targett-Adams has been a key part of both the 'old' and 'new' leadership teams at Formula 1. She worked closely with former CEO Bernie Ecclestone, and is now a driving force within the executive team, led by CEO Chase Carey, set up by Liberty Media, which completed its $4.4 billion acquisition of Formula 1 in 2017. Targett-Adams is responsible for building and maintaining Formula 1's relationships with its race promoters and the government jurisdictions within which they sit. When Formula 1 was forced to break down then rebuild its season following the outbreak of the pandemic, it fell to Targett-Adams and her team to piece together a race calendar that would meet FIA specifications, hit revenue-unlocking contractual obligations, keep promoters and governments onside, and maintain safety and security. On the conversational agenda: - The remarkable feat of rebuilding the calendar into a workable 17-race, international schedule; - The stresses, strains, challenges and pitfalls along the way, and the stakeholder tensions in play; - New circuits, new formats, and the chances of taking both forward into the future; - The return to 'normal' in 2021; - What good leadership has looked like in 2020; - The F1 of 2009 vs the F1 of now - a modern organisational overhaul for a 21st Century company.

Selling 750,000 tickets in a pandemic | Scenario planning and building consumer confidence | Athlete advocacy and sport as a platform for driving social change. Episode 94 of the Leaders Sport Business Podcast features a conversation with Rugby League World Cup 2021 CEO and Customer Director Jon Dutton and Terri Lynam (begins at 18:34). With just over a year to go before the tournament - still scheduled to take place to full capacity crowds in venues across England - Dutton and Lynam look ahead to the 21st September opening of the ticket pre-sale window, and explain their strategy for shifting 750,000 tickets during a pandemic. Before that, David Cushnan and James Emmett discuss the plans being made across the sports industry for the return of socially distanced fans to sports venues, and look into the gathering momentum behind the athlete advocacy movement, and sport's role as a platform for protest. On the conversational agenda: - The factors that go into designing a ticketing plan; - How Rugby League World Cup 2021 organisers intend to hit their 'aspirational target' of 750,000 tickets sold; - Balancing commercial imperatives with accessibility and inclusivity objectives amid the uncertainty of a new Covid events landscape; - Scenario planning; - Stakeholder communications and new, remote way to run major events teams.  

The new Netflix CMO on the business of being badass | Leaving a big job at Endeavor for a bigger one at Netflix in the midst of a pandemic | The role of the modern marketer | The marcomms challenge in sport, who's done it best, and what comes next. Episode 93 of the Leaders Sport Business Podcast features a conversation with new Netflix CMO Bozoma Saint John (discussion starts at 8:42). Saint John is one of the most impactful marketers in modern corporate America. Her resumé reads like a Fortune 500 roll call: leading marketing roles at the intersection between consumer goods, tech, and entertainment at Pepsi, Apple, Uber and Endeavor presaged her current job as CMO of streaming giant Netflix, a role she took up at the beginning of August, one week after recording this conversation for Leaders. Wherever she has gone across her career, Saint John has made a deep impression, her skill for brand storytelling allied closely to her own executive boldness and sense of personal authenticity. She is currently combining her new role with continued work on a series of podcasts co-hosted with TV journalist Katie Couric - Back to Biz with Katie and Boz - and the completion of a five-week set of digital personal and professional workshops - the Badass Workshop. On the conversational agenda: - The 'authentic self' and how to define it; bringing it to bear every day; and how you look and how you feel play into that; - The business of being badass - the what, why and how behind the workshops; - The job of the marketer and how that changed - and changed again - over the course of the pandemic; - Lessons in shutting down and starting again from Back to Biz with Katie and Boz: guests include Kara Swisher, Judd Apatow, Mary Barra, Brian Chesky, and Ashley Graham; - Zoom fatigue and communicating in the new digital-first age, and offenders who turn off mic and camera; - The chutzpah it takes to start a big new job during Covid; - What great leadership looks like today.  

TikTok's move into sports | The balance between commercialisation and maintaining authenticity | Benny the Bull and the Chicago Bulls' TikTok success story. Episode 92 of the Leaders Sport Business Podcast features a conversation with Harish Sarma (discussion starts at 8:47), Global Strategic Partnerships and Corporate Development at ByteDance, the Chinese parent company, for now at least, of social platform TikTok. TikTok is one of the fastest growing platforms in the world, with user numbers soaring over the course of the pandemic. As of June this year, TikTok's Monthly Active Users (MAUs) were estimated at 800 million. As the political rift between the US and China has deepened, Chinese tech firms have come under pressure from US authorities, none more so, perhaps, than TikTok. Just two weeks after Sarma joined us to record this episode, a hectic weekend of rumour, statement and politicking has seen President Trump apparently threaten to ban TikTok in the US, with ByteDance countering with an offer to fully divest the management and, crucially, data storage of its US operation to a US company. Microsoft appears to be that company and it now has 45 days to get a deal done. Sarma, who was recruited for the position at ByteDance from his role as Director of International Media Distribution at the NBA a year ago, remains focused on the development and maturation of the platform as a commercial proposition. On the agenda: - How TikTok went from Sarma's client at the NBA to his employer today; - What sport means to TikTok; - The 'show me the money' question and where TikTok could sit in the sports rights ecosystem; - How to 'do TikTok' as a sports entity, and approaches to content marketing that are working; - 'Selling out' vs making money: the fine line that any maturing platform needs to tread; - The trend for odd job titles at social media companies and what employee satisfaction looks like.  

What 'accelerated change' actually means during Covid | Connectivity and the new matchday experience | Start-ups to keep an eye on. Episode 91 of the Leaders Sport Business Podcast features two conversations on technology, innovation, and the route back from Covid for sport. The first is with AT&T Business Solutions Marketing Director Guy Poorman (discussion starts at 8:56) and focuses on connectivity and the enhancements to remote business operations and fan safety, security and engagement it's likely to bring. The second is with Fielding Jamieson, Strategy Director at Innovation Consultancy R/GA's Global Sports Venture Studios (discussion starts at 24:01). On the agenda: - The three pillars of business adaptation during Covid; - Bringing fans back to venues by making them feel 'connected, protected and respected'. - Is this really an era of accelerated innovation? - What the new in-venue fan experience will look and feel like; - The start-ups to keep an eye on into 2021.

Why digital strategy is dead | Why in-house websites are not | The long-term impacts of Covid on football. This episode of the Leaders Sport Business Podcast is supported by digital specialists iX.co, and as part of that support, they are giving the podcast audience an opportunity to receive a complementary Digital Maturity Audit. This audit will analyze your systems, processes and current digital engagement and provide valuable insights for improvement and a roadmap to make better digital decisions. This is an exclusive, limited time offer so go to https://www.ix.co/digital-maturity-audit today to request your Digital Maturity Audit. Episode 90 of the Leaders Sport Business Podcast features a conversation between iX.co's Becki Civello and AS Roma's Chief Strategy Officer Paul Rogers (discussion begins at 7:57). Rogers is based in Boston, where the Italian club’s ownership is headquartered, and is responsible for the club’s business and international strategy as well as Roma’s media department, including its award-winning digital and social media activities globally. Rogers and AS Roma have become renowned as digital innovators, setting trends that have been picked up across football and the wider sports industry through a bold approach to content output, tone, and platform choice. On the conversational agenda: - How the lockdown affected AS Roma and the club's overnight transformation overnight into a content company and aid agency; - Fan engagement and how Covid has enforced the importance of online channels for fan engagement; - Tonal shifts, content formats, and humanising athletes; - Alignment between club strategy and digital execution and why the concept of 'the digital strategy' is dead; - The work of Roma Cares in the community; - Long-term impacts and reimagining the match day experience; - Why the ‘death of the website’ has been overstated.

Behind-closed-doors broadcasting | Changes to production and to fan engagement techniques | The new rights landscape. This episode of the Leaders Sport Business Podcast is supported by digital specialists iX.co, and as part of that support, they are giving the podcast audience an opportunity to receive a complementary Digital Maturity Audit. This audit will analyze your systems, processes and current digital engagement and provide valuable insights for improvement and a roadmap to make better digital decisions. This is an exclusive, limited time offer so go to https://www.ix.co/digital-maturity-audit today to request your Digital Maturity Audit. Episode 89 of the Leaders Sport Business Podcast brings two perspectives on behind-closed-doors sports broadcasting. The rights holder view comes from LaLiga's Head of Content and Programming Roger Brosel (conversation starts at 13:36), who is in the midst of an ambitious project to broadcast every game, every day, from LaLiga's return on 11th June, to its scheduled completion on 19th July. The broadcaster view comes from Eleven Sports COO Anouk Mertens (conversation starts at 32:43), who has spearheaded a bold rights play for top tier football in her home country of Belgium during sport's enforced pause, and helped to enable new digital viewer engagement features across many of Eleven's international territories, not least in Poland, Portugal, and Belgium, where it holds premium rights. On the conversational agenda: - The new sports broadcasting protocols and what they mean for the onscreen product and the people working behind the camera; - Remote production and the working practices that are here to stay; - New camera angles, piped in audio, and virtual spectators - and why LaLiga's 'fake fans' look is deliberately inaccurate; - 'Watch together' and other digital fan engagement products; - The Leeds United 'Take Us Home' documentary that Mertens executive produced and how to make money in sports docs; - The creaking rights model and why it might be time to take a new approach to sharing risk.