Entrepreneur's Journal: Learn from the mega success of ESPN

But things may be changing. That is, there's a new book out called ESPN the Company: The Story and Lessons Behind the Most Fanatical Brand in Sports and it's definitely worth reading as it has some valuable business lessons.

So, let's take a look at some of them:

Serve the underserved: As a sports junkie, the founder of ESPN, Bill Rasmussen, believed that there was a major void in sports coverage. He thought there was pent-up demand for watching local sports and that there was enough to fill the programming on a 24-hour basis (no, he didn't do any fancy market research on this).

But how could he pull it off? Well, because of a lack of resources, Rasmussen had to be creative. First, he located an investor (Getty Oil) that was interested in diversifying and wanted growth opportunities. Next, he saw that satellite broadcasts would be a perfect and cost-effective way for distribution. Finally, he would hire motivated and energetic people who loved sports.

In other words, Rasmussen came up with a winning business model.

Partnerships require work: To be successful, ESPN had to form many partnerships, such as with large organizations like the NCAA, Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NFL. To this end, the company realized it needed a strategy that involved planning, negotiation, and setting goals.

ESPN also knew that creating the partnership was really the easy part. Rather, it was the nurturing of the relationship that was the key. And this meant spending time, resources, and effort on marking it work.

Hire people with passion: To build a high-performance organization, you need to find the right people. This is always difficult. But, in the case with ESPN, the company tried to find those who demonstrated passion (it usually helped if the person was a sports junkie).

In fact, when watching an ESPN broadcast, this comes through. There is lots of detailed analysis, excitement, and humor. It's infectious.

Have a clear mission: At ESPN, the philosophy is: "It's about the fans and the sports, not ESPN." As a result, whenever there is a big decision, the company looks at how it will serve the fans.

Just look at high-definition (HD) television. At first, it looked like an expensive proposition. Yet, ESPN asked itself: "Is this what fans want?"

The answer was "yes" and so ESPN made the necessary investments to build out an HD offering, which turned out to be a huge success.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook.