Every successful family business has a good story behind it, but today's guest has an extraordinary one, that's all about innovation, creativity, and loving what they do.
Today we're sitting down with Joe Hand Jr., President of Joe Hand Promotions, the global leader in live sports for bars, restaurants, and cinemas. In his role, Joe focuses on fostering lasting relationships and delivering exceptional experiences for commercial customers, helping them drive revenue for their business.
For over 35 years, Joe has guided the business, which is now the largest independent distributor of closed circuit TV and pay-per-view programming in the world. Prior to joining his father in the family business, Joe began his career in professional sports as a 10th round draft pick of the Philadelphia 76ers.
In 1980, he joined Joe Hand Promotions as a part time team member before going on to create Cable Sports Network, a company that provided fresh sports programming to growing cable systems. He then assumed the role as President of Joe Hand Product Promotions in 1987.
In addition to his role at Joe Hand Promotions, Joe's distinguished philanthropic work includes opening the Joe Hand Boxing Gym in Philadelphia in 1995. The gym is a nonprofit organization which provides a variety of boxing classes to men and women of all ages and ability levels. They offer programs dedicated to disabled veterans, those diagnosed with Parkinson's disease as well as adults and children with disabilities.
Highlights:
- Joe gives some background on the business, what they do for their clients and how they originally partnered with some of the biggest companies in the business (3:10)
- How Joe Hand Promotions started with Joe Frazier and boxing over 50 years ago (7:09)
- How the company approaches innovation and how it has evolved since 1971 (10:05)
- What Joe Hand Promotions brings to the table for their customers (11:23)
- Analytics and data that help their clients (13:17)
- The bread and butter of their business (14:23)
- Going beyond sports events (15:57)
- How Joe narrows down the events they want to pursue and what their growth strategy should be (17:26)
- How they think about M and A (18:43)
- The other companies they have partnerships with (20:33)
- How COVID affected the business (21:37)
- Joe tells the story of being an NBA draft pick (24:20)
- Joe’s non-profit boxing gym and how and why he started it (26:58)
Feedback:
If you have questions about the show, or have a topic in mind you'd like discussed in future episodes, email our producer, marion@lowerstreet.co.
What is Welcome to the Arena from ICR – Conversations with Today's Innovators & Business Leaders?
In the increasingly crowded and competitive corporate and financial ecosystem, it’s harder than ever for companies to break through the clutter and be heard. The media, investors, agenda-driven influencers, even customers and competitors, are defining your business story on their terms. Therefore, it is imperative that companies take control and proactively drive the conversation with stakeholders in an effort to build & maintain equity value.
In Welcome to the Arena from ICR, Co-Founder & CEO of ICR, Tom Ryan, interviews key business and financial players who influence the fate of public or aspiring public companies in the capital markets. As a former Wall Street Journal ranked sell-side equity analyst and the founder of one of the largest strategic communications firms in the world, Tom understands what it takes to navigate this complex environment.
This is a forum for CEOs, CFOs, institutional investors, sell-side analysts, financial journalists, private equity professionals and other financial community participants to share their stories and give advice in an open and candid conversation.
For more information, visit http://www.icrinc.com