What happens when two baseball lovers get together? They talk about how to run a better business! This week Quint talks to JJ Cooper, the executive editor of Baseball America. This isTHE information source for baseball lovers. It covers baseball at every level and is currently published in the form of a bi-weekly newspaper, five annual reference book titles, a weekly podcast, and a website.
This has been a tough year for baseball, and many of the things they normally cover were canceled. JJ talks about how Baseball America has become adept at managing change and how 2020 forced them to get even better.
JJ has a lot to teach business owners through the lessons he has learned in his position. He talks about what it was like to navigate the transitioning of the magazine to new owners, what it took to merge the two cultures, and the importance of transparent communication in his journey.
He also discusses the role of culture and process in baseball and how it really defines an organization. The same is true inside a company. He talks about how easy it is to do long term damage to your culture, tearing down in five minutes what took five years to build. The culture of caring is so prevalent in great organizations. Many of the people who work in baseball are incredibly passionate, often working long hours. As long as they know the people at the top value their work and care about them, they will do virtually anything.
JJ’s take on how Baseball America stayed strong during COVID and the baseball shutdown was especially interesting. It’s a subscriber-based business and the product it focused on was gone. Yet they continued to deliver a good product and traded on their strong sense of community. In fact, in some cases loyal fans would donate a subscription to someone who could no longer afford it. When you stay true to what you do well, you can weather almost anything.
