Putting the right leadership in place

Recently Google Inc. has announced that their long-time CEO Eric Schmidt will step-down from the CEO position and Larry Page, the original founder of Google will assume his position. There have been several speculations as to why Schmidt was leaving . Some say that the company wants Page to combat the increasing competition of Facebook and LinkedIn. Others speculate that the censoring results of Chinese Google search has created tension between Schmidt and Page. In order to dismiss all these rumors, Schmidt has made a public statement to address the reasons for change. He simply stated that "the company needs to be run even more tightly" and that he will be staying with Google for another 10 yrs, fulfilling other executive positions.

Reading about this news event got me thinking about chapters on leadership in "Good to Great" and the concept of Level 5 leadership. The book often refers to the fact that before a company even has a strategy in place it is critical to get the right personnel on board, those that have the passion for what they do best. I feel like the recent switch in Google's management is a direct demonstration of this concept. Despite the public comments, Google has been directly competing with social network sites and other technology companies. The expansion of Facebook and the enormous success of IPhone are direct threats to Google's website services and Android phones. Therefore, at this time the company needs a visionary at the helm, and nobody is a better fit for the job than the original founder and the talent behind Google, Larry Page.

It will be interesting to follow the company in the next couple of months to see what kind of impact Larry Page will bring as a new CEO.

The following is the link where the original articles was found:

http://blogs.wsj.com/davos/2011/01/27/schmidt-defends-incoming-google-ceo-page/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704881304576094340081291776.html

Heritage Nights in the NBA

Normally every NBA team hosts about 41 home games during a regular season. Needless to say, that is a lot of games and managing an acceptable attendance is a daunting task for any team's management (unless you have loyal Boston fans). Recently several teams have been hosting heritage nights as part of the game in order to boost the ticket sales. Among some of the most popular nights this season have been Turkish, Israeli, Filipino, and Latino. Among the participating teams are LA Clippers, Sacramento Kings, and Toronto Raptors. Notice, these teams currently have some of the worst W/L records in the NBA and are especially struggling when it comes to ticket sales.

The results have been tremendous, with some of the teams reporting an increased attendance of 2,000 fans per game. Reading this article has reminded me of the Profit Pools strategy concept that we have covered in class and the importance of finding the right set of activities to exploit the previously unexplored pools of profit. What the management of these teams has been able to do is attract the customer segments that previously have not been considered as potential consumers of NBA entertainment. This new approach has been made possible through the increased number of international players in the league.

Further the management creates a heritage event by arranging the appropriate set of business activities in their venue: ethnic performers during the half time show, selling ethic food and merchandise, and providing the customers with an opportunity to meet the international players before and after the game. Further these events have been promoted with discounted tickets and special offers for future events. It is important to recognize that the profit pools in this and any other industry are constantly changing, and with this latest initiative team management has been able to successfully adapt to the changing environment.

I thought that this was an excellent strategic approach that has allowed the NBA as a whole to further expand their customer and fan base, as well as recover some of the fixed costs that have already been committed as part of the regular season production.

The following is the link where the original article was found:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703889204576078131537254372.html?mod=ITP_AHED