Thursday, January 22, 2015

Lansing Regional Chamber - - Economic Club - - Presentation by Dave Dombrowski, Detroit Tiger CEO - - January 22, 2015 - - by Chuck Krafft


Lansing Regional Chamber Economic Club Meeting 

David Dombrowski 

CEO and General Manager of the Detroit Tigers 

January 22, 2015
 
by Chuck Krafft 

Even though it is still winter, Detroit Tiger fans are eagerly looking forward to following the 2015 Tigers through their season.  Will this be the year the Tigers bring home the World Series? 

At this month’s Economic Club Event, the Lansing Regional Chamber helped to give us the answer to this question from the most knowledgeable person possible.  That’s right!!  Tiger General Manager Dave Dombrowski is here to tell us about the process of making the downtrodden Tigers of twelve years ago into the annual title contender they are today! 

I really enjoy the Regional Chamber events and attend whenever I can.  These events are just one of the many benefits afforded to Lansing business people through their chamber membership!

The event opened when Chamber President Tim Daman greeted the 450 attendees.  Lunch was served; Mr. Daman then introduced Jim Robinson, the Chief Executive Officer of Farm Bureau Insurance, who spoke on behalf of the Mid-Michigan Business Travel Coalition. 

The Travel Coalition’s goal is to support the providing of the best possible air travel service to the Lansing Area.  He let us know of some specials and new services that would be provided.  He focused on service to Cancun, Puerto Vallarta and Washington, D.C.  You can go to their website for more information about their support of the Capital Region International Airport!

Mr. Robinson introduced Ken Theis, the President and CEO of Dewpoint, the Speaker Sponsor.   Mr. Theis reported that Dewpoint has recently moved to the downtown area and has expanded so much that they needed to hire 150 IT people in the last three years.  Thanks to Dewpoint for providing these high quality positions to our area!

They work with business leaders to help IT be more efficient.  This is accomplished by reviewing the IT function as it interacts with a client’s business operations and employees as opposed to simply building and maintaining an IT system.  They don’t want their clients to spend more money; they want them to spend it more wisely.

Mr. Theis introduced Dave Dombrowski at this point.  Mr. Dombrowski first played a promotional video that showed snippets of Tiger history as well as featuring some of the current players.  The final view was a announcing that the Tigers were the Central Division Champions of 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.  (Loyal Tiger Fans are of course, hoping to see the Tigers add a fifth year to that run!)

Mr. Dombrowski broke the ice by asking if anyone in the room wanted to attend Spring Training and joking about extending his talk so that there would not be time for the audience to ask questions about Star Pitcher Max Scherzer, who recently left the Tigers to sign with the Washington Nationals.

He spoke of one his recent important decisions, the hiring of Tiger Manager Brad Ausmus to replace long-time manager Jim Leyland for the 2014 season.  Apparently, in addition to Mr. Ausmus’s skills at understanding baseball and leading people, women find him attractive; Mr. Dombrowski says he frequently fields questions from female fans about Brad Ausmus!

He came to the Tigers in 2002 after the Tigers had experienced eight consecutive losing seasons.  In a lesson that many business leaders could learn from, he told us that the first need was to evaluate what was happening in the organization.  While there was a losing atmosphere, there were also some employees who did their jobs well.  He needed to avoid making snap judgments so that he did not remove the positive pieces that were already in place.  He knew he needed to be patient and organize the transition.

He asked his staff how many players in the minor leagues would be projected to be among the top five players in baseball at their position.  In 2002, there was only one.  He decided to trade their best players to get more talent into the organization.

There is an old baseball adage.  (Actually, if you read baseball at all, it’s a hundred-fifty year old game and there are hundreds of old adages; Mr. Dombrowski chose this one!)  In baseball, it is said that you will win one third of your games.  You will lose one third of your games.  How well your team does in the remaining third of the games will determine the quality of your team’s season.

In 2003, the Tigers won only 43 of 162 games, losing 119.  This shows how little talent there was on the team as they actually won 11 less than one third of their games.

Mr. Dombrowski said that because of the long period of suffering through losing teams, there was an attitude of acceptance of the losing that pervaded the organization.  He needed to change that attitude.  It was important to overcome problems like injuries or unexpected poor performances by players instead of using them for excuses.

He did so by letting the staff see how hard he worked and how much he cared.  He also made a point of showing pride and confidence at all times when he dealt with people.   

He used the example from 1997, when the Marlin’s Owner asked him to reduce payroll to an absolute minimum so the team could be sold.  The Marlins had just won the World Series three days before Mr. Dombrowski was instructed to do this.  While it was heartbreaking to break up this championship team, he decided that it was pointless to sulk.  He made the smartest trades he could and got back enough talent so that the Marlins won the World Series again in 2003.

He applied the lessons he learned from his unpleasant tasks of 1997 to building the Tigers.  He knew he had to get new, quality talent into the Tigers’ organization. 

He also had to turn Detroit into a place where players would want to play.  He told of contacting player agents in 2003 and not being able to get them to return calls.  He finally was able to convince Pudge Rodriguez to note the great history of the Tiger franchise, as well as the fans, Comerica Park, an owner who really wanted to win and the Spring Training Facility.

The next important thing was to hire a good manager.  He was able to hire Jim Leyland, who had previously worked with him and led the Marlins to the 1997 World Series Championship.  He related a story from 2006, when he felt the Tigers had not fought hard enough to win the third game of a series after they had won the first two games.  Mr. Leyland made it clear that he would never accept subpar effort and it was not to happen again.

After that, he talked about his current players and the 2015 Tiger Team.  He is excited about having a lineup that will include Miguel Cabrera, the best hitter in baseball, J.D. Martinez, Victor Martinez and Yoenis Cespedes, who has arrived in a trade this year.  These are four fine hitters that will anchor a strong offense.

He related this story to let us know about Miguel Cabrera’s will to win and leadership skills.  He hit well enough to be named the Player of the Month for September, 2014. 

After the end of the season, he had to have surgery to remove bone chips and a bone spur from the ankle.  When they did the surgery, the doctors found a break in the navicular ankle bone.  Cabrera was so determined to help his team win that he broke the bone while trying to hit off an ankle that could not twist properly.  Winning the Player of the month with that kind of an injury showed really special determination and courage.

He then took questions from the audience.  We learned the Mr. Dombrowski is confident that the bullpen will be better in 2015.  He mentioned that Joakim Soria and Bruce Rondon will be recovered from injuries after not being able to contribute at their usual levels in 2014.  (Rondon did not pitch at all last year.)

Mr. Dombrowski told us that he expects Steven Moya to perform so well in the minor leagues that he will eventually force his way onto the major league team and be a star performer for the Tigers. 

He addressed some of the construction near Comerica Park.  He cited a new hockey arena being built and a new rail system going in.  He also mentioned the Little Caesar’s is considering moving their corporate headquarters into the area. 

We learned that Catcher Alex Avila will try a new mask to make it less likely that he will endure concussions in the future.  No one knows why, but Avila seems to take more abuse from foul tips than other catchers; this was a factor in Avila’s concussions last year.

He declined to discuss Pitcher David Price’s contract negotiations because he feels it is best to respect the player and leave those discussions behind the scenes.

He finished up by letting us know that he is optimistic that David Price, Justin Verlander and Anibal Sanchez will be the cornerstones of one of the top pitching rotations in baseball in 2015. 

Thank you to the Lansing Regional Chamber and to Dave Dombrowski for treating us to this wonderful event and great presentation.  Your blogger is a Toastmaster and noticed how composed, confident and organized Mr. Dombrowski was during his presentation.  He is a fantastic communicator in addition to his obvious skills at running the Tiger Organization!

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