The first Thorndike video segment takes us back in time, to when Ted got his business degree and first joined his grandfather’s company. At the time of this video, Luke isn’t much in need of data mining—to reach the things at the bottom of his document heaps, he needs good old fashioned shovel mining.
1. Approximately how much money do Americans spend on sports equipment annually? If possible, identify which types of sports equipment are the biggest sellers.
2. Who are some of the leading manufacturers of racquetball and tennis racquets? If possible, find out their relative importance in terms of manufacturing volume or retail sales of these products.
3. For two of the companies that manufacture equipment for racquet sports, visit the companies’ websites and, if possible, read their most recent annual report. For each company, what have been the trends in overall company sales and profitability over the most recent years reported?
4. Select a company that makes racquetball racquets, then search message boards for comments that group participants may have made about the quality or reputation of racquets carrying that company’s brand name.