Name: COO Summit 2024: Game Changer - Talking Leadership with MLS's First Black President
Uploaded: 2024-10-07
Duration: 9 min 10 s

Danita Johnson says a decade’s worth of experience working in the WNBA instilled grit and a “day-to-day scrappiness” in her. Today, as the first Black president of a Major League Soccer club, she’s operationalizing her wealth of knowledge to guide D.C. United’s front office to greater heights. Hear Johnson speak about how not taking no for an answer enabled her to boldly take on leadership challenges—setting attendance records in the process.

COO Summit 2024: Game Changer - Talking Leadership with MLS's First Black President

Conferences

Danita Johnson says a decade’s worth of experience working in the WNBA instilled grit and a “day-to-day scrappiness” in her.

Welcome, Zita. Thank you so much for joining us at the Fortune Coo Summit. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. All right, Juanita, as Kristen already alluded to you, spent years at the W NBA president and coo of the W NBA sparks. Uh You've also worked at the NBA. You've now made this pivot to soccer, uh kind of an unconventional path. Talk to me about the skills and learning you developed while in basketball and how it translates to your current role. Yeah, I think one of the things working in the W NBA and the NBA family, you're gonna get some of the best of the best business practices, um how you build your teams, uh the sharing of practices. Um those things from the foundational pieces in that league have made it what it's so great and what you see and as the NBA season is about to tip off and we're in the midst of W NBA playoffs. So when I think about the MLS and part of the transition is MLS was sitting in a very similar state of where W NBA was. Um when I joined MLS or at year 20 six, similar to where the W NBA is. They're like 28 now going on 30. So the business itself for the MLS sat in a very similar spot of where it needs transformation, where it needed change and growth opportunities specifically with World Cup coming in 2026. To your point. W NBA is seeing this huge surge of interest right now. When I think about soccer globally, it's quite popular within the US, Historically, it hasn't been as popular as other competing in sports when you joined DC United roughly four years ago. What were your focus areas? What were the pain points at the time? Yeah, I think part of the focus was re-establish the business as a whole. Um re-establish practices from a business that put us in the best class. Um We needed to when I came in. It was right after COVID. So during that standpoint needed to hire restructure from an internal standpoint. I think I put my coo hat back on and think about how do we operate, operationalize this business quickly, knowing what we have coming ahead in 26. So it was re establishing our partnerships, understanding structure from the inside, building a new team to go along with that to really drive the business forward and start to engage. Let's break this up into three chunks because when I see people with roles like yours, especially when they're coming in in the early days. And it's very nascent. I say, where on earth do you begin? So talking about the beginning, the middle and the end stage of operational eye in this process, I think one of the biggest things in the beginning is building trust. Um People don't really move for you or they don't really react in different ways unless they have a sense of trust. So I really live off of three CS. It's a simple form that I've learned over the years of going in and helping to transform businesses. Um consistency, commitment and communication. So in the first stage of that is consistent behavior by me as a leader, how I show up each day, how I work with my team each day, that consistency really helps to drive uh a mimic of behavior and trust between myself and the team. Um The communication is learning from them, the different communication styles building on their style versus my style. How do we mesh? How do we find on middle ground? Once we start to build that communication funnel, it's really then the commitment to the work. Right. So we've been consistent in how we work, we're communicating well, and we have a level of strong commitment to build the business and move it forward. So those are like the phases of like how we start to really go. And then from there, you have that first year to two years and you're looking at like the, the small problems. Right. Right. And you're strategizing for the longer term problems at the same time. And, and where do you get your big wins? And you? 3 to 5? I'm really? And that's kind of where I'm sitting with my club currently is. OK. We've been here, we've been in this, we've been in the rotation. How do we transform and go even to the next height? And so at this time, it's, do you have the right people? You know, we have those quick changes in the beginning now that you've had your team with you. It's re evaluation. Do we have the right people? Are we using the right strategy? And is it building towards a long term for us? And now I sit and get ready for the next five years. It's taking it to the next level, those big ideas implementation, making sure that the structure we built underneath is strong enough to support the change in which we want to create. You consider. We, we first of all say that you're very people first and I, I wanna know what that means in practice. You also say that you're a systems thinker as you think about efficiency. What does that look like in practice? Can you share any anecdote? What a people first is, is I need people to move with me, right? We can all stand here and say and understand our practices. But my people first is making sure I'm investing in their development, creating connection with them and helping them grow skills to be better at their business. And so examples in that is developing courses, bringing in speakers, creating access to conferences and events so that they're developing um personally. So that's my people first aspect and how I really try to dive into that um for the other areas. It's really about that next step of, I think you asked me about the um what was the next one you asked me? So the systems come in because as I develop the people, they need systems to work with it. So what are our processes that really help them actually be able to execute what I'm asking for? So I really try to look at different systems, whether it's the implementation of project management tools like a Sana um Tableau that's giving them data visualization so they can keep track of what's flowing for them. I think in our world, it's very interesting because we go B to B and B to C back and forth all the time between dealing with fans to dealing with brands. And so it's a combination of building a system around that of communication, what the platforms are and kind of creating a streamline for them there, you kind of touched on this. I want zero in a bit more just in terms of how you are leveraging tech platforms cr MS to enhance front office productivity and some of the results you've seen thus far. Yeah, I think for us, it becomes, we actually start to learn our consumer, right? That's the key. So for our, for our staff and your consumer, how would you decide uh determine your consumer? For DC United? If we have a couple of different, we have like 2 to 3 different types of consumers that we really look at. We look at somebody that is family oriented, we look at family that's gonna be like our primary, they take up a big bulk of our, our base. The next we have the entertainment seeker. So somebody that's just looking fun activities, things to do, hang out with their friends, whatever it may be, they're always looking for experiential aspects. And then we have our soccer enthusiasts, our purists, um our purists are the ones that really love the sport beginning to end, whether it's MLS. Um There's typically a differentiation in between those that watch like the European soccer leagues versus MLS. Um It's two different types but those soccer enthusiasts really do help. And so you able to leverage uh technology to be able to Yes. So then we can create actual dynamic experiences for them and how we communicate direct to their needs um through automation um through different platforms or email platforms and communications that really make sure that everything that we do is tailored to have that voice and tone of that consumer and the work that we do. Yeah. Uh perfect segue under your leadership, DC, United uh has seen or I should say it's hitting new attendance record. So, congrats on that. If you think about how you mint new stands, are you focused locally internationally? What's the thinking there? And it's also quite interesting because I'm a DMV native. So I know DC, uh, is, is quite diverse. Um, you know, a thriving black population, one that's quite affluent as well. So, just how do you think about minting new fans? Yeah, I think for us it's meeting them where they are. Um And I think for us in the US as well, it's many, when we talk about like, I'll talk specific to the African American audience, right? A lot of our African American audience doesn't necessarily experience soccer in the same way beyond maybe a 3 to 5 year when their kids are playing when they're very young. A lot of that has to do with the systems and the processes of how you elevate to a professional level and what that looks like. So, one of the things that we work on is a pathway to pro. So um people from diverse communities have a better understanding of actually how does the system work to play at the highest level because right now it's very clear when it comes to the NFL or the NBA, how you get there, how you make that money, how it, how it grows your career and NIL has added a whole new layer to that for so many folks in MLS and soccer, there's multiple layers, the opportunity to go play overseas, the opportunity to stay in the States and really educating on that, I think can actually help more play. And if we have more kids playing soccer at a high level, we're gonna develop our own stars in the US. When we develop our own stars in the US, the sport will continue to grow and have a higher propensity succeed in the US similar to what you're seeing overseas. Yeah, let's look to the future DC United ranks among the most valued MLS franchise with an estimated value of 775 million where the future growth lie. Where do you see opportunities to really optimize and, and streamline business processes as you move forward? Yeah, I think for us it's gonna be through technology. I know there's been a lot of conversation around that. I think creating operational efficient efficiency through technology. You know, our seasons are long things go back to back. It's really fast moving, the more that we can integrate that to know the consumer, to have touch points with the consumer that are very personalized, the more you will walk in here and be like, I feel like Tanita and Johnson and DC United are talking directly to me, then we're doing our job. Yeah. Well, as I said already, I'm a Maryland native. We don't have our own sports team. DC is our sister, sister city So I have a new sports team to support. Thank you so much Danita for this insightful conversation. Thank you.