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Professional sports is big businessand the stakes have never been higher. Sarah Spain, host of the podcast Good Game With Sarah Spain, longtime ESPN personality, and sports journalist, unpacks what those stakes mean for the leagues, teams, companies, and players involved. From the WNBAs breakthrough to the future of ESPNs streaming to the looming legal settlement that could transform college athletics, sports business is at a crossroads. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. As women’s pro sports become more successful, do you worry that it’s going to take on some of the toxic qualities of men’s pro sports, more aggressive media conversations, bad behavior off the court or off the field? How much is that a looming question that these women’s leagues have to sort of grapple with or maybe redefine? Very much. And actually, we saw it last year with Caitlin Clark’s entry into the [WNBA]. It was awesome that more people were watching and more people were interested. It also meant talking heads who didn’t know the game, weren’t watching the games, and certainly didn’t understand the intersectionality of women’s sports, and how it intersects with race, sexuality, homophobia, misogyny, all those things. And they created damaging and toxic conversations that were actually dangerous to players. There were multiple incidents of players addresses being sent, and [notes saying] “I’m going to find you.” Or people showing up in the places the players were and players feeling like they were endangered. Breanna Stewart’s wife actually got threats. So I think the attention is great, the investment is great, but what comes with that is an expectation that well suddenly turn women’s sports into the same as men’s. And there’s a real gift in it not being the same. There’s a real joy in the space feeling different than men’s. And I named my show Good Game With Sarah Spain, because originally I wanted to name it The Good Place With Sarah Spain. But that’s a TV show, and it would be hard for people to distinguish and find when they looked for it online. But that’s how I feel about going to a women’s professional sporting event. It’s the good place. It is incredibly diverse. It is incredibly kind. Everyone’s rooting for their team, and they’re very competitive, but there’s no fistfights. People aren’t getting hammered and falling down the stands on each other. I think that with the NWSL [National Women’s Soccer League], for instance, when they had the recent forced purchases of a couple teams due to the toxicity I mentioned, they had a new rule where the majority owner needed to be financially liable as one person. There could be a group of owners, but they required that one owner bear the financial burden, if necessary, and that person had to be a billionaire. That meant that these large groups of women, who have a lot of money but aren’t billionaires, were shut out. And it inevitably meant that once again, we were returning to ownership groups where it was going to be most likely a middle-aged white guy that owned it. And that’s fine if that person is really dedicated to women’s sports, and wants to learn the space and understand everything about it. It’s a little tougher if it’s another plaything that they have with four other teams, and they don’t feel as connected to the space. And, again, #notallmen. But what the problem with the previous iteration of the NWSL was how many owners and coaches it turned out were engaging in toxic or abusive behavior, or at the very least, covering up for each other, sending a coach on his way: “Thank you for your service.” Nice long letter: “Thanks for your time here.” While knowing that they were letting them go because of abusive behavior, and letting them get hired somewhere else. And that’s not to say that women won’t do that and never do that, but there is a belief that youve got to have more women at the highest levels to help prevent those kind of situations, and that kind of atmosphere and culture, from taking over again. You worked at ESPN in various roles for a bunch of years. And I want to ask you about ESPN’s new dedicated streaming service: $30 a month for all the live coverage, ESPN+, in-game betting, so on. What impact do you think that this will have on sports media? Bob, are you as confused by the name being ESPN as I am? I am. I was, like, so ESPN+ is on ESPN, but I can also get ESPN? I don’t know, it’s . . . Right. I just feel like we’re about to enter another HBO Max, Max, HBO, Max, ouroboros kind of situation here. But it feels inevitable. Obviously, during the massive shift away from traditional cable, and the unbundling, where ESPN no longer got $13, or whatever it was, from every human in America who had cable. What a great deal for ESPN, because not all of them were watching ESPN, right? But also, for cable, ESPN was a huge reason that people wanted to buy it. So it was a great partnership for a long time. That goes away, and it becomes quite clear that ESPN needs to try to keep up with the digital side of things, and needs to have a streaming direct-to-consumer service, because people aren’t just going with cable anymore. I think for a while, folks who appreciate the television side will still get an approximation of what it used to be. But you’re already seeing ESPN2 used to be an incubator for new shows, and creativity, and new talent, and now it’s mostly reruns. You’re seeing shows like Around the Horn, and others, that are shoulder programming for the live shows, that will start to go away. Because on streaming you don’t need to fill a specific amount of time. You just create whatever amount of content you want to have. So they’ll start focusing on rights, pre- and post-show Sports Center, and I would say a couple big-property studio shows. But I think those are going to go away more and more. And I think if you also look at ESPN’s decision-making around more influencer-type and former-athlete-type content, as opposed to journalistic content, that is unfortunate reacting to the world’s, I guess, demands, and the speed and desires of the current younger consumer. But I do worry about how that impacts ESPN’s position in the industry. Because what separates them from everyone else is that they’re the worldwide leader. If it’s on ESPN, it’s right, it’s accurate, it’s vetted, it’s journalistically sound. When you’ve got a Pat McAfee, whose show is produced elsewhere and dropped onto ESPN airwaves, and they wash their hands of the production and creation side of it, and they tell you it’s a little bit differentbut the viewer doesn’t know that. So when he goes on and says things that are factually incorrect, does stries that arefor instance, one he’s now being sued for libelessentially, that aren’t vetted, and aren’t sourced before he takes them in front of millions. That, I think, impacts how people view everything else on the network, even if it’s just subconsciously. When they turn it on, do they still think everything Adam Schefter says is journalistically sound? Or does the fact that Pat McAfee is on the same network. Or Stephen A. Smith, who will say, “Oh, I can’t talk about Dana White hitting his wife on camera; he’s a close personal friend of mine.” That’s not how journalism works, right? And so when that starts to blur the lines, does the rest of what’s coming out on that network get harmed by it? And does it then prevent them from being separated from the pack in a way that they used to be? I don’t know. I’m not in charge. It’s above my pay grade. From my point of view, yes, and that concerns me. But also, I get that everyone’s trying to get the younger consumer, and they seem to like a screaming head influencer or former athlete more than they like someone who knows how to do journalism.
Category:
E-Commerce
Should you invest in a new consumer market? Cut that underperforming division? Buy off-the-shelf or build custom technology you urgently need to compete? Over the course of my career, I’ve seen leaders make good, bad, and risky decisions to guide their businesses. These decisions are often based on consensus, gut instinct or complex financial modelsand occasionally, a half-formed idea from the back of a meeting agenda. But years in business have taught me something crucial: Success is driven neither by pure data worship nor blind intuition. Companies need bothespecially knowing that today’s opportunity could be tomorrow’s risk. The path forward requires balancing rigorous analysis with human wisdom and context and ultimately knowing when to say what. The three data traps Companies typically fall into one of three traps when it comes to data. First, low confidence in the data itself. For data to work, it must be trusted and accurate. When leaders are able to pull different reports based on different numbers, confidence evaporates. Major business decisions get derailed because teams cant agree on basic metrics. Without consistent, and accessible, information, even the most sophisticated analytics become useless. Second, companies can get stuck analyzing endless information. If every dashboard drives more questions than answers, that’s a losing battle. Businesses chasing endless data or sifting through a deluge risk delaying critical decisions while their competitors move ahead. Analysis paralysis is realand costly. Finding the sweet spot between information gathering and action is the difference between missing or meeting the market. Third, companies cant over-rely on analytics without human context. Data can reflect what happened and may predict what happens next, but it frequently misses the “why.” A dashboard may show low engagement from an internal tool and recommend sunsetting it. What this doesnt take into account is the user perspective where maybe they find it hard to use or have competing priorities. Balance data and intuition I spent part of my early career in public relations but exited the industry out of frustration due to the lack of meaningful data at the time, although now it is quite different. We would get a feature in a top-tier outlet, then struggle to measure the business impact. Through this, I learned a valuable lesson about balancing a good story with verifiable stats. This balance matters across every function. Marketing teams solely relying on metrics may miss the emotional connections that drive loyalty, while finance departments only tracking historical performance may miss emerging market signals that leaders can spot. The magic happens when companies combine data-backed insights with human expertise. At West Monroe, we’ve seen the power of this firsthand. When we worked with a tire distributor to optimize their supply chain, we didn’t just build predictive models. We paired real-time analytics and insights to optimize their planning and inventory models WITH the expertise of people who understood supplier relationships and market nuances. The result? A $200 million reduction in working capitalall during pandemic disruptions, when either data or intuition alone would have failed. How to fix it: Build a data-driven culture Build trust in your data first. Start with the basics: Identify the numbers that actually move the needle for your business and ensure everyone defines and measures them consistently. When leaders trust the numbers, they’ll use them to make impactful decisions. Bring data where decisions happen. Stop making people hunt through separate dashboards. Instead, embed relevant insights directly into the tools your team already uses. When the right information is available at the right moment, it naturally becomes part of the decision-making process. Show, dont tell. Leaders should visibly incorporate data in their decisions while acknowledging its limitations. Create space in meetings where teams can discuss both hard metrics and real-world observations. Both perspectives deserve equal airtime and consideration. Its never too late to lead with data You can always become a data-driven leader. Even walk the halls executives who have historically avoided analytics can develop this muscle. Start smallidentify one key business question where better data would improve decisions. As confidence grows, expand to more complex ones. The most successful leaders won’t be those with the most data or the best intuition. They’ll be the ones who master the art of balancing bothand take decisive action with confidence. Casey Foss is chief operating officer of West Monroe.
Category:
E-Commerce
As Ive been watching deep cuts unfold across the federal government and nonprofit sectors, I cant help but feel deeply sad for the work that is at risk or has been cancelled, the knowledge that will be lost, and for the people who did the work. I know firsthand what it means to be on both sides of the equation. Ive been the leader tasked with executing layoffs, and Ive also been the one laid off. Both experiences gutted me. They made me reflect on what leadership really means and what we should be measuring when we define success. The problem is that we often gauge success by revenue, efficiency, and productivity while completely overlooking a key factor:the well-being of the people doing the work. A 2024 Gallup report revealed that only 21% of employees strongly agree that their organization cares about their overall well-being. While I agree that there are inefficiencies in every bureaucracy and organization, leaders have a responsibility to balance financial performance with other measures of success. At Catapult Design, a social impact design firm, weve made well-being a non-negotiable metricon equal footing with financial performance and creative excellence. Because if an organizations work is meant to improve liveswhether in social innovation, government services, or private enterprisehow can we ignore whats happening inside our own walls? Well-being is the missing metric I worked at one consultancy that had indicators for measuring the quality of work and the financial health of the company. I thought that was amazing. It really kept the company on track because both were reported quarterly. The work was consistently good by many measures, and the company was very healthy from a financial perspective. When I left there to take a CEO position, I suggested to my new board that we measure the quality of our work and financial health but also add another indicator around team well-being. At first, this was around ensuring that we had the best benefits that a small business could offer. We were thoughtful around vacation time, sick leave, training days, and professional and personal stipends. But over time, we realized that well-being isnt just about benefits or hours workedits about how people experience their work. We started paying closer attention to overworknot as the cause of burnout, but as an early signal. Research shows that burnout is less about working too many hours and more about things like lack of clarity, autonomy, or alignment with values. Still, sustained overwork often points to deeper systemic issues. We use it as a check engine light of the well-being of the team. Thats why weve built a practice that if anyone is consistently working more than 45 hours a week, they message me directly. Then we talk about why. Is it a broken process? Poorly scoped projects? Is someone quietly drowning? We bring those issues to the board and leadership meetings, treating them as seriously as financial projections. As weve deepened our approach to well-being, weve also learned its shaped just as much by leadership behavior as by organizational policy. A few months ago, my team asked to formally review me. Their feedback was honest, thoughtful, and generous. One thing they shared was that when something seems obvious to me, I tend to move forward without discussion. But whats clear to me isnt always clear to othersand they wanted more transparency and space for shared decision making. That feedback was a gift. One small but meaningful change I made was to begin sharing my weekly board emails with the entire team. Its helped remove ambiguity and reduce stress about whats happening behind the scenes. We all know at Catapult Design that we are not immune to what is happening in the U.S. government right now. While Im happy to see efforts for efficiency in financial performance, I worry about whats being lost in the process. As budgets shrink and priorities shift, how will the quality of government services be measured? And what happens to the well-being of those providingand relying onthose services if we fail to track what really matters? 4 ways to prioritize employee well-being Prioritizing well-being isnt just a leadership philosophy; its a strategic decision. Were always refining what this looks like, but heres how organizations can make it real: Make well-being a key performance indicator. Measure engagement, workload balance, and psychological safety as rigorously as revenue. Normalize feedback loops. If leaders arent being reviewed by their teams, theyre missing critical data about whats working (and whats not). Recalibrate workloads. If overwork is the norm, the problem isnt employeesits leadership. Project scoping must align with reality, not just ambition. Champion transparency. When teams understand the organizations financial health and strategic direction, they feel more investedand less anxious. Well-being matters more than ever Were in a moment of reckoning. Layoffs are making headlines across industriesfrom tech to media to governmentand many organizations are under pressure to do more with less. It’s not surprising that burnout and questions about leadership are surfacing more often in the process. In a world where talent is mobile and exhaustion is widespread, the best organizations wont just be those that survive financiallytheyll be the ones that create workplaces where people want to stay, grow, and thrive. Ive learned the hard way that leadership isnt about having all the answers. But I do wonder, if we dont prioritize the people who make the work possible, will anything else matter. Angela Hariche is CEO of Catapult Design.
Category:
E-Commerce
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