Full Transcript for Inside the Oval: Alison Lu, 49ers Director of Business Strategy & Analytics

And I wouldn't say that it was, you know, an idea that necessarily came out of B s A. I think this is an idea that, as I mentioned, was an idea that was you know, floated by our stadium operations team, our service team, concessions team, and probably others that I'm forgetting and to make it a reality, our B s A team went out with a survey specifically about concessions and their food and beverage experience. Together the data and When we looked at that data, UM, we saw that you know, people would enjoy having an experience like this one where you know, the basic food and non alcoholic beverages were included as a part of their ticket package. And data that we looked at not only included the survey data, but we also looked at you know, past sales data and what people ordered their purchase information to design the program as a whole, and we're excited to be rolling that out next season. I feel like you're the per perfect person to ask. I took a bunch of classes where I think this was described in different ways. What makes a good survey interesting? I you definitely have to talk to Marco on our team to UM to really get detailed there, but I think a lot of it it's actually just on the user flow and like making sure that it's easy to fill out because you are asking people for for their time and these people are very graciously giving it to us by providing their feedback, and so to make it easy to understand and make sure that you know it makes the questions makes sense, the follow up questions makes sense, and make it short as well. Is it's something that I feel like has has been able to maximize engagement. Going back a little bit, you have an undergraduate degree in environmental engineering. When you were in college, what career path did you see yourself taking. Yeah, this is a horrible answer, but I had no idea, and if anybody were to ask me, you know, what should I do in college, would probably be to be a little bit more intentional about this. But I had heard that, you know, engineers got jobs out of out of school, and I had more of more of a leaning towards math and science, and I also like the environment, so I decided to put those together and do environmental engineering. So that's what I decided to do. I do not use any of that degree in my current job right now. So also message to all you guys out there as well they were struggling with your major, that you can always pivot and do something else. Yeah. I second that because I don't use my history major currently. Yeah. It's uh, it's very I mean, like it takes you to good skill right, like writing and critical thinking and everything, but in the end, the actual topic probably doesn't matter as much. Absolutely, And I think coming out of college for me, I struggled because my degree wasn't in what I wanted to work in. I really went back and forth between like get a job, get another internship, or get a graduate degree. You went on to do your m b A. What went into that decision for you? Yeah, So before I guess between college and and getting my m b A, I did energy and utilities consulting. So I guess I will backtrack a little bit and say that I did use a little bit of my degree in my first job. And so I did energy and utility consulting for about four years, and I decided that the natural step from there was to go to business school because that's what a lot of management consultants do. And so from there I decided to transition then into sports. And so for for someone like me who was looking to pivot totally and go in a totally different direction from what I was doing, I would say that getting a graduate degree was essential for me because I had access to a large network of alumni who were in the sports and entertainment business, and it was easier for me to just reach out and say like, hey, like I'm a current student and was wondering about your experiences. And I would say a lot of those people graciously also offer their time to chat with me about their experiences, and I was also able to gain a little bit of the technical skills to set myself apart from other business school candidates who are looking for jobs in the sports arena. But I would say that, you know, for someone just just the question in general, like right, like, would you recommend getting a graduate degree? It totally depends because I know that there are people on our team who have a graduate degree who I know will go very far, and then and there are those that don't have a graduate degree who I know will go equally far. So it all depends on what your current situation is. But I would say for me, it was probably pretty important that I that I had access to those resources to be able to successfully pivot. You talked about reaching out to alumni, and I think that's pivotal in the job search. Do you have for college kids now or even people looking to change jobs that are already in their careers a cold open or a strategy that you've employed that you think makes that a little less uncomfortable. Yeah, I definitely have a lot of experience with this, especially during business school when I was I probably reached out to like like eight plus people over the course of a year. I would ask them for like a connection to someone else after I had finished that conversation, right, and then sort of like a trail that keeps on going. But I would say that you know, obviously have have have something that sort of sets you apart, and like maybe you can describe, you know, why you are different from the from the many other people that might be reaching out to you or to that person. But but I think it would also be just pleasantly surprised with a number of people who are in sports and entertainment who are willing to just give you thirty minutes of their time because they've gone through the exact same thing, right, Like they probably had to network very heavily to get their job, and they know exactly what it's like to be that person on the other end who was just trying to

gather as much information to make a good decision about you know, which team, which league, department, and then also you know whether or not sports and entertainment is the right is the right sort of industry to go into. During all of this, I guess when you went for your m b A, did you already know you wanted to transition into sports. I guess when did you decide that that was the pivot I want to do. I It's always been something in the back of my mind, just you know, throughout throughout my career, even when I was in energy and utilities consulting. I'm like, that would be kind of fun if I did this. I had like a very initial intro call with someone that my friend connected me to that work at the NBA, and I thought that was super cool. So I actually started seriously thinking about it the second that I got the notification that I was in that I got into business school, and I knew that I was going to have to do something for that summer in between my first and second year, and so that's really when all of my networking started. It was even before I had stepped onto campus. I was already reaching out to people to ask them about, you know, their experiences, and I just wanted to try it for that summer that that was my main goal. After that, I didn't know if I was going to stay in sports at all, but that was pretty much my number one goal when I during my first year of business school. This was just to try to get some sort of internship in sports. Did you see any differences I think for me and my perception of consulting, I think like long hours, Yeah, everyone wants to work in it. Do you see similarities between getting into sports and getting into consulting. Um, definitely long hours or something that's very similar. I'm sure you were very familiar with that too. I don't know if I've ever necessarily worked in a super cutthroat experience, though, I think that that is also something that I think is super important that you get out of networking conversations that you don't necessarily get when you're just like, you know, throwing your resume everywhere, is that you actually get to get a sense of the type of people that work in that in that business or in that industry. And I think, you know, one of the reasons why I was drawn to the forty nine was because the b s a team, Like all the people that I met were super awesome, and I'm now lucky to realize that the people in other departments are also equally as awesome. But in terms of like the work ethnic, I would say a lot of the there's actually a lot of similarities between the work that I do with the forty nine Ears and in my previous energy and consulting, my previous energy consulting roles, it's a lot of you know, project management, dealing with a lot of data putting, putting all that data into one cohesive deck, presenting it to you know, all these important stakeholders. There's actually probably more crossover than not in presenting. Was that something you were always comfortable with or have you had to work on that skill to present in front of especially now you present in front of sea levels and up. Oh gosh, I'm that's actually very kind of you to think that I'm minorally good at presenting. You are? I will for that, thank you, because that's definitely like a skill on my on my to do list to like work work on. I think presenting is one of I guess one of those skills that you can never get the best at is just sort of takes more reps. And that's actually something interesting that I've been able to capitalize on with being a part of Women Connect at the forty niners. I knew that presenting is something that I needed to get better on, and so I've been able to use opportunities in Women Connect to present and you know, I would I would say that in those settings that the stakes are just a little bit lower, and so've I'm really grateful for that opportunity, but yeah, presenting is something that I definitely need to work on even now, and something that I think just takes a lot of time and repetition to get right. You briefly mentioned Women Connect, which we talked. Sophie was the other guests this month, and she talked a lot about the employee resource group. You are also on the board right of Women Connect. What have you learned from being able to step into a new role in addition to your own job. Yeah, I have loved being a part of Women Connect because I think that it has allowed me to develop relationships with women who are in departments that I typically wouldn't get to work with. And I guess like I typically wouldn't get to work with those women, and I think that it has taught me a lot about that sort of cross collaboration, right that we that we use in b s A all the time. Right, b s A is working with the marketing team with stadium operation in the ticketing operations, and a lot of other departments in the organization, And so I think that Women Connect is like a small sort of like microcosm of that. I also think that, you know, people who are part of Women Connect are just are really passionate about topic, and I think that is very inspiring for me as well to be a part of. And then it's also just about getting the message out there right because I think as women in the organization of a different experience, I think it's important to have these types of employee resource groups for people that might just have a different experience than others in the organization, and to be able to provide support for those experiences is something that we get a lot of satisfaction from. I can say for myself, getting to know the women throughout the organization was so beneficial and just meeting more people and then being like, hey, like maybe you should try this. So I think for me, I don't know what I would have done without that resource group. I think that for men, there are more natural ways that happens. One of the things that I that I missed the most from pre COVID is the fact that we used to wake up really early in the morning and a

bunch of people from the organization would go play basketball. Patty Kuwan was was also a part of this. But Patty and I and also Sally were like the three women who were part of that group. You know, I got to meet a lot of other people in other departments just just through that morning group alone, and I really value those relationships. And like, these are those types of natural sort of networking experiences that men have that try to recreate with the women connect group because it doesn't it might not come as naturally. I actually had were doing like a lightning round later. And I have one of the questions, as you are known as one of the ringers in the pickup basketball game. I did not play basketball, and I heard all the time how good you were. If you were competing in a three on three, who would you tap to be on your squad? You mean besides Patty Kuan from your team, because Patty Quan would definitely be on it. Um, but you can drain threes from so far away, and I was usually on the the see the end of that, because we would usually be against each other. Um, oh gosh, I don't know. Let's see, I would probably have to have someone who can just like hang out in the bottom of the post, maybe like a shock like honestly, I'm not a huge um NBA followers, so I don't even know who's like the best center of these days is probably really embarrassing. I feel like you, Patty and Shack would be great. Yeah, you know what, I'm going to stick to that answer. I did want to follow up. We didn't mention you went to very you know, little known schools. You went to undergraduate at Yale and you went to business school at Harvard. Not only are they everyone knows those schools, but they're pretty big rivals. When it gets to the time of year where it's football basketball, who do you root for? Yale? Hands down? Yeah, I think that there's just a little bit of a closer deeper connection with your undergrad institution than your graduate school institution. But I mean, if Harvard was in like the n c A Tournament, I would have a root for them. But gotta be ill makes sense. Going back to your work with the forty, I think something people wouldn't know is that your team has an entire workspace set up in lee By Stadium for game day and you guys monitor the entire fan experience. What is your non COVID game day routine. Yeah, you're referring to our SAP executive puddle, and I don't have access in that room because it's a little space constraint that there are a lot of people in it. It is a cool room though. Um So, Actually most of my pregame routine has to do with concessions because I work a lot on the food and beverage strategy. I don't know if many people know this, but for game day, we hire thousands of workers to be our guest services representatives UM for our concessions workers as well. So some of the concessions workers are temporary and it may be their first time in the stadium and to be thrown in front of thousands of fans is a pretty daunting task. So I have a little group in our business strategy team that walks around to each of the concession stations and make sure that people knows how to apply discounts or ring up certain items. And then usually we mostly retreat back to our desks and catch up on work. So long hours is really a thing. But sorry, that part is super boring. No, that's really fascinating. What how early do you need to be at the stadium in order to get everyone prepared? Yeah, so I mean, Levy has their own training team and so most of the times, like they most of that is covered. But you know, sometimes for for people who will be in there the first time, it's, ah, we just we just walked through with We just walked through some of the basics with them, So it doesn't take a long time. It's mostly like you know, checking in and five minutes per stand. So I would say we probably get there three hours before kick because the club doors open around around three hours before kick, right, So a little bit around there. You have a responsibility on game day. You guys are doing year in reporting. Do you have a busiest time of year or I guess on the flip side of that, do you guys have a time when you can breathe for a little bit. Um. It's interesting because I think you know, typically people like my friends who are not in sports like things during the off season. I'm just like taking a vacation the entire time, right, But I would say the offseason is probably our busiest time because that's when we that's when we can make some of the decisions that will then impact the actual season. Right, So for us, you know, once things are humming along during the season, I would say that those are less stressful times. Um, that being said, the season is quite busy. But yeah, I don't like a time to breathe. Maybe that would be like those quiet hours during the game day where like you know that nothing like but nothing that can go wrong might be your responsibilities. So it's it's nice to just be able to like watch watch the game. Speaking of a time to breathe. Once everyone is vaccinated cut, the world hopefully goes back to some normalcy. Do you have somewhere you want to go? M somewhere I want to go. Um, I love Barry's boot camp, and like going to the gym. I think that going to the gym might be one of those I know that's like super also like kind of nerdy that like once between like a vacation and going to the gym, I would rather go to the gym. Um, But I would say, like that's probably like the routine that I missed the most. Obviously I would love a vacation, but I think that is part of my daily routine that I have not necessarily been able to recreate because working at at home is just not the same. How has work from home been for you? Did you have space to do an entire work area that's separate from living or have you been able to kind of build a routine. Yeah. I will have to admit that when work from home first started, I really had a hard time because I've always been that person who needed to

get away from their living space in order to be productive. So like even when I was, like, you know, studying for the GMAT, I would go to a coffee shop down the street, or when I was in college, I would need to go to the library because I just could not do anything at my my dorm. So when COVID, you know, first happened, it was a really really rough transition for me because I just felt like I wasn't being productive and I wasn't you know, performing for the same level. But now I think that obviously it's been a year there there have been adjustments that I've been able to make, and I think being a little bit softer on myself too, in terms of like it's okay if I take this little break here and we'll make people are productive in the future. Those kinds of things have helped me as well. I wish I had a photo of your desk that we could add to this episode because you have mull to pull screens. Have you been able to recreate that or if you did, you have to completely change your workflow once you got to working from home. Yeah, for sure, Like getting the extended monitor was one of the first things that I had to do because I just feel like I can. I can move boxes around a power point just way easier on a bigger screening. Yeah, it's definitely that. And then, um, I think it's just honestly just getting used to working in my in my room. I've tried moving around various places. I've discovered that the kitchen really is not the best place for me to be. So yeah, just finding spaces that have been most reluctive for me has helped. Another hat you wear in the organization is working and you mentioned this earlier is working on the Horizon summit. And how did that event come about and how far and advanced you need to start working out logistics for that event. Yeah, so I'll start with our first question, how did it come about? Think the Horizon somewhat was a idea that came from Moon Jid, who is the chief strategy officer of the organization, and we felt that there wasn't a conference that was specifically tailored to business strategy. In sports, you obviously have the m I T. Sloan Analyze Conference, which is a humongous conference and it's super successful, but the topics that they focus on are very wide ranging, so it's from athlete performance to business strategy to also like agencies and all other things that cover just the wide umbrella of sports. And so we decided that we want to put on the Horizon Summit so that people in business strategy can share best practices, and we pride ourselves on the content and it's very ted talk style instead of like large panels, because one of the things with panels is that like there are a lot of people speaking that there's just not a lot of time, and so the topics that are covered are very high level, whereas we've we've decided that with individual tad talks where someone is on stage for twenty minutes, they can go into a lot of depth behind you know, all the data that they've collected, what were the results of

the initiatives that they've launched, and really share very deep insights so that people can take those insights away and perhaps apply it to their own team. Your second question though, like how far in advance do we start planning. We'd love to start as soon as possible, but sometimes some other priorities get in the way. So we're just starting to work on Her and Summit and it is coming at you this fall. It'll be virtual again, and the great thing about being virtual conference is that we can make it free to all of those who are interested in joining, So look out for Her in sum What was the challenge or was there a challenge in moving the event from in person to last year having to take that virtual. Yeah, it was quite challenging. I think it was. I think we the horizons on for was in June, and so it was still very very early on with the I guess the whole virtual meetings and virtual conferences, and so there wasn't a lot of There weren't a lot of people that I could go to to be like, hey, like how did you do this virtually? And what were your best practices? We just sort of had to run in a lot of different directions, and some of those directions we had to you know, step back from and then go in a completely opposite direction. And there was a lot of iteration. But we had a great team working on it, and we were really happy with how it turned out. Have you had a favorite speaker? I know you said that you guys do the kind of ted talking more than panel. Have you had someone where you came away and you were like, wow, that was amazing. Yeah. I have to, um give a shout out to Jay Riola and Anthony Perez who they were my first I guess sort of managers at the Orlando Magic. I had intern there. That was the internship that I got between my first and second year of business school. Jay gave a talk last year virtually about the Orlando Magic's flexible ticketing system, and I think that what they what the Magic do with their tickets is really awesome, and they're always sort of innovating and trying to think about what within with what a new season ticket member experience might be. And then Anthony gave a talk on venue next and you know some of the some of the cool products that they're offering on our team. Actually, UM, I really loved Jesse love Joys talk he gave in person in two as nineteen. He's the head of museum and for the ninety's du and his content was a little bit different. It wasn't necessarily the you know, business strategy and analytics topic that most of the other speakers came with, but he was just an awesome speaker, and I just remember energy levels were a little bit low after the second day of like a lot of content, and he was able to bring it back up. I wanted to finish with a lightning round. I have been calling them quick hits and then on the last podcast, so if you called it a lightning round, and I was like, oh, that's much better. This segment is called now okay, sounds good. Do you have a favorite memory as a member of the

forty Niners. I love taking my family on the fields before the game and having them, you know, be close to the players as they run out. I just love seeing them excited about, you know, the job that I do. And so it's not a specific memory, but you know, those types of experiences bring a smile to my face. Are your parents forty Niners fans? Um? Yes, Well, my dad has always been a football fan and that's how I got my um my love for football, and my mom is has become one with the forty Niners. Do you have a favorite project you've worked on There's a lot of dimensions to think about that one. On I would say I liked working on the CFP budget because we also got to go to the CFP Championship game in Atlanta, and so that one that was an awesome payoff for that for that project. Recently, we we did a small research project for the Leeds United football Club on on how e p L teams have been able to expand internationally. And I thought that was a cool project because we reached out to a lot of different APL teams and asked them, you know, hey, like what what has worked for you? When has been your best practices and they were super excited to talk to us and share some of their information. So again it's um speaks to the types of people who are who are in sports and always willing to help out. You've worked on projects like member Inclusive Menu, which has never really been done before, and then you just mentioned CFP budget, which happens somehow every year there is one more challenging than the other doing something that's never been done, but for or taking something and improving it. Mm hmm. That's an interesting question. I think the things that have never been done before are definitely scarier. But at the same time, I think you have just more of a trust in your gut and the data that you have to say like, Okay, we believe that this is going to work, and like these are the things that we're just going to need to to be able to execute on to to make it successful. Whereas the things that you're sort of improving on there might be certain sorta of I guess, preconceived notions about how it has been done in the past and therefore less innovative, and so that's like a different hurdle in and of itself. So I'm not sure if I have the answer that question. There are challenges to both exactly. Another thing that I am in awe of you about is your mastery of Excel. Do you have a top train for people who want to improve their skills there? I think everyone says, like I'm proficient in Excel, but like you're beyond that. That is also very kind of you to say. Again, I am not the best person on Excel on our team, but I would say YouTube. YouTube is your friends. If you want to learn something in Excel, just somebody else has figured it out before you, right, So just put that into the YouTube and then see see what comes out. Finally, every job posting has that other duties as a signed bullet that's always kind of ominously at the bottom. Have you done anything that you didn't expect to in your role? Um? So, I have a funny story behind this. So when I was little, I told my parents that I wanted to be a cashier when I grew up because I had this cashier, this cash registered toy, and I just thought it was the most awesome thing ever, and I would pretend to ring people up, make change, run plastic credit cards, etcetera. And funnily enough, in the two As nineteen season, our concessionaire general manager wanted us to experience what it was like being a cashier in one of our food and beverage stands, So we threw a bunch of our BSA teammates behind the register and we took orders for from people for about an hour, which was actually really awesome because I don't typically get that kind of fan interaction during a game, and everyone was super nice and I really enjoyed it. But I didn't think that my dreams of becoming a cashier would actually come true. One day. On that note, though I like you saying that brought up this image from when we did a photo shoot for Member Inclusive Menu where you were also a cashier. Yeah, you know, so like photo model. I guess is maybe another thing that I didn't think I would be doing. Granted it's not for anything high fashion or anything, but yes, there is a picture of me circulating around the internet, me handing a hot dog to dairy Sanchez. See who knew childhood dreams do come true? This is true, This is true in big well. Alison, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. This was so much fun and I really appreciate you taking the time to kind of share about your role in your and how you got there. Thanks Haley, thanks so much for having me