On the Ball: What You Can Learn About Business From America's Sports Leaders (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Darren Rovell (Author) "The Point: The sports world, like much of the mainstream business world, has its stories of organizations and teams that seem destined for success, but..." (more)
Key Phrases: personal branding process, stellar customer service, business tenets, New York, World Cup, Michael Jordan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Sports, like business, is a nonstop, flat-out competition where winners prosper and losers are sent packing. Think the multi-billion-dollar sports industry might have something to teach your business? You better believe it. With On the Ball, you will learn those lessons before your competitors do.

Get in the sports business game and learn about breakthrough techniques for building a business. Reaching customers. Delivering customer service. Branding yourself and your business. Handling employee relations. Alliance building. Crisis management. Entering new markets. Turning around a business. Leadership. All that, plus your own personal behind-the-scenes tour of the sports industry-courtesy of top sports business consultant David M. Carter and ESPN.com’s Darren Rovell. Hop on. It'll be a fun ride. A very profitable fun ride.

* Branding, NBA style
Powerful branding lessons from David Stern, Michael Jordan & Co.
* Strategic alliances with the New York Yankees
Win-win partnerships with George Steinbrenner
* Building your business the way NASCAR did it
Fast lane from the backwoods to NBC Sports
* Terrorism to bribery: practical lessons in crisis management
Straight from sports, 10 steps for handling any business crisis
* Penetrate and dominate: Nike in new markets
How Tiger Woods helped Nike go global
* Know your fan, know your customer
Take a tour of the baseball minor leagues and see how to really please your customers
Today's most powerful business lessons...

...you could learn them from some boring business school text. But, hey, life's too short. With On the Ball, you can learn the same lessons from sports! Top sports business consultant David M. Carter and ESPN.com sports business journalist Darren Rovell serve up winning techniques straight out of the big leagues. Business is a sport, and sport's a business, right? So why not learn...

* Entrepreneurship from NASCAR's Bill France Sr.
* Target marketing the MasterCard way
* Customer service from the late great Bill Veeck
* Personal branding from cyclist Lance Armstrong and women's tennis player Anna Kournikova
* Employee relations from Major League Baseball
* Strategic alliances from New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner
* Crisis Management from NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue
* Penetrating new markets using Tiger Woods
* Brand building from NBA Commissioner David Stern
* Turnarounds from Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones
* Leadership from Notre Dame head football coach Tyrone Willingham

Fast, furious, outrageous, and unforgettable, On the Ball is everything you expect from sports, and don't expect from a business book!

From the Back Cover

Sports, like business, is a nonstop, flat-out competition where winners prosper and losers are sent packing. Think the multi-billion-dollar sports industry might have something to teach your business? You better believe it. With On the Ball, you will learn those lessons before your competitors do.

Get in the sports business game and learn about breakthrough techniques for building a business. Reaching customers. Delivering customer service. Branding yourself and your business. Handling employee relations. Alliance building. Crisis management. Entering new markets. Turning around a business. Leadership. All that, plus your own personal behind-the-scenes tour of the sports industry-courtesy of top sports business consultant David M. Carter and ESPN.com's Darren Rovell. Hop on. It'll be a fun ride. A very profitable fun ride.

* Branding, NBA style Powerful branding lessons from David Stern, Michael Jordan & Co. * Strategic alliances with the New York Yankees Win-win partnerships with George Steinbrenner * Building your business the way NASCAR did it Fast lane from the backwoods to NBC Sports * Terrorism to bribery: practical lessons in crisis management Straight from sports, 10 steps for handling any business crisis * Penetrate and dominate: Nike in new markets How Tiger Woods helped Nike go global * Know your fan, know your customer Take a tour of the baseball minor leagues and see how to really please your customers

Today's most powerful business lessons...

...you could learn them from some boring business school text. But, hey, life's too short. With On the Ball, you can learn the same lessons from sports! Top sports business consultant David M. Carter and ESPN.com sports business journalist Darren Rovell serve up winning techniques straight out of the big leagues. Business is a sport, and sport's a business, right? So why not learn...

• * Entrepreneurship from NASCAR's Bill France Sr.
• * Target marketing the MasterCard way
• * Customer service from the late great Bill Veeck
• * Personal branding from cyclist Lance Armstrong and women's tennis player Anna Kournikova
• * Employee relations from Major League Baseball
• * Strategic alliances from New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner
• * Crisis Management from NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue
• * Penetrating new markets using Tiger Woods
• * Brand building from NBA Commissioner David Stern
• * Turnarounds from Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones
• * Leadership from Notre Dame head football coach Tyrone Willingham

Fast, furious, outrageous, and unforgettable, On the Ball is everything you expect from sports, and don't expect from a business book!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Financial Times Prentice Hall (February 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 013100963X
• ISBN-13: 978-0131009639
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #928,677 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Read!, March 28, 2003

By	Matthew Forti (New Rochelle, NY USA) - See all my reviews

I would highly recommend this book! I initially thought it was going to be a fun read about sports marketing. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the book was more about how to apply lessons from the sports world to the business world. As a strategy consultant, I found many of the examples given (especially on brand building, sponsorships, and customer needs) to be very relevant to the kind of work that I do with big consumer products companies. You can't afford to miss this one!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommend "On the Ball" - This was a great book.., March 5, 2003

By	Benjamin M.Sturner (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

I have been looking hard to find a book that covers sports business like this one did. This is a must read for anyone who is involved in the business of sports or just business itself.

Rovell and Carter do a great job with providing examples of every lesson you need in the business world and by using sports as an example. There are lots of inside scoops in this book that are behind the scenes of sports. Really good info on Jerry Jones, NASCAR and Brand Management among other topics. I really highly recommend this book to any sports or business executive or fan. You will enjoy!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OUTSTANDING- A Must Read For ALL, May 3, 2003

By	Peter Straus (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews

Carter and Rovell do a masterful job of highlighting the fundamental truths of good business. There is a right way to play the game, and this is the rule book.
Please pay close attention to the anectodes about Minor League Baseball. Sometimes, the greatest success stories do not occur on the grandest of stages.

Congratulations, Mr. Carter and Mr. Rovell!!