White Sox and Bulls Chair Jerry Reinsdorf last night highlighted loyalty, honesty and patience as some of the values he has emphasized throughout his career. Reinsdorf was the first speaker of the '17 Intersport Brand Engagement Summit in Chicago. During a lengthy interview with SBJ/SBD Exec Editor Abe Madkour before a game at Guaranteed Rate Field, Reinsdorf also discussed MLB's efforts to become faster-paced and weighed in on the debate over the greatest NBA player of all time. Many White Sox employees have been with the team for more than two decades, and Reinsdorf said that the organization’s culture is a big reason why. “I try to be loyal only to people who deserve the loyalty,” he said. “I hope I’m not loyal to people who don’t deserve it. We try to run this place like a family business. In our employee manual, people are directed to call everybody by their first names, no Mr. or Mrs. We want everybody to feel free to talk to everybody and go into any office to talk, any time they want. When you do that, you get good people, you get people who like their jobs. So the fact that somebody might be here 25 years is not because I’m loyal, it’s because that person is doing a good job and enjoys the work environment.” Reinsdorf said of his reputation of being brutally honest, “Scott Reifert, our Senior VP of Communications, says I’m brutally honest when I shouldn’t be, because I’ve been known to say things about some people that I probably shouldn’t say. The honest part is really important. I hope it’s not brutal. I just believe that when you give your word, you have to keep it. If you have a handshake on a deal, that’s the deal. And if you realize after you had the handshake, but before the contract has been drawn, that you made a mistake, it’s too late. Your word has got to be your bond.”
JUST A LITTLE PATIENCE: Reinsdorf said that when it comes to major decisions, patience often pays off. “If you have a really difficult decision to make,” he said. “And you’re really having a hard time doing it, but you don’t have to make it right now, if you wait, very often more facts become available to you, and facts are what you need in order to make a decision. You can’t procrastinate to the point where it’s too late to make a decision, but too soon means you may not have enough facts.” That emphasis on the big picture was evident in Reinsdorf's take on the role of a CEO. Reinsdorf: “If a CEO is doing his job properly, he really doesn’t have a lot of things to do. A CEO is responsible for long-range planning, public relations, and the most important thing is he’s responsible for identifying the jobs that have to be performed and putting the people in those jobs that can do those jobs better than he can, and making sure that they talk to each other. You do that and you have a lot of spare time during the day.”
QUICK HITS:
* On the Michael Jordan-LeBron James debate: “It’s a fair discussion about LeBron -- is he the second-best player in basketball history or was Oscar Robertson? There’s absolutely no question who the best player was. (Jordan) was the best offensive player of his time. He was the best defensive player of his time and he was a coach on the floor. There has never been another Michael.”
* On speeding up baseball: “We could speed the game up without taking away from how the game is played. For example, we could limit the number of times that a catcher goes out to the mound to talk to the pitcher. We could probably shorten up the inning breaks a little bit. ... But you don’t want to make the game go too fast. Part of the beauty of baseball is you can talk to the people you’re with. It’s a social event.”
* On the biggest difference between Bud Selig and Rob Manfred: “They’re both great in their own right. Bud Selig, though, missed his calling. He should have been a senate majority leader, because I’ve never seen anybody with the political skills that he has. Almost every vote we ever took was 30-0, but they didn’t start out that way. ... Rob is a more detail-oriented guy than Bud. He’s a lawyer, he’s got a background in labor. He’s more of a corporate CEO type, where Selig is one of the old-line baseball guys with a lot of political savvy. I think they were both perfect for the time that they’ve served.”
* On jersey and on-field sponsor logos: "The NBA now allows a small logo. I don't mind that. I just don't want to become NASCAR. One small logo I don't have a problem with. The interesting thing is, the sponsors are not running to those logos (or jersey patches) the way they thought they would. It's been much slower catching on than I anticipated."
