World Wrestling Entertainment McGraw-Hill/Irwin Strategic Management, 3/e Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
World Wrestling Entertainment How did Vince McMahon grow World Wrestling Entertainment?
World Wrestling Entertainment What resources does WWE have? How valuable are these resources?
World Wrestling Entertainment Evaluate WWE’s diversification efforts. What went wrong?
World Wrestling Entertainment What are the future prospects for WWE? What can be done to expand or grow the business? Who might take the business over from Vince and Linda? Should it be kept within the family?
Q1. Entrepreneurial Issues Vince McMahon challenged the existing regional structure of industry by going for a national audience. Televised road shows appealed to a larger audience. Sold matches less as contests (admitted that they were scripted) and more as entertainment. Drove out competitors through aggressive expansion. E.g., of Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling – acquired at a bargain price of $5 million. Exhibited all 5 dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation Autonomy Innovation Proactive Competitively aggressive Risk taking
Q2. Resources Tangible Intangible Financial: high cash flow; low expenditures Technological: Rights to characters Organizational: Tight family-run business Intangible Human: Wrestlers with acting capabilities; good script writers Innovation: Capabilities for developing compelling characters and storylines
Q2. Resources (contd.) Reputation: Strong brand name, relationship with sporting arenas, relationships with television networks
Q3. Diversification Difficulty in following the path of related diversification Expansion into books, music, and merchandise successful as it leveraged core competencies in wrestling. Expansion into restaurants failed XFL did not have any link to wrestling (unscripted)
Q4. Prospects Looking at more focused related diversification Loss of WWF name seen as good because it helps focus on the “E” in entertainment Increase road shows to get more content, particularly for 24/7 subscriber video channel, movie channel, etc. Children (Shane and Stephanie) immersed in business Publicly owned but controlled by the McMahons