Magnetic

11The St. Paul SaintsIt's All Word of Mouth

Not Your Usual Case Study

I wanted to find a business that absolutely captured the idea of being magnetic. It needed to be an organization that was great at attracting business. It had to be a case study that we could all learn from. What I found is not your usual case study: I found the St. Paul Saints. In them, I also found some fundamental and effective ideas for any business that wants to become magnetic.

There's a great learning advantage in using examples far removed from our usual business experience. Looking at a baseball organization takes me out of the assumptions that I have about how my own business and those similar to it are supposed to work. I look at the magnetic qualities of the St. Paul Saints and the positive bottom line results that they create, then work backward, asking, “How do they do it?” From there, it's adaptive innovation to apply the same principles to my own business.

Fiercely Loyal Customers Year in and Year Out

Mike Veeck is the driving force behind the St. Paul Saints. Those of you who are fans of professional baseball will recognize the name, if not because of Mike's career, then certainly because of his father, the legendary Bill Veeck.

The leadership and employees of the St. Paul Saints are masters of the win-win strategy (see the chapter The Best Idea Ever). Their customers have almost unlimited choices about how and where to spend their time and money. They could go to the baseball game, or they ...