Celtics CEO Talks Careers at HBS

Wycliffe Grousbeck, managing partner, governor, and CEO of the Boston Celtics basketball team, yesterday presented Harvard Business School students with a four-point plan for success modeled off the negotiation strategies he used to acquire the Boston Celtics in 2002.

The basketball team won their 17th championship in June 2008.

Grousbeck, who formed and led the investment group that bought the Boston Celtics, recommended setting a goal and aiming high, assessing what resources are needed, collaborating with the appropriate individuals, and remaining steadfast to reach the ultimate objective.

Grousbeck highlighted the importance of career choices and advised graduate students to do something that they loved.

“I guess I would ask you to think about what you would do after you won the lottery,” he said. “What would you do for free?”

Grousbeck told the audience that he worked as an attorney for four years, but left the legal field when he realized that he was not happy in that profession.

“The people who haven’t failed are the ones who are afraid to fail,” he said.

“And you can’t be afraid to fail if you’re an entrepreneur.”

Grousbeck comes from a family of entrepreneurs. His father co-founded Continental Cablevision Inc after college, eventually selling the company for $11.5 million.

Grousbeck said he was motivated to buy the Celtics when he watched the sale of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to New England Sports Ventures. At the time, the basketball team was on sale for $360 million—then the most expensive team in the history of the NBA. It made $23 million per year.

Grousbeck told the audience that he immediately decided to raise and borrow money to offset the costs of purchasing the Boston Celtics by forming and leading an investment group.

“The days just began to fly by and it didn’t feel like work. I’d be out there in the arena, I’d be risking it all while being part of something bigger than myself,” Grousbeck said.

The Boston Celtics basketball team is also partially owned by Stephen Pagliuca, a Democrat running for the open Massachusetts Senate seat and a managing director at Bain Capital.