Business environments are constantly changing, and a business capacity to adapt, to innovate, and to respond to competitive pressures may be directly impacted by intrapreneurs. If given the chance, intrapreneurs can lower production costs, improve quality, create new products, and open new markets.
2. Table of Contents
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………….Pg.3
External & Internal Business Environment…………………………………………………….Pg.3-6
Strategic Scanning…………………………………………………………………………………………Pg.6-9
Solving a Need in the Market………………………………………………………………………..Pg.10-12
Implementing Innovation………………………………………………………………………………Pg.12-14
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………….Pg.14
References…………………………………………………………………………………………………….Pg.15
3. Introduction
This is a comprehensive intrapreneurial proposal about the New York Giants organization and
how it is constructed and how it runs as a business. The following will go over various aspects of
the organization’s goals and history with the league. How the Giants analysis outside factors
will be explored as well as other ways the organization prepares for changes in their market and
within their own organization.
External & Internal Business Environment
The organization I chose was the New York Giants who are owned by John Mara and do
not have public stock on the market as the organization is private. The New York Giants are a
professional football team that competes in the National Football League (NFL). The team
joined the NFL in 1925, five years after the league was formed. They are the second oldest NFL
franchise, behind the Green Bay Packers. The Giants won four NFL championships in the pre-
Super Bowl era and are also four-time winners of the Super Bowl. Tim Mara founded the team
back in 1925 when he invested $500 dollars. The New York Giants industry serves business to
consumer. The Giants market themselves to the public to generate interest in the team. The
goal of our franchise is to sell as much tickets as possible and to build up the fanbase, by doing
this the Giants franchise value will increase.
4. The New York Giants represent the sports and entertainment market. The industry
conditions are always expanding in sports and the New York Giants are no exception to that.
New York City is a massive sports market and the Giants have a large following all across the
country. The sports market is nationwide and even worldwide so new fans are following the
team every season. New teams can be created with proper financials and approval from the
league commissioner and majority rule from current team owners. The NFL votes on new teams
entering the league, the last team entering the league being the Houston Texans back in 2002.
The league has no immediate plans to expand, especially now that the Los Angeles market has
been filled by the Rams (Barnwell 2016). Fans may become disinterested in the team if a
political issue arises within the league such as the Colin Kaepernick issue with players kneeling
during the national anthem. Fans may also watch other leagues such as the NBA or NHL if the
Giants are not playing well, which they are currently not as they are rebuilding, and many fans
will not buy tickets to watch their team lose.
I predict that with the increase in technology in sports we are heading to a future where
we will be able to see on the field views from our own tv’s in our living rooms. The NFL added
pylon cams two seasons ago and they are looking for new ways to add camera views so fans
can be like they are a part of the team on the field. The Microsoft Surface tablets were added
back in 2014 as part to bring more technology to the game (NFL Operations). Sports are always
changing as the decades move on and now more than ever fans can become a part of the team
through technology and social media.
5. The threats to the NFL in the future are other leagues like the XFL that is coming back
next season. The NFL has gotten some bad publicity with their officiating and the number of
flags that are being thrown per game. The XFL wants to be a league where penalties are not as
high and missed like they have been in the NFL these past few seasons. The league also can
suffer from internal issues from players that represent the league. Political issues that a certain
player may cause can result in fans deciding not to watch the NFL anymore.
Some business opportunities for the NFL are advertising being the most obvious answer.
They always have new sponsors for future seasons and the Super Bowl is a big revenue
generator for the league. The sports industry in general can always look to improve on
technology used during their games. The use of virtual reality is something that the NFL has
looked into and will eventually try to use in their games so fans at home can feel like they are at
the games. The New York Giants organizations primary focus is selling tickets to their games. At
the stadium we also focus on selling merchandise and ticket plans for fans that attend the
games. Some benefits of buying tickets is that you get to experience the game live which is
always a fun experience for fans. By purchasing season tickets, you get to go to all Giants home
games and are given other perks as well such as access to training camps and opportunities to
participate in gameday events at the stadium. Season ticket holders also can meet alumni from
past Giants teams throughout the season. We always try and make sure our season ticket
packages provide great experiences for our fans that purchase them.
6. Our ticket pricing will vary throughout the season based upon matchup and how the
team is doing overall. If the team is doing bad ticket prices will decrease as certain fans may
want to try and sell their tickets. However, if there is a good matchup such as the Giants vs.
Cowboys, then the ticket prices will be higher. In terms of merchandise prices, they are average
with other NFL teams’ prices. The business is positioned as it currently is because every
professional NFL team will have higher prices since the quality of the game is better since they
are professional players. Merchandise will also be higher in price compared to a minor league
team. The merchandise is also the best of quality so consumers can be certain that the gear
they purchase is going to last. Some business opportunities for the Giants are adding more
tickets for training camps during July and August as fans love to attend those events. Having
some player meet and greets for non-season ticket holders would also be a good idea as an
incentive to have fans come out to games, especially if the team is doing poorly. Creating some
new and updated ticket plans would also be beneficial to both business and consumers so fans
have different options to pick from to pair with their work schedules.
Strategic Scanning
Currently the NFL has an average viewership that is consisted of 45% female and the
rest being male (Salkowitz, 2018). The Giants are always trying to gain more fans especially the
female audience. Back in 2014 we started the Giants Women’s Club, a community of women
who share their strong passions for our New York Giants. Our target market is set on sports fans
in the tri state area. With states such as New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and parts of
Massachusetts we have a wide range of people to target. There is also about 20 million people
7. in New York alone (Datacensus.gov). We have been steadily seeing increases in our ticket sales
since 2010. Our 2018 season saw our organization bring in $97 million dollars in ticket revenue
(Statista.com). The state of New York has an annual household income of $64,894 so our fans
are able to come out to games. Our fans want as much access to the Giants as possible and that
is what we bring them with our ticket packages and fan experiences when they are at the
games. Many of our fans come from the New York and New Jersey area. Since we are the NFL’s
second oldest team, we also have many fans all across the country who tune in every Sunday to
watch our team play.
For fans who are not able to attend our games in person they are able to watch from
their cable providers as all our games are broadcasted by Fox and NFL Network during
primetime games such as Thursday Night Football. Our games are also broadcasted on WFN
radio for fans that like to hear the game while they are not able to watch from a tv. Our main
competitor is the team that also plays at MetLife stadium being the New York Jets. Some other
competitors to our team would be the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers due to their
geographic locations to New Jersey and New York. The Jets are a younger team than the Giants
therefore we see more Giants fans in the New York area than Jets fans. However, the Jets have
found a strong franchise quarterback in Sam Darnold and are poised to build a strong team
around him in the next few seasons. The Eagles and Steelers have some of the most loyal fan
bases in sports. However, both of those teams are currently going through quarterback
controversies that may set their teams back going into the future seasons. The Steelers have
seen Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback for over ten years and it seems like his days in
8. Pittsburgh are almost done. Our business is set to combat our competitors due to the fact that
we have a loyal fanbase and our ticket sales prove it (Statista.com). A big weakness for any
competitor in this league is when their team is going through a rebuild and the team therefore
loses a lot of the games they play during that season. Rebuild are inevitable in our league and
when a team goes through them their rival teams can take advantage by winning and therefore
keep their fanbase happy and engaged with the team. Although our team is currently going
through a rebuild our fans still come out to support our team and our organization is always
grateful to see them come out to games.
Another competitor for our team is the other professional sports leagues such as the
NBA, MLB, and NHL. Fans only have a certain amount of money that they are willing to spend
on sporting games. If they find cheaper tickets for other games, they may choose to attend
those games over ours. New York City has many professional sports teams that fans can follow,
and we cannot control where the consumers choose to spend their money. What we can
control is how we market ourselves amongst the other teams. The benefit for us is that we only
have 8 home games a year so fans will always try to grab tickets for a home game since there
are so little compared to the NBA or NHL whose teams get 41 home games throughout their
seasons.
Our biggest focus is setting ourselves apart from our competitors and the easiest way to
do that is by winning football games. We are ranked 9 out of the 30 teams in wins at the start of
the 2019 season (Statista.com). Our team has 4 super bowls the most recent one in 2012 over
9. the New England Patriots. New York City is one of the most toured cities in the world and being
able to play for and represent the city is something that sets our team apart from any other
team in the NFL. Since we are one of the oldest teams in the league our fanbase is very large
and loyal to our team. The history of our team and city is something that differentiates us from
many of the teams in the league. When people think about the New York Giants they are
reminded of excellence on and off the field and our goal is to keep that going.
Our Ownership staff is compiled of the following people President and CEO John Mara,
Chairman and Vice President Steve Tisch, Treasurer Johnathan Tisch, and Senior Vice President
of Player Personnel, Chris Mara. John Mara joined the Giants organization back in 1988 where
he served as General Counsel and later as our Vice President. When his father passed in 2005,
he then took over as the president of the New York Giants. He also has served on the NFL
Competition Committee for 15 years. The committee is a board of members who discuss
various rule changes and policy changes for all NFL teams. Steve Tisch is a filmproducer and is
the son of former Giants co-owner Bob Tisch. He is currently a partner in Escape Artists which is
a film production company based at Sony Pictures Entertainment. Chris Mara first started as
Vice President of Player Evaluation in July 2003. He was then promoted to Senior Vice President
of Player Evaluation in 2011, Chris is also a part owner of the team. These very respected men
are in charge of making decisions in regard to what moves our team will make during and after
each season.
10. Solving a Need in the Market
Our organizations mission statement is actually under the NFL’s which states that we
unite people and inspire communities in the joy of the game by delivering the world's most
exciting sports and entertainment experience. Every NFL team adheres by that statement and
looks for ways to inspire their neighboring communities and bring excitement to fans in any
ways possible.
Our Corporate culture is a very strong and stable one as like I previously stated we are on
the NFL’s oldest teams and have a rich history in this league. Our organization expects the very
best of our players on and off of the field. We want people that want to better our communities
and can be looked upon as role models by the next generations below them. Eli Manning is a
perfect example of what it means to be a New York Giant, through is accolades on the field and
charitable efforts off the field we are proud to call him a Giant. Our employees that come and go
with our organization have stated that we have a friendly environment and a very good pay and
benefits which is something that we pride ourselves in (glassdoor.com). When we see someone
apply for a job with us, we take that very seriously because that person has shown an interest in
our organization which means we are doing the right things to attract them.
When it comes to corporate transparency, we have no reason to hide what we are doing.
As a professional sports team we have a duty to fans to try and put the best available product on
the field each season. Like anything rebuilds are inevitable in sports and when we go through
one, we want the fans to feel like they are involved and not leave them in the dark with what we
are doing in terms of personnel changes with the current team and front office staff. We always
11. communicate through social media with any trade announcements or changes to our staff, so our
fans are able to keep up with what is happening. Our organization would not be where it is today
without our loyal fanbase and hiding information from them is something we will never do.
Trends are something that we and the league always use to see what is going on around
the NFL world and what fans are talking about. We use something called a Live Pulse which is a
tool that captures topics that are trending in real time (netbase.com). By being able to see what
NFL or football topics are trending we can be prepared for what’s to come in terms of if the topic
that is trending is good or bad. Social media influencers are also media icons that we like to
target through Twitter. Fans always like to see when a team they root for has a friendly
conversation about something with another brand like Snickers or even another NFL team. The
Chicago Bears had some funny publicity happen when they had a lighthearted argument with
Butterfingers on Twitter (ESPN.com). The result of this was that the Bears and Butterfingers
started trending on Twitter so both parties ended up winning.
Our perception of our organization is very strong. Our fans find that our stadium has
great parking but can be a little difficult to get to since the New Jersey Parkway can experience
heavy traffic jams at times near the stadium exits that are unfortunately out of our control
(tripadvisor.com). Fans are always impressed when they walk around our state-of-the-art arena
as we have many activities and food options for all guest who attend our games. One thing that is
important to our franchise is that our gameday staff be friendly to all fans who attend regardless
of what jersey they are wearing. We are pleased to see that our stadium has great reviews of our
12. staff members because how they treat our fans is how they will remember their experience at
MetLife and the Giants as a whole.
We found that some reviews of Lincoln Financial Field where the Philadelphia Eagles
play had some fans complaining about lack of security as fans there tend to get out of hand
during their games. We are pleased to see that our stadium has no security complaints as security
is one of our highest priorities. The safety of all guests in attendance is the Giants number one
concern on game day.
In the end, customer feedback is something that our organization will always rely on to
make sure we bring the best experience possible. If we ignore fans input on what they are
experiencing at the stadium then we would be setting ourselves up for failure as they would not
want to come out to games. Fans spend their hard-earned money to find time in their busy lives
to come watch us play so the least we could do is make sure our stadium experience is nothing
short of first class. Moving forward I suggest we implement better ways to improve our parking
lots so fans can get to our games a little bit faster.
Implementing Innovation
Improving our fan experience is always one of our organizations top priorities entering
every new season. One recommendation I have made based on my observations of our fans
reviews of our stadium is improving traffic so fans can enter our parking areas quicker and
more efficiently. We love hearing from our fans, and we try and address the issues that arise so
that we can make their experience better than before. Monitoring sites such as Trip Advisor
and Google Reviews we can quickly see what people are talking about and what we think needs
13. to be changed moving forward. One of my recommendation is making our signs in the parking
lots bigger. We have numerous lots numbered alphabetically and sometimes the letters can be
hard to see once you leave the stadium and get into the large crowds all walking back to the
parking lots. By adding extra signs and lights for when it is dark outside our fans will be able to
get to their cars easier and that will result in less people walking throughout the lots and
causing traffic holdups. We can also employ some more parking attendants throughout our lots
to assist fans who may forget where they parked or if they are unsure of where their tickets
permit them to park their vehicles.
This process will be very affordable as most of these changes are done internally and do
not cause the organization to plan and build something new. Our arena management staff can
go over ways to rearrange the traffic plans for cars entering the premise and where to place
extra parking staff to assist fans. Creating bigger signs or adding more signage around the
stadium will be a minimal cost to our organization and one that I am sure our arena staff will be
eager to get to work on at the conclusion of the season.
Like always with any change having clear communication between our departments is
crucial to make sure the job gets done on time and correctly. With a change as small as
improving our parking lots we usually make these changes when the NFL season has concluded
as the stadium see’s most of its traffic during that season. Changing our signs is a small change
which will not impact the guests that come to our stadium for other events such as concerts
and community events after the season ends. When suggesting this idea to our management
14. staff I will make sure I have all my data and research ready to present so they are fully aware of
what the fans are asking for. Many employees who express intrapreneurial mindsets often seek
help of a mentor when expressing a change to their higher ups. With our organization there is
no need to go and seek a mentors help because we value open communication between our
departments and our management staff wants to hear about what the fans are expressing
concerns about. That being said management cannot always address every single complaint it
hears because that simply is not possible. The complaints that we see the most of have higher
priority especially if it is something that we can fix easily and within a reasonable time period
such as adding lights to the parking lots or creating more arena entrances to improve the flow
of traffic. When changes are made, we always like to update our fans by posting updated parts
of our website on social media so they can read about the new changes made to the stadium or
in our policies (Twitter.com). As each year goes on we will always make sure that the needed
changes are done to keep our stadium experience first class for all who come out to attend our
games and events.
Conclusion
Having been one of the NFL’s oldest teams is something that differentiates us from
many other teams in this great league. The league is always going to change as it see’s new
players come through and old ones retire. It will see new rules and technologies be introduced
as well as new generations of fans. Our organization is always ready to embrace it all as we will
never stop giving our loyal fans the best experience they can possibly get. Our slogan is
GiantsPride and we are looking forward to carrying on that slogan to the next generation of
fans that we see.
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