On Tuesday, November 28th, high school students had the opportunity to talk to Andrew Berlin over Zoom, thanks to the Sports Management Club. Berlin was the chairman and CEO of Berlin Packaging, a Chicago-based packaging company, until he sold the company in 2014. Now, he is a partner and investor in the Chicago Cubs and chairman and owner of the South Bend Cubs, a Minor League baseball team affiliated with the Chicago Cubs. He is also the Executive Chairman of Shield AI, an aerospace and defense company that develops AI-powered fighter pilots.
The leaders of the club, Daniel Bean (Form V) and Gideon Bialkin (Form V), prepared various questions for Berlin regarding his background, how he got into the baseball business, his business approaches and any advice he had for students aspiring to be involved in sports management.
Many students were interested in how he got into the baseball business. Berlin described that he always had a passion for baseball and grew up frequently going to Chicago Cubs games. He never imagined he would get into the baseball business, but after he sold his company, he was able to pursue this passion. Students were also interested in learning more about the Minor League Baseball business. In Minor League Baseball, he explained, “The goal is to produce more World Series players and make as much money as you can along the way.” He pointed out various ways in which business approaches that Minor League baseball teams employ differ from those of Major League teams.
Given that he is the Executive Chairman of Shield AI, one student asked about “the involvement of artificial intelligence in sports and data analytics.” He said that the “South Bend Cubs are very good with analytics and therefore don’t use AI much.” But he went on to describe some of the advanced technology the Cubs use to maximize the players’ performance. According to Berlin, sleep studies were conducted on players to maximize the quality of their rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is shown to improve a player’s overall performance. Each player’s REM sleep was measured when sleeping on many different types of mattresses, sheets and pillows. The team then noted which products each player had the best REM sleep on and shipped 12 sets of them to the hotels they would stay at for their away games. They have found that doing this has brought about four to five more wins per season.
Berlin shared his biggest piece of advice for young people interested in going into sports management: take classes in high school and college that better your business skills. He explained that once business courses become available to take in college, those courses will allow you to more deeply understand and prepare you for the field of business. He added that “any sports organization wants to win and make money, and for that to happen, you need to understand the business.” But Berlin also explained that math classes, not limited to trigonometry or calculus classes, are also important to take, as they are a great way to improve your ability to work with numbers and data. He also said that perhaps just as important is to focus on History and English courses because those classes will help you become a better communicator. Berlin believes that the skill of communicating is at the core of all his work and being able to communicate well will make you a better recruiter, partner and business person.
Josh Stulman’s (Form III) key takeaway from talking with Berlin is, “There are many different ways one can get into the field of sports management. There are traditional routes and unconventional routes. But ultimately, with passion and hard work, Berlin demonstrated that anyone can get involved.” After speaking with Berlin, Stulman and many others who attended the meeting were left informed and inspired.
