Intrapreneurial Bussines proposal for the Miami Heat

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Intrapreneurial Business Proposal
Alfred M Ferrer
MAR239-O 01

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Table of Contents
1. Cover page (page 1)
2. Table of contents page (page 2)
3. Introduction page (page 3)
4. External & Internal Business
Environment (page 4)
5. Strategic Scanning (pages 5-6)
6. Solving a need in the market (pages 7-9)
7. Implementing Innovation (page 10-12)
8. Conclusion (page 13)
9. References pages (pages 14-15)

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During this proposal, we will be evaluating business opportunities within the Miami Heat
organization. It is well known that the Miami Heat has been one of the most successful
Basketball Franchises in the NBA inside and out of the hardwood floor. They are a prime
example of how an organization around the league or outside should present themselves to the
audience by utilizing social media platforms to expand their brand through their diverse
fanbase. We will also go in-depth into the organization's culture and how it has affected the
organization through the sport of basketball. My mission is to help the organization identify
new strategies to expand and improve the fan experience and continue to solidify itself as one
of the top sports franchises in the world.

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The Miami Heat is one of the most successful basketball franchises in the NBA in and out of the
basketball court, valued at 2.3 billion dollars the Miami Heat debuted in the NBA during the
1988-89 season, and during its run, it has won the championship a total of 3 times. In
comparison to other basketball franchises that have been active since the 1960s and 70s it can
be said that our franchise has had one of the most successful runs in the modern era.
As part of the sports entertainment industry, our franchise belongs to the National Basketball
Association which works as an independent entity that works outside of the U.S Basketball
Association. We are as well a private corporation that was originally founded by Micky Arison
who also owns the Carnival cruise line corporation. Our team is a business-to-consumer
company that provides our fans with the best basketball competition in the world through our
live games and tv broadcasts.
The NBA has been growing over the past several years, as other sports organizations such as
the MLB have seen a decrease in viewership and their popularity wanes the NBA continues to
expand its brand overseas to Europe and China. With expanding viewership, revenue in the
NBA has significantly grown. In fact, during the 2019-20 season, the 30 NBA teams generated
$8.3 billion in revenue (Nath, 2022). As stated in the article the NBA and its 30 teams do not
seem to be slowing down economically and will continue to expand over the years to come.
There have been some rumors surrounding and expansion of two new teams that will join the
league however commissioner Adam Silver denied these rumors for now (Williams, 2022)
, if this were to be the case it would not affect any other teams within the organization this will
just represent an opportunity for more athletes to join the league and more income that at the end
of the day will benefit everyone involved in the league.

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Our franchise’s hometown is in the southeastern part of the United State and has such a diverse
population of Hispanics including Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans, and many
other Hispanic communities regarding expansion this represents an opportunity for our brand to
expand into the Latin American community. We sell sports entertainment, and our products
involve jerseys, basketball shorts, caps, t-shirts, and other items that we can put our branding on,
our product prices range from good quality low-cost products to high-quality higher than average
pricing. That also represents a great opportunity to reach diverse households from low-income
families to high income. We can replicate what the NBA is doing in expanding its brand to other
continents but with our brand through our communities. We have a rich and diverse fan base in
Miami which we can capitalize on to deliver our brand to central and south America and
continue to grow our fanbase.
As stated in the GQ article with the Miami Heat’s very own Udonis Haslem “Heat Culture is
discipline, accountability, work ethic and enjoying somebody else’s success” (Tynes, 2021).
Udonis Haslem has been a pro basketball player with the Miami Heat for over 19 years already
and has been a vocal leader for the team since before Lebron James joined the team in 2010.
Who better than himself to describe what the culture of the Miami Heat’s organization is all
about, he speaks regarding how players must commit both mentally and physically to the
team’s workouts. Accountability is a big deal in the organization and as a leader, he makes sure
that everyone who enters the team understands what the culture is all about. Being respectful
towards everyone is important in the organization, it does not matter if you’re the Allstar player
and you’re talking to the rookie who just came out of college Udonis Haslem makes sure to let
everyone know that everyone is a man that deserves their respect within the team.

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Being a sports organization and belonging to the NBA (National Basketball Association) the
Miami Heat is an independent and self-managed entity however their corporate transparency
you can access any information surrounding their overall gains, team value, and even revenue
per fan on them as provided by the following Forbes article. Sports news surrounding player
contracts and the financial well-being of NBA teams are always a trending topic in TV channels
such as Fox Sports, ESPN, and other news-related shows which would make it extremely
difficult for any NBA team to keep financial information or other corporate moves in the dark if
they were to try so.

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During the 2021 NBA season, the league was the No.1 trending search in the United States and
ranked No.4 in Google’s trending search worldwide (Kennedy, 2022). For obvious reasons this
also made a positive impact on the Miami Heat’s organization. For example, the integration of
international players in the NBA has a lot to do with the Association's fan expansion overseas,
as per Statita.com the Miami Heat is the third most followed NBA team on Twitter having over
5 million followers on the platform. The Miami Heat has been capitalizing through social media
since 2013 and has become a prime example for other NBA teams, one example would be how
through Facebook and Instagram ads 17% of the Heats merchandise sales came for both social
media platforms during the 2018-19 season. The Miami Heat’s digital strategist Matthew
Strelitz mentioned “Every advertising investment we make is carefully scrutinized, measured,
and analyzed," said Strelitz. "Ultimately, if we can’t track it, we won’t do it" (META FOR MEDIA,
2020). This is a prime example of how to take advantage of the resources around you to collect
as much qualitative or quantitative data as possible without compromising your investments.
They have been capitalizing on every social media platform such as TikTok, Twitter, Instagram,
and others.

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As for the fan experience when entering the Miami Heat games the organization is utilizing
powerful technology and data insights to personalize the fan experience upon their arrival to
the stadium. Through this technology, once the fan enters the stadium their ticket pops up on
their phone automatically and through their purchase history, they can receive personalized
messages from food vendors to new deals surrounding their favorite player’s merchandise.
Another big deal with this technology is that by knowing and estimating the time of the arrival
of the fans to the stadium eateries can determine when they can prepare their food and
massively reduce waste. “We were able to determine that if we shift the start times of our
guest services reps by 15 minutes, we could save almost a million dollars,” says Edson
Crevecoeur, Miami Heat executive. The Miami Heat through this technology has become a
prime example for other sports organizations and is helping other teams implement this
technology and boost ticket sales. The Los Angeles Lakers are implementing something similar
and some feature that can be replicated within the Miami Heat organization is to maintain the
fan's engagement the whole game one strategy that the Lakers use with their technology is
called LAVA, For example, if the Lakers score 100 points during the game, LAVA will alert fans
that they can all receive a free drink from a participating concession in the arena. Fans in
another section might get a different incentive (Los Angeles Times, 2019). This groundbreaking
idea will not only help us provide our fans with a better experience outside of what is going on
outside of the game but keep them engaged with what’s happening in the game regardless of
the results or how much time is left in the game.
The Miami Heat’s organization has been using technology to expand the fan's experience when
enjoying the game, it was a challenge to identify any missed opportunities by the organization

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as they have been a prime example to other organizations in keeping up to date with the latest
technology trends and marketing and media updates in the industry. The Miami Heat have
found ways to engage with their fans within the arena by using a platform called Azure from
Microsoft. This platform utilizes the data from fans to send them special offers while they enjoy
the game. As they enjoy the game, they can receive a direct text message from one of the
Arena’s kiosks offering a special deal on their favorite player's jersey or offers on eateries and
drinks.

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During my investigation of the organization's technological advances, I could not find a way in
which the Miami Heat interacts with its fans regarding what is going on not only outside of the
game but also inside the game. For example, imagine that the Heat would offer free drinks to
their fans during a blowout game when fans' interest in what is going on goes down as they
could even begin to leave the Arena which could represent thousands in a loss in sales in the
arena stores and kiosk’s. We do not only want fans to arrive at our games and have sold-out
arenas but our aim as an organization is to have them enjoy their experience in our games
throughout the whole game regardless of the outcome of the exhibition. This is where I
discovered two ground-breaking technologies being used by the Sacramento Kings and Los
Angeles Lakers called LAVA and Call the Shot. Call the shot application is a predictive game that
can be used before and during an NBA game, through this technology fans can predict who will
score the next shot or grab the next rebound, etc. While in the game, the prizes do not have
any monetary value however we can replicate this great idea to keep fans Sports betting is not
legal in Florida and no monetary value can be provided however we can work to provide fans
with free beverages our food through an accumulative point system utilizing the game. The
mission is to keep our fans engaged in the game even if our Miami Heat team is not having a
good not or they are having too much of a good game scoring-wise that the competition level
has decreased. LAVA has an approach in which fans could receive surprises during the game
depending on what is going on during the game one example is if the Lakers score over 100 in
the game fans can receive a free drink however fans in another section could receive a different
incentive. What LAVA hopes to achieve is to encourage fans to stay for the entire game and
take advantage of the amenities that the venue offers (Los Angeles Times 2019, October 15).

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To successfully implement this new program, we would need to reach out to our partners at
Microsoft and request them to add these features to what we are already working on with the
Azure platform. There is no need to change what we have going on with Microsoft however
there is always a place for improvements and additions to our fan experience to help better our
product. Here’s what the scope of work would look like when planning to this technology
during our games.
1- Coordinate meetings with the Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers strategy teams and
learn from their experiences the benefits and challenges of both apps
• Identify the resources needed to implement the technology
• Identify the cost and map out a timeline for implementation
2- Meeting with Microsoft to request the Implementation of these technologies
• There is already a partnership with Microsoft in place to expand our fan’s experience
during games, this meeting would be to propose to them a personalized
implementation of what the Lakers and Kings are doing in our games.
2021 season the NBA saw an increase in blowout games in comparison to other years this
represents losses in sales in stores at the arena and even lower ticket sales depending on the
upcoming opponents on the schedule. The average margin of victory right now in the NBA,
about 12.3 points per game, is on pace to be the largest in league history. And the rate of teams
going up by 30 or more points — it's happened in 20% of games played so far — smashes what
has been the norm even in this 3-point-wild, faster-paced era of NBA play (Reynolds, 2021b).
The game is evolving, at a faster pace which means the probability of bigger leads is higher than

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ever and that is why we must be strategic and get fans more involved in the games regardless
of the scoreboard.

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It comes without saying that in and out of the basketball court our organization has become
one of the most successful franchises in all sports. We have taken advantage of every
opportunity that has presented itself, from social media platforms to technological advances
that have helped improve our fan experience and will continue to do so as the sports of
basketball and the sports entertainment business continue to evolve. This business proposal is
to do just that, improve our fan engagement and keep them engaged with the team. While we
cannot always control the outcome of our games, we can control how fans experience our
product when they visit our arena.

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References.
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model.asp
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Williams, M. (2022, June 3). Adam Silver addresses NBA expansion rumors. Sports
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expansion-rumors
Los Angeles Times. (2019, October 15). Staples center introduces an interactive fan
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https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2019-10-15/staples-center-is-introducing-a-new-
fan-experience-with-new-partnership
META. (n.d.). The Miami heat scales up and scores big with Facebook ads. The Miami HEAT
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Microsoft In Culture. (2021, April 8). Miami heat is personalizing fan experiences. Microsoft
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Nicholson, N. (2019, February 5). Kings Partner with MGM Resorts and Xperiel to Upgrade
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upgrade-call-shot-free-play-gaming-experience-fans
Reynolds, T. A. (2021b, January 13). ANALYSIS: Regular blowouts are the start of the
“craziest NBA season ever.” Spin. ph. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from

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https://www.spin.ph/basketball/nba/nba-blowouts-lopsided-results-pandemic-effects-
a1717-20210113