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| Executives don’t expect memos from Bodenheimer on how to do their jobs. Instead they’re challenged to tackle issues on their own. |
What’s a nice guy like George Bodenheimer doing in a place like this? In the sometimes cutthroat world of sports media, a sphere where egos often collide with ambition and the top positions require making unpopular decisions, this likable, lifelong ESPN executive has vaulted to the very top of the heap, precisely because he’s cast from another mold.
Overseeing not one but two sports media powerhouses as president of ESPN and ABC Sports, Bodenheimer has gently guided the strategic direction of the media that account for roughly half of all sports television viewing in the United States, not to mention the top sports Web site and No. 2 sports magazine. For these reasons, he was an easy choice by SportsBusiness Journal as the most influential person in sports media.
We would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge Rupert Murdoch’s extraordinarily powerful role in sports, but his influence transcends so many areas beyond our business that he was not considered for our ranking.
While Bodenheimer does not have the media mogul role of Murdoch and is not part of the canon of television history like Dick Ebersol, he is simultaneously in the trenches and making the highest-level strategic decisions. He is someone who lives and breathes sports media every single day, while also taking responsibility for how sports fits into the global framework of an expansive company such as Disney.
Guiding and getting out of the way
Bodenheimer’s style, and some would say gift, is knowing how to let people do their jobs and providing broad-stroke direction without being meddlesome or overbearing. There’s never a question who is in charge at ESPN and ABC Sports, and his top deputies take their cue from Bodenheimer. But at a company filled with larger-than-life personalities and massive corporate pressures from above, Bodenheimer is the perfect “good cop,” a calming force with solid relationships up and down the corporate ladder and with the outside.
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| George Bodenheimer |
 Title: Co-chairman, Disney Media Networks; president, ESPN and ABC Sports |
| Age: 46 |
| Education: Denison University, Bachelor of Arts, economics, 1980 |
| Family: Married, three children |
| Resides: Fairfield County, Conn. |
| Background: Started at ESPN as a mailroom clerk, went to Dallas and then Denver in affiliate sales position. Moved to New York in 1991 and had stints as head of affiliate sales and head of sales and marketing before being named company president in 1998. |
| Primary accomplishments: Helped launch ESPN2 into 10 million homes when he was running affiliate sales. As president, has overseen 11 straight quarters of audience growth at ESPN. Launched several networks including ESPN HD and ESPN Deportes. Landed rights to the NBA, marking the first time ESPN had rights to all four major league sports. |
He is the yin to the yang of ESPN’s brash and aggressive head of programming, Mark Shapiro (No. 7 on our most influential list). He lets top executives such as John Skipper (No. 12) pretty much run their own shows.
“George leads with a terrific balance of providing guidance and letting people do their jobs,” said Skipper. “He doesn’t mind telling people he wants you to do something different. His manners should not be confused with reticence. But he’s just terrific at letting you run with it.”
Skipper made the disclaimer that he doesn’t want to sound like he’s “sucking up to the boss.” Noted. Indeed, even midlevel ESPN executives speaking informally about Bodenheimer sounded a similar theme, and people from outside the company all point to Bodenheimer’s general good and trustworthy nature.
“He’s the world’s nicest guy,” said Barry Frank, vice chairman of IMG/TWI.
People described in those terms sometimes lack the necessary edge to lead, or the charisma to motivate. But Bodenheimer, said more than a half-dozen employees and industry friends, leads with character and with values, and by harnessing the talent around him.
And while a bitter power struggle has been waged at the top of Disney, Bodenheimer has steadily earned the favor of the corporate elite there, being promoted to co-chairman of Disney Media Networks in April and getting the company to fund numerous ESPN expansion initiatives.
“The Walt Disney Co. should listen hard to him,” said Jim Robbins, CEO of Cox Communications, which had a very public and heated squabble with ESPN over licensing fees that was settled earlier this year.
While Cox was threatening to pull ESPN off its cable systems and the Disney corporate brass was insisting on holding out for large rate increases, Robbins said Bodenheimer was a voice of reason. He described Bodenheimer not as an adversary but more as a buffer.
“I think he’s respected enormously for working in a very tough environment,” said Robbins. “By that I mean he’s making progress inside a company that just really doesn’t understand the distribution side of the cable business.”
As bitter as the overall negotiation was, Robbins said that never affected his relationship with Bodenheimer, an occasional golf buddy.
“I have always thought George is an absolute standup guy, honest as the day is long,” he said. “George and I realized this was not personal; this was business. He had a business imperative, handed down from [Disney in] Burbank. As lousy a sandwich that he had, he was trying to do the best he could with it.”
Future head of Disney?
Invariably described as optimistic, honest and deferential, Bodenheimer’s demeanor apparently has changed little since his days as an earnest mailroom clerk in Bristol, Conn., during ESPN’s formative years.
His ascension through the ranks is now a thing of legend in the television business. He went from gofer at headquarters to affiliate sales positions in Dallas and then Denver and then New York. Eleven promotions later, he was named president in 1998, replacing Steve Bornstein (now with the NFL, and No. 6 on our list).
Since then, Bodenheimer has clearly won the admiration of his bosses at Disney, who handed him control of ABC Sports in 2003, and then added the co-chairman title a year later. He now reports directly to Disney President and Chief Operating Officer Robert Iger.
Network television was responsible for 79 percent of Disney’s profits last year, and the overwhelming majority of that is thought to come from the ESPN division. With the main network riding 11 straight quarters of audience growth, Bodenheimer is thought to have an outside chance of leapfrogging his boss and being named CEO of Disney when Michael Eisner retires next spring. Bodenheimer would be a sleeper choice, a long shot at best. But many within ESPN and ABC Sports believe he is the ideal choice.
When asked about his most important act at the network, Bodenheimer said the answer is easy. It wasn’t landing the NBA, or even helping launch ESPN2, something with which is he is largely credited. He says it was deciding to adopt companywide priorities every year that would form the strategic foundation of the company.
Breaking from his power-of-positive-thinking persona for just a second, Bodenheimer looked back at a time four years ago when ESPN lacked such direction.
“Our ratings in prime time were down double digits,” he recalled. “And I went to Bristol and would walk the halls and say, ‘What do you think of our ratings problem?’ And I got a combination of glazed looks and ‘What do you mean we have a problem?’ So I got our management team together and I said, ‘A) Our ratings are sinking, and B) we have a much bigger problem. Nobody knows about it.’”
That year ESPN made raising its ratings an official priority, and starting in 2002 the slide reversed itself.
Ratings growth is still one of the priorities, but this year’s set has some new ones that very much reflect Bodenheimer’s personal values. The first is “commitment to care and respect for the people of ESPN,” and the second is commitment to diversity. (The others are increasing value to advertisers, envisioning and developing the full potential of ESPN2, and integrating ESPN brand values into the decision process.)
What really reflects Bodenheimer’s leadership style is not just the priorities themselves, said top ESPN executives, but how they are identified.
Every year about 60 top ESPN executives go to an off-site meeting for the purpose of coming up with that year’s priority list. Bodenheimer doesn’t really lead the meeting. He sits in the audience, listening, as different ideas are bandied about. He’ll weigh in from time to time, but the decision is made by consensus.
“He lets opinion move around the room,” Skipper said. “Any meeting George is in, he sets the tone, but he then lets other people bat things around before he weighs in. You feel like your opinion is listened to.”
Skipper pauses to point out that Bodenheimer is firmly in charge, and not shy about laying down firm direction when a decision needs to be made. But day in and day out, Bodenheimer leads by establishing broad goals like those on the priority list, and expects his top executives to achieve them.
“I always tell people,” Bodenheimer said, “if you’re waiting for a memo from the corner office to tell you what to do, it’s going to be an awfully long wait. You have to figure that out for yourselves.”
Dealing with static
By any measure, the last year or so has been Bodenheimer’s most challenging at the helm. In early fall of last year, Rush Limbaugh made comments on ESPN air that were widely viewed as racially offensive. Bodenheimer was faced with near mutiny on the set, the Disney brass was steamed, and the precious ESPN name found itself in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
At the same time, the NFL was expressing dismay about the popular and critically
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| Bodenheimer says the toughest decision of his career was killing the “Playmakers” series. |
acclaimed drama “Playmakers,” which depicted pro football players doing unsavory things on and off the field. Eventually, Bodenheimer made the decision to cancel “Playmakers.” He calls it the hardest decision he has faced as company president.
“We were proud of what we produced but weren’t in the business of getting completely sideways with an important partner,” he said.
There were several meetings where the league made its opinion known. In the end, ESPN publicly announced that it was canceling the show in part out of respect for the NFL. “We were honest in explaining why we chose not to pursue it,” he said.
Then came the negotiations with Cox.
“You know, the actual mechanics of the back and forth were not really any different than it’s been for 20 years,” Bodenheimer said. “What was different is that it was playing out on a public stage. So we had to deal with the media for one, Congress for another, the FCC for another. It was just a different situation. But in the end, I think it ended up like any negotiation that ends up well ends up, and that is both sides give a little, and you realize you have more in common than you are apart.”
It seems the more difficult a negotiation is, the more accolades Bodenheimer wins for his class and honesty.
The recent talks to renew ABC’s deal with the Rose Bowl involved several extensions of the exclusive negotiating period, as the sides struggled to come to terms.
Bill Johnstone, chairman of the Rose Bowl Committee, said as difficult as the negotiation was, there was always a sense they would work things out, because Bodenheimer ultimately was up front and not playing games. If he said he could do something, he would, and if he said he couldn’t, he didn’t waver. He also stuck by his word.
Johnstone described one situation where ABC had agreed to a certain dollar commitment based on its own set of financial projections. When the Rose Bowl came back with a different set of projections and was able to back it up, Bodenheimer adopted that figure.
“I just find him to be a man of principle,” Johnstone said. “What he said, he did.”
He described Bodenheimer’s style in the negotiation as “mild-mannered” but also firmly in charge.
“When we would get all the players together from the ABC side, it was very clear he was the boss.”
That’s something several ESPN staffers reiterated. While Bodenheimer may defer to their judgment, he never cedes the final word. It’s a balance he handles adeptly, and it may ultimately be the defining quality of his leadership.
“Very few people [at the top] don’t require that they are the most charismatic, dramatic voice in the room,” Skipper said. “I’m guilty of that. If I’m with my staff, I’m probably the loudest voice in the room. George doesn’t need to be.
“But I will tell you, there’s no doubt who is the boss in these meetings. Let’s be clear about that. He’s thoughtful, he’s considerate, but at our company there’s no question he is leading the charge.”
