When Spencer Dinwiddie steps off the court at the end of a game, his day is far from over. Since joining the Brooklyn Nets in 2016, this NBA All-Star has worked hard to build an impressive business résumé, with a line of footwear – K8iros – as well as an investment company and a great deal of philanthropy. He is doing what smart people always seek to do: leverage an asset into greater achievements.
Business of any sort needs tools. You have to work lean. You have to collaborate and keep in touch. You have to stay on top of your industry, and you have to remove waste and inefficiency. Anything less is just burning money and time. Spencer has many people that he needs to work with and communicate with. Investors, suppliers, customers and partners on the business side as well as coaches and teammates on the sports side.
He recently told us a little more about his business communication setup and why he chose Cisco Webex as the machinery behind his growing, multifaceted success.
“Outside of me playing professional basketball for the Brooklyn Nets, using Webex collaboration tools will help drive my business to the next level.” – Spencer Dinwiddie
Basketball: Coaching, review and strategy
Ongoing success in professional sports isn’t all down to athletic ability. You have to have that, of course, but it will all go to waste if it is not reviewed and fine-tuned on an ongoing basis. That’s what coaches are for, after all, to identify the potential in an athlete and then draw it to the surface. It’s not always possible or practical to pull the whole team or even select players into a room to review footage of the last game. But it certainly is possible and practical to do so over high definition interactive video conferencing technology which includes the capacity to mark up and save the visuals.
The clarity of audio and video not only allow for clear analysis and markup, they also contribute to the vital elements of team dynamics: synergy, communication and emotional connection. That’s what exists at the heart of any great team. It’s always a people thing, facilitated through effortless technology.
K8iros Design
As someone who has spent thousands of hours on the court, punishing and wearing out hundreds of pairs of shoes, he is not only an expert in what is needed in a sports shoe, but is also hands on in designing them. His K8iros line looks great on and off the court, but like many experts, his sudden inspirations or design changes don’t always present themselves at the opportune time. Or even if they do, calling a meeting of the design and QA team is often highly impractical.
This is why the ability to co-edit his shoe designs from anywhere in the world is something he sees as a game-changer in driving his business forward, even when on the move.
When it is time to actually meet, access becomes a non-issue, both in terms of travel (not needed) and access (one button to push). As he says himself, “With Cisco Webex I know that my meetings will be secured and professional for both internal users and the clients that my business team and I work with.”
So it’s no surprise, at least to us, that he and his teams use Cisco Webex for communicating, collaborating and growing his empire. People often think of Cisco Webex as the go-to tool in the boardrooms and spaces of big glass-tower companies. Sure. We’re there. We’ve always been there. But Spencer’s a great example of the numerous other situations in which people work together in companies large and small. People in business need clarity of communication. They need immediacy and simplicity. They need to build on their momentum and synergy. Their technology should be a facilitator of these needs, and not an obstacle.
Pro-basketball or fashion design may seem more glamorous than some other business lines, but the rules are always the same. Great people make great things happen. The machinery of business helps people to become great – as leaders, team members, entrepreneurs, and customers. One of the present and the greatest achievements that Cisco Webex products can achieve is to become essentially invisible. They are there, in the meeting room and on your phone, quietly and efficiently making things happen. Making meetings run well, bringing people together, allowing ideas to flow unimpeded.
Spencer’s presence on the court and in the public eye, as a designer, business owner and philanthropist is testament to his hard work and tenacity, from his early years trying hard to join the big leagues of the NBA through to the present and the future. Cisco is proud to know him, and to be, in a mostly invisible way, part of the team.
See more of Spencer’s journey and sign up for your free Webex account.
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