DC Velocity - May 2017

72 DC VELOCITY MAY 2017 www.dcvelocity.com HIS BASKETBALL PROWESS MADE HIM A HOUSEHOLD name. But there’s much more to the story of Earvin “Magic” Johnson than athletic superstardom. Since retiring from the NBA, the legendary basketball player has become a business powerhouse who has dedicated his life to leaving a positive impact on underserved urban communities—and made a fortune doing it.

Today, he heads Magic Johnson Enterprises, an investment

he’s a philanthropist too. In 1991, he founded

the Magic Johnson Foundation, which sup-
ports community-based organizations working
to address the educational, health, and social
needs of ethnically diverse urban communities.
Earlier this year, Johnson took on yet another
challenge: reviving the flagging fortunes of his
former team, the Los Angeles Lakers, as its head
of basketball operations.

In a keynote presentation at ProMat 2017 in Chicago last month, Johnson talked about his journey from pro athlete to business magnate asked about the keys to his success, for instance, he ticked off a series of familiar—and non-magical—attributes, like discipline, preparation, and perseverance.

He could have added “vision” to that list. Much of Johnson’s “magic” is rooted in his ability to see opportunities others have overlooked—often in poor urban communities. For instance, during the ’90s, he defied the skeptics and opened a chain of movie theaters and Starbucks coffee locations in inner city areas that many thought couldn’t support those businesses.

What made those ventures a success wasn’t just their location.
It was also Johnson’s solid understanding of his customer base.

local preferences for heartier fare. As he explained at ProMat,
bining dinner with a film, rather than eating before
or after the show. “We weren’t going to have dinner
and a movie. We were going to have dinner AT the
movie,” he said. The result? Johnson’s first theater
sold more hot dogs in its first weekend than stan-
dard cinemas sell in a month. And it wasn’t just the
concession stands that were successful. Thanks to
Johnson’s business acumen, the theaters performed
well right out of the gate.

To Johnson, that experience only reinforced the
importance of knowing your customers. “Always
listen to the customer, and think
of them first,” he said. “It is not
enough to just deliver, we have
to overdeliver,” Johnson said. “If
you overdeliver, you’ll get the
customer retention you want.”
In 1998, Johnson again defied
the odds when he struck a deal
of the theaters. He did, and he liked what he saw.”
Johnson teamed up with Starbucks to become the
only franchisee in the company’s history, acquiring

125 stores that earned higher-than-average per-cap-
ita sales before he sold them back to the company
in 2010.

Over the past 25 years, Johnson has learned an awful lot about what drives success, and it doesn’t involve the supernatural. While the man may be Magic, his techniques for running a successful business are not magical at all.