It's not that Tannenbaum is going to pitch PSLs, it's that the Jets management are, in addition to maybe picking up an idea or two (I can't imagine VaR calculations are all that useful to predicting defensive line play, but who knows!), but the various management trips to different constituencies of Jets fans (wall street, fire departments) has the PR value of getting the Jets in the news at a time they're trying to sell tickets.
Tannenbaum article in WSJ Please merge if already poted. Gang Green Meets Wall Street To Broaden His Horizons, Jets GM Tannenbaum Shadows Bank Executives; Learning 'Methodology' By KEVIN CLARK and ROBIN SIDEL New York Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum thinks NFL teams are too insulated, too resistant to new ideas and too wedded to routines. So guess what? He's decided to take a field trip. In an unusual move for a top executive of one of the city's professional sports teams, Mr. Tannenbaum has scheduled a visit Friday to the New York headquarters of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., the nation's second-largest bank. Mr. Tannenbaum will meet with chief executive James Dimon and several other senior executives including Mary Erdoes, who runs the bank's wealth-management division, longtime bank dealmaker James B. Lee and Jay Mandelbaum, who is in charge of marketing and strategy. In an interview this week, Mr. Tannenbaum said the visit is a business trip, not a social call. "I want to see their risk assessment," he said. "When we make a trade, there's certain criteria we have in evaluating it. I want to see theirs." The goal, he added, "is to bring a yellow pad and do a lot of listening and take a copious amount of notes. I'll be doing a lot of listening." Mr. Tannenbaum's fact-finding mission is part of a larger initiative he's hatched to help the team's top decision-makers broaden their horizons. On the same day, Jets assistant head coach Bill Callahan will shadow Yankees manager Joe Girardi to see what it's like to operate "in a fishbowl" while other Jets employees will shadow storm chasers, police officers and firefighters to learn about everything from crisis management and organization to "prioritizing things," Mr. Tannenbaum said. The Jets and J.P. Morgan don't have many obvious similarities. In addition to its large Wall Street operation, the bank has a consumer portfolio that includes credit cards and mortgages. While its executives have been occupied in recent years with acquiring Bear Stearns & Cos. and the banking operations of Washington Mutual Inc., Mr. Tannenbaum has been scouring the college-football ranks for the likes of Nebraska offensive lineman Matt Slauson. While Mr. Dimon has testified to Congress about the credit crisis, Mr. Tannenbaum has spent many hours trying to explain the vagaries of the NFL salary cap to the beat writers. But in the past decade, NFL teams have grown dramatically in size and complexity. According to a study completed last season by Boston Consulting Group, the typical NFL season requires 514,000 hours of labor per team—and NFL personnel say the amount of time they spend preparing for games has nearly doubled in the past two decades. Before this year's draft alone, the Jets said their scouts visited 232 schools, evaluated 1,346 players and wrote over 5,600 reports. J.P. Morgan is one of the country's healthiest banks, having emerged from the recession relatively unscathed. Its profit jumped 55% in the first quarter. Much of the credit for the bank's performance has gone to Mr. Dimon, who relentlessly slashed costs and overhauled the bank's operations after taking over as chief executive in 2006. Mr. Tannenbaum has had his share of accolades lately. After missing the playoffs in 2008, the Jets made a surprising run to the AFC Championship game last season. Its improvement has much to do with Mr. Tannenbaum's decisions in 2007 and 2009 to trade up to a higher draft position to select cornerback Darrelle Revis and quarterback Mark Sanchez, respectively. Friday's meetings were arranged by Frank Bisignano, J.P. Morgan's chief administrative officer and a member of the operating committee, who is friendly with Mr. Tannenbaum and other members of the Jets' management. Mr. Bisignano and Mr. Tannenbaum said they had discussed the exchange in the past but hadn't found the time until now. Mr. Tannenbaum and Mr. Dimon have met only briefly in the past. "Anyone who is a general manager of a sports franchise can learn things from very senior executives who run a large organization and vice versa," said Mr. Bisignano. A New York native, Mr. Dimon isn't known inside the bank to be a huge fan of professional sports. He took to boxing in the late 1990s after he was fired from Citigroup Inc. Mr. Dimon met with NBA owners last year about how the economy would impact their franchises. Mr. Dimon was unavailable to comment. "Jamie, he's a pioneer and industry leader in acquisitions and I'm curious to see what his methodology is," Mr. Tannenbaum said. "I want to see how he runs a team." Though the Jets have been making a publicity push this year to sell tickets in the new stadium, the team said the program wasn't conceived as a way to generate publicity or to woo a possible corporate sponsor. The Jets said that in the near future, J.P. Morgan employees will go to the team's facility in Florham Park, N.J., to talk to team executives about skills such as talent evaluation. "This is the greatest trade I've ever made," Mr. Tannenbaum said. "They offer us a lot more than we offer them." Write to Kevin Clark at kevin.clark@wsj.com and Robin Sidel at robin.sidel@wsj.com
