When "Full Sponsorship" is a Bad Thing

Among my circle of friends, we have a running inside joke about our favorite sports teams achieving “sponsorship” from a fictitious company called “Medicore” when they’re average at best. We don’t accept mediocrity (the company name’s obvious origin) very well, and we hate it when some coach, GM, or owner tries to sell us on the fact that the team we follow isn’t as bad as it truly is. The same could be said for business–there are a lot of businesses masquerading around under the Medicore sponsorship umbrella.

I look at a company like Penn Station, and it screams “medicore.” Their food isn’t very good, they boss the customer around trying to “train” them into ordering the way THEY want you to, and they are annoying with their insistence on calling their second rate French fries “fresh cuts.” #1, the fries are fries. They’re not very good ones at that–frequently overcooked with that flavor of overused cooking oil built in. No thanks!

Another medicore sponsored business is definitely Wal Mart. Yes, Wal-Mart is insanely popular, but it’s a chore to shop there. Standing in line for a long time isn’t an efficient use of anyone’s time, but it seems as though Wal-Mart has done a good job of making people feel as though they are getting this huge bargain by shopping there.

Engage in a little math with me for a second. If you had to put an hourly rate on the value of your time, what would it be? In my consulting business, I frequently charge $100/hour so let’s use that as a baseline. If I go to shop at Wal-Mart and find 20 items that would save me an average of $2 on each item (very generous assumption), my initial savings are $40. With me so far? Ok. When I go to check out, I’m going to stand in line for a minimum of 20 minutes on most occasions. If you take $100/hour and figure that rate up for the minute, you’re looking at $1.67. 20 minutes x $1.67 = $33.40 so my original big time savings have been dwindled down to $6.60. To me, that’s not worth the hassle Wal-Mart inflicts upon me to save a little money so I avoid shopping there regardless of the potential net-savings. The only way I’ll even think about going in there to buy something is during a snow storm (there’s one within walking distance of my home) or very early in the morning when no-one else is shopping (like 2-4 AM). Just because a business is popular doesn’t mean it’s good. It might just mean people haven’t valued their time appropriately and engaged in the little math equation we just went through.

Okay, you knew I couldn’t get through this without a sports take. Let’s look at Rick Pitino this year–he’s consistently trying to sell University of Louisville basketball fans that this year’s team is more like an Escalade in the making when most can see very clearly it’s more like a Kia Rio. It’s truly average and ordinary at best. It has achieved that dreaded “sponsorship” from Medicore, too. I hate it when my sports teams achieve this dreaded status.

Years ago, when John L. Smith (a.k.a. “Janelle”) was the head football coach here at UofL, we would passionately debate whether he could take us to that next level of football. I was even called an “ass” on an Internet message board for voicing my displeasure in the Liberty Bowl bathroom following another bowl game loss down in Memphis. Granted, John L. had taken Louisville from 1-10 the year prior to his arrival to five straight bowl games, yet his record was 1-4 in those bowl games; the lone win coming in the rather below average Liberty Bowl. It was Medicore sponsorship at its finest, and it was unsettling for many of “us.” One or two guys within our group would always try to spin it to put lipstick on the pig so to speak, but it wasn’t working for the majority who aspire to compete at big time levels. As things have turned out, we have a coach in place today that gets it (Bobby Petrino), and he rarely uses excuses when things don’t go as desired. He can be found on the sideline chewing guys out for missing an assignment after a first down when he felt the play should have resulted in a touchdown. That’s aspiring to greatness. Janelle would ignore the fact that his teams had zero discipline and were among the leaders in penalties each year (a trend which followed him to Michigan State and resulted in his eventual firing after this season finally concluded). As long as his teams finished with a winning record, all was seemingly okay in his world.

The Cincinnati Reds, my favorite professional baseball franchise, are kings of striving for mediocrity and spinning it to look as though they are trying to build a winner. I won’t bore you with the dealings of the past and broken promises made by the organization, but I will share one recent transaction that should sum it up: Mike Stanton! Talk about the epitome of mediocrity, and he’s in the twilight of his career so it’s going to be a stretch to get even average production out of the guy. It appears as though the boycott of the new stadium will live another year–not until they can finish a season above .500 will I step foot into their new park which is sad because I enjoy visiting the Queen City.

Bottom line: many companies and sports teams merely aspire to mediocrity so that’s exactly what they get. It seems as though the majority is okay with that because they don’t need things that are really good–just good enough will do. What’s my underlying point in all of this? When you set out to do something, don’t settle for “sponsorship” when you can achieve greatness. The choice is there to make so why bother messing around with half-assing something? Do it or don’t; there is no in between if greatness is what you aspire to. Achieving a fictitious sponsorship in this vein isn’t going to help you achieve anything worth taking about.