Chapter 18: Terdema Ussery, President and CEO

Overview

Dallas Mavericks

Have a vision and translate that vision to everybody in the organization with passion and conviction.

“The key to leadership is to have a vision and translate that vision to everybody in the organization with passion and conviction,” says Dallas Mavericks CEO Terdema Ussery.

When he was appointed CEO of the team in 1997, he quickly announced his vision to make the Dallas Mavericks “the best sports entertainment company in the country.”

With the emphasis on entertainment, the most important measurement of success is fan satisfaction—did the fan have a great experience watching the game?

One of his innovative ideas for soliciting customer feedback was to put his personal e-mail address up on the scoreboard at home games. Fans were told, “If you send an e-mail, we will get back to you personally by the end of that day. If we don’t, then don’t support us.”

Says Terdema, “One fan sent an e-mail in the first quarter saying he couldn’t find the game on TV. I called our broadcast partner, and together we called the fan at home within ten minutes of receiving his e-mail. We then showed him how to get the game on his TV. He could not believe that we had called him personally.”

Another improvement came from fan feedback when attendees at home games complained that seats in the upper level were too far away to hear the game. “The solution was to mike the rims and floor so people in the upper level could hear every slam dunk and sneaker squeak.”

Also, when people in the upper level complained they could not see the 24-second clock, Terdema bought and had installed a new three sided clock to accommodate them.

“Eleven thousand people sit in the upper levels,” he explains. “The cost of these improvements was minimal, but the impact phenomenal.

“Only your customers can tell you whether you are doing things wrong or right. We listen to them through our e-mail, through which we get comments every day.

“It used to be in the business world that companies didn’t listen. We keep our ear to the ground, hear what people are telling us, and adjust and adapt based on this feedback.”

The results speak for themselves: The Mavericks played to a sell-out crowd in 71 consecutive home games. In addition, in surveys from ESPN and JD Powers, the Mavericks consistently garner top ratings from fans.

Source Quotes Macine