Fanatics Inc and Michael Rubin's Success

This assignment delves into the case study of Fanatics Inc., a leading sports merchandise retailer, and its founder, Michael Rubin. It examines Rubin's entrepreneurial journey, the company's growth strategy, and key factors contributing to Fanatics' success. The analysis covers topics like risk management, focus on core objectives, consistency, and overcoming challenges faced by entrepreneurs.

GLOBAL STRATEGIC
PLANNING
(Michael Rubin, Kynetic LLC)

Table of Contents
PROFILE OF THE FIRM..............................................................................................................................1
DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF ENTREPRENEUR...................................................................................2
MOTIVATION TO START UP BUSINESS................................................................................................4
FUTURE PLANS..........................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................10

PROFILE OF THE FIRM
REF. DESCRIPTION RESPONSE
1.1 Company Age Kynetic LLC (2012)
1.2 Size In 2010, GSI (Global Sports Inc) became the largest
internet company which merchandise in billions of dollar
with revenue of $1.4 billion with a workforce of 5000
employees. eBay diverse certain assets into Kynetic, in
which, all sport merchandising operations transferred into
Fanatics along with 70% ownership in Rue La La as well as
Shop Runner. In 2010, When GSI purchased Fanatics it had
reported a revenue & operating profit of $186.3 million &
$23.8 million. In 2013, its Fanatics Inc had generated a
turnover of $3.1 billion (Bensinger, 2013). As per IBIS
report, in US sport apparel industry, Fanatics Inc shown a
rapid growth @6% annually during 2010-2015 and in 2015,
it is valued at $8.3 billion and it is expected to grow 2.74%
per year till 2019 (IPO Prospects: Fanatics Expanding Its
Playing Field, 2016).
1.3 Industry sector Kynetic LLC operates in E-commerce industry. Its offering
covers following:
Fanatics: Largest online retailer of sports merchandising
Rue La La: one of the leading online private sale
destination inside US
Shop Runner: Innovative services that drive shopping
benefits from the top brands and retailers i,e. Clothing,
cosmetics, beauty products, electronics, sport goods, toys,
pet supplies, Luggage, games, automotive parts, baby gear
and others (Kynetic LL, 2015).
1.4 Main markets US market
1.5 If international, no. of It is looking for expanding its geographical presence. In a
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markets,
% of sales as export
recent month, Fanatics had announced to acquire UK based
company Kitbag at an estimated cost of $17 billion which
runs online operations in Europe such as NBA, NFL and
other partners i.e. rugby, tennis, motor sports, Golf.
DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF ENTREPRENEUR
REF. DESCRIPTION RESPONSE
2.1 Age, gender, education,
marital status etc.
Name: Michael G. Rubin
Entrepreneur: Renowned internet entrepreneur
Native: Philadelphia
Birth year: 1972
Age: 45 year
Gender: Male
Citizenship: United Status
Education: Villanova University
Belongs to: Jewish Family
Father: Ken Rubin, Veterinarian
Mother: Paulette, Psychiatrist
Marital status: Divorced with his wife, Meegan Rubin who
was a local dance teacher and he also has 1 child.
Currently, he is in relationship with his girlfriend, named
Nicole Lapin who is a CNBC anchor.
2.2 Prior work experience/s
Worked for another
business
 When Rubin was only 8 years old, he sold a
vegetable seeds door to neighbourhood in
Philadelphia which indicates his entrepreneurship.
 In just 12 year, Rubin had started his ski shop with
his parents and just following 2 years, he had started
his own shop formally in Conshohocken,
Pennsylvania, US using only $2,500 received as a
gift from father.
 When he was 16 years old, he had taken a debt of
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$200,000 and loan worth $37,000 from his father.
During this time, Rubin had expanded its ski shops
to five numbers before entering into the college.
After visiting to the Villanova Univ. he realized a
great opportunity to buy $200,000 overstock
equipment at an attractive discount of $17,000 taken
from his friend and re-sell it at $75000.
 With such sale proceed of his ski-shop business;
Rubin had established his own athlete equipment
company named as KPR sport which was used for
his parent’s initials. In 1993, during the age of 21
years, KPR’s total turnover reached $1 million and
just within a time of 2 years in 1995, it has exceeded
its total sales beyond $50 million.
 In 1995, Rubin had purchased women’s athlete store
manufacturing business, Ryka and in 1995, it has
developed Global Sport which later transformed into
GSI commerce, a multibillion e-commerce company
in US that has been acquired by eBay at $2.4 bn in
the year 2011.
 Afterwards, he purchased Fanatics Inc which
merchandise licensed sport items, Rue La La that is a
flesh seller and Shop Runner which derive retail
benefits, All the three segments merged into a single
company, named Kynetic and Michael G. Rubin is
the Executive Chairman of it.
2.3 Personal interest,
specialist training etc.
Rubin wants to become an entrepreneur and he was
honoured for representing the true spirit & strong
determination of an entrepreneur by the Network for
Teaching Entrepreneurship at the university. In 2011, Forbes
named the entrepreneur in the list of 20 most powerful CEO
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under 40.
He is also a co-owner of the basketball team of Philadelphia
and New Jersey Devils Hockey team.
2.4 Other
relevant/interesting
information
 He builds his entrepreneurship career from scratch
and started it at the age of 8.
 At the age of 41 also, he is an energetic man who
sleep few hours and discuss his ideas of running
business continuously with his colleagues.
 His name was included in the Forbes 400: The
Richest people in America and the Forbes: The
World's Billionaires list (Michael Rubin, 2017).
 The value of his personal wealth as of June 2015 is
$2.7 billion.
 His first luxury purchase was Porche when he was
quite young.
MOTIVATION TO START UP BUSINESS
REF. DESCRIPTION RESPONSE
3.1 Factors motivated entrepreneur
to start-up
There are number of factors which have encouraged
and motivated Michael G. Rubin to set up his own
business to become an entrepreneur. Personal
growth and a sense of accomplishment is one of the
factor that motivated him to become an independent
entrepreneur. His journey of entrepreneurship begun
in early age when he was just 8 years old and sold a
vegetable door to his neighbourhood. Besides this,
his risk accepting behaviour and challenge accepting
attitude encouraged him to become a business
builder for the personal and professional growth.
Moreover, his innovative skills is also a reason for
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which he was really excited and put genuine efforts
to propel Kynetic LLC growth so as to become a
leading brand all over the world and GSI which
became the biggest trading company was one of the
top achievement of Rubin. This success and
outstanding & unforgettable achievement was also
appeared in media i.e. Wall Street Journal, The New
York Times and others. In 2010, Forbes named
Rubin as 15 most powerful CEOs.
3.2 Level of supports from:
Family & Friends
Partner/Spouse
Governmental agencies
Financial institutions (banks
etc)
His mother is a Psychiatrist and his father is a
veterinarian. They both are educated themselves and
always wanted their child to do good in their life. He
always got support from his friends as well as
spouse. In the initial years he used to sell vegetables
door to door when no finance was provided by
government or any financial institutions. However,
when he started Mike's Ski & Sport, he got a bank
loan to finance his business.
3.3 What barriers did entrepreneur
face during start up?
He started his career from every initial stage.
Michael G. Rubin owned his Mike's Ski Shop in
suburban community of Conshohocken which has
98 degree weather temperature. Then also he was
motivated enough to work there. He kept himself
involved in one or the other business. He also used
to sell vegetable door to door when he was 8 years
old. He used to travel a lot in order to bring stock
himself for his Mike's Ski shop (Internet
Entrepreneur Michal G. Rubin Launches Kynetic,
2011). He left his college as he had no time study
with the operations of business. He is a risk taker
due to which he became bankrupt once but he
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continued to work hard in order to make his business
successful.
3.4 How did they overcome start-up
barriers?
He always keeps himself motivated in order to get
success in whatever he launches. The will power and
faith in his skills have always helped him to take
prudent decisions in his businesses. A risk taking
behaviour and assess the prevailing market helped
him to take innovative decisions. Further, his family
were quite upset when he left his college but always
supported him to grow and expand his business. He
started his online business when internet was not
that common in the country among people. He is an
active and aggressive entrepreneur who always share
his new ideas with his team in order to launch
something new and innovative. He never lost faith in
his ideas and always trusted his own decisions.
3.5 What challenges do they
currently face?
Kynetic is active on online platform which is facing
issues in tapping the energy of market. It is currently
involved in technology up gradation in order to tap
all the customers in the online industry. It is coming
up with innovative products in the market in order to
stay competitive. There are three different parts of
Kynetic. They are, Fanatics, Rue la la and
ShopRunner. He is required to manage all the three
and maintain the quality it has been giving to its
customers. Expansion of the business is another
challenge faced by him as it is difficult to manage
three business together on an online portal.
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FUTURE PLANS
REF. DESCRIPTION RESPONSE
4.1 How has business changed or
grown?
The Michael Rubin always follows the risky strategy
of business. He started his business at the age of 8th
only by selling door to door vegetables. Then by the
age of 14 he started retail ski shop. Later on he
started working towards e- commerce when he
shifted to new york city. Later on he purchased
Fanatics Inc which merchandise licensed sport items,
Rue La La that is a flesh seller and Shop Runner
which is a retail shop, All the three segments
incorporated into a single company, named Kynetic
and Michael G. recently, Rubin is the Executive
Chairman of it.
4.2 What future plans do
entrepreneur have for the
business?
The Micheal Rubin is giving consideration on
bringing innovations too the product . So it can
attract the large number of buyer. He has started
online platform of selling. He is focusing target
market which can contribute maximum to the firm.
The various modification is bringing on the part of
performing in effective manner. The Micheal Rubin
taking efforts in improving his growth strategies by
focusing on his key strength. The market is rapidly
changing therefore his key focusing is to ensure the
growth of enterprise with customer satisfaction. For
investment purpose he uses to hire the people who is
motivated and inspired by the company.
4.3 What future ambitions do they
have for themselves?
He wants to grow his business with the purpose of
satisfying the customer need. He is putting his efforts
in the terms of growing sales of the company by
expanding his business internationally. Recently the
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Micheal rubin is taking initiative to improve the
business with regard to online platform so that his
business can connect world widely. His main aim is
to growing firm productivity with the worldwide
connection of the people. He should bring changes in
the product with rapidly changing environment.
Bringing changes in the business is the toughest task
for an enterprise but he has to cope with it.
4.4 What do they consider to be
secrets of their success?
The consistency in practising towards the growing
one particular object is the main secret to the
success. The efforts should be positive which can
fulfil the both aim of profitability and productivity of
the business enterprise. The focus is need to have on
the strength part of the business. The risk is the main
element in the business without risk no business can
survive for the long period. The main strategy of
Micheal Rubin is to focusing on key objective of
firm. By giving priority to their task is the main
element of earning success in the organisation.
4.5 What advice would they give
other potential entrepreneurs?
A successful entrepreneur always give advises about
his consistency towards the work. He tells not to
focus on the mistake because misstep is the essential
part before nailing the right idea for the business.
The giving up nature on small issue bring
inconsistency to the work which act as major
drawback to the entrepreneurs career. The risk
element is necessary to have because without risk
business cannot reach to the profitability. Distraction
should be avoided to become successful business
entrepreneur. The main three component to become
potential entrepreneur are sacrifice, handwork and
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unwavering determination is the key formula.
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