CART unveils five-year plan and strategic direction
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
August 24, 2001CHICAGO - Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. today will announce its five-year strategic direction in meetings with sponsors and manufacturers. As part of the plan, CART identified six imperatives that will serve as the roadmap to grow the open-wheel racing sanctioning organization's business.
The presentation will be made by CART Senior Vice President of Marketing Rich Henley, who will be joined by CART Chairman and CEO Joe Heitzler in laying out CART's approach to many of its key constituents.
"This direction is based on a comprehensive evaluation of CART's business and we are pleased to be able to present it here today," said Heitzler. "This approach reflects the input of all our key constituents - fans, sponsors, promoters, teams, drivers, employees, media and other sports and entertainment entities. We worked closely with Bain & Company on this project and want to thank them for all the time, effort and focus they have put into helping us reach our strategic direction."
The six key elements of the strategic initiative focus on:
* CART's core racing product - "The Most Advanced Form of American
Auto Racing"
* The highly technical aspects of CART racing
* Venues which provide CART and its partners with the best opportunity
for success
* Investing in the awareness and entertainment value of events
* Creating and promoting stars
* Better serving the sponsor community.
"These imperatives provide us with the framework around which we will build our business over the next several years," said Henley, who joined CART in May after leading the marketing effort that has helped build the awareness and business of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. "This is the first time in the history of CART that it has developed an initiative of this significance. Our next step is to bring it all to life. We are formulating our tactical plans and approaches and they will be finalized soon, so we can begin preparations to execute programs to grow our business."
Henley noted that he will be presenting the strategic plan to CART's promoter group in early September. He added that the company is in the midst of discussions with several advertising agencies and, also, that CART is searching for a Vice President of Sponsorship Sales.
"Many of the specifics of our new direction will be determined over the next few weeks and we will be coming back to let people know about those as they unfold," Henley said. "We are very enthused and confident about our new strategic approach and the direction CART is taking."
Champions Michael Andretti, Gil de Ferran, Alex Zanardi and Jimmy Vasser are among the drivers who battle for the FedEx Championship Series title on oval circuits as well as temporary and permanent road courses. CART also owns and operates its top two development series, the Dayton Indy Lights Championship and the Toyota Atlantic Championship. Learn more about CART's open-wheel racing series at www.cart.com.
Text provided by Ron Richards
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