(upbeat music) - We've had to be more intentional in how we go about seeking employees that wanna come work for the Indianapolis Indians. And we've evolved and we've done different things, but I think over the last 10 years, we've done a much, much better job of that. And I think that's something that we feel really good about and we continue to get better with. (upbeat music) - That was Randy Lewandowski, President and CEO for the Indianapolis Indians, talking about how his leadership style has evolved over time to create a team that is intentional and inclusive on uniquely contributing to our awesome sports skate here in Indianapolis. And this is IBJ's "The Freedom Forum" with Angela B. Freeman. - Good afternoon, Randy. And thank you for joining us on "The Freedom Forum." As you know, 2024 has been a huge year for Indianapolis with all the sports and major events occurring in our city. And as such, I've been speaking to the folks who are part of the India behind some of India's premier sports organizations, including the Indianapolis Indians. But before we get started discussing that, will you please tell our listeners a bit about you, your educational and professional background, and any other factors that have led to you becoming the president and chief executive officer, the CEO of the Indianapolis Indians. - Thanks for having me, Angela. It's my pleasure to be here to represent the Indians in what has been a colossal 2024. I think we the Indians and victory field contribute to that, maybe not on the national or international level, like the city has seen so far this year, but we're certainly glad to be a part of that conversation. In regards to me, I was born in a Chicago suburb. My parents were born and raised within the city, and then the hallelujah of downtown Chicago, they wanted to get out into the suburbs. But I'd say I was born in Chicago, raised in Fort Wayne, but live in India. So I moved when I was 10, so I have faint memories of Chicago, still have some of my sports fandom rooted in those Chicago sports teams. But it was really raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And that's really where I think I probably grew the most and learned the most and was my formative years when you go through the late elementary school, middle school, high school years, went back there when I was in college. Attended Fort Wayne Bishop Duanger, Catholic High School, attended Indiana University for one year, wasn't a great fit for me, and we can get into that here in a second from a culture standpoint. Transferred to Anderson University, and that college was, it was baseball related for sure. I went to IU as a recruited walk on, and I just didn't fit very well with the culture there. I don't think it had much to do with my athletic ability, but I just didn't fit very well. And then to make that change from a Division I school to at the time, Anderson was NAIA, and now a Division III school. And played my full four years at Anderson, so I was on the five year plan in college, with a business management degree, Bachelor of Arts degree from Anderson University. So a bit of a windy path through my college years, but forever grateful that I ended up in Anderson. There are times when I wonder, athletically, if I would have stated IU, what would have happened with an opportunity to further that athletic side of things, but at the end of the day, I'm pleased how things have turned out in my life, and in my career, and wouldn't have the family and the support group in the career that I have, if I wouldn't have taken the path that I did. So when I graduated from college, I didn't, like many college students, this was in the early 90s, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I thought I wanted to get into sports, but sports management back then is not what it is now. There weren't very many programs. That's why I got a business degree. I probably was foolish enough to think that I could be a Major League General Manager. Trading, players, free agents, drafts, all those kinds of things, but I didn't really know how to get started. So I went back to Fort Wayne, was working a retail job. I learned really quickly that that's not what I wanted to do for a career, but was fortunate to have a couple connections, an old teammate of mine, and then the Director of Sports Medicine and Anderson University both had connections with the Indianapolis Indians. And this is gonna sound really weird, but I grew up in Fort Wayne, and I went to school in Anderson, which is 45 minutes from downtown Indianapolis. I knew who the Indianapolis Indians were, but I didn't really know who the Indianapolis Indians were. So, but I'd heard about it, professional baseball team, AAA baseball, and I knew what that meant, and was just fortunate enough to have a connection, get an interview. And back then, it was, if I called it an internship program, I think it was just hired help for the Indian staff to get through the season back in those days at Bush Stadium on West 16th Street. But just fortunate enough to get an internship, came back for a second internship, turned down a couple other opportunities to move across the country, whether it was East Coast, middle of the country or far West Coast. I'm a Midwest guy, as I said, where I was born, where I've been raised, wasn't anxious to go to either coast and took a chance that the Indians might be expanding their staff from seven in 1994, going into my second internship in 1995, because Victory Field was a faint thought in the city leaders' minds back then. And was fortunate enough that I did take a gamble, took that second year internship, was fortunate enough to be part of a crew that got hired as we were gonna move into Victory Field and was able to work my way up from the bottom. I mean, intern, back in those days at Bush Stadium, we didn't have voicemail, we didn't have an automated ticket system, everything was done manually. We hand wrote messages for our executives and for anybody on staff and learned ticket systems by the old fashioned way of racking tickets and counting money. And it was a great way to learn, but kids today would have no idea what we did just 30 years ago to put on a season. But learned a lot of great things in the ticket office and would've thought that's where I was gonna be the rest of my career. But I was fortunate enough to get some opportunities to work my way up over the years and I've been fortunate enough to be with the Indians for all 31 years basically of my professional career. - Yeah, and we're gonna talk about that more because I mean, that in and of itself is a legacy these days. I mean, nobody stays for 30 years in any organization. So I definitely wanted to drill down on that, but I just wanted to mention a couple of things. Number one, you mentioned Anderson University. When I came to Indiana, originally lived in Seymour and then I lived in Anderson for about two years. My son was born in Anderson and he's a D3 basketball player at Hanover, whose rival is Anderson University. So there's a lot of synergies there and I'm sure that was still the case back in your day as well. - Anderson and Hanover back in my day, that was the rivalry within the conference and we had some pretty good battles back in the day. - Yeah, and those battles still continue, absolutely. So you've talked about your career path. I wanna know before we drill down into that, when you started off, what did you aspire to do? What did you dream about doing? And were you aware of all the career opportunities available to you? And I ask that because I truly believe exposure is a real thing. I just was not exposed to so many opportunities and I think that in itself limits people. And then I wanna also ask you, when did you realize that you had a unique opportunity to lead an influence in a way that would allow you to effectuate change in a major sports organization, even if not major league like the Indianapolis Indians? - That's a long question. I can go a lot of different ways, but I would say I mentioned it earlier. I was naive enough to think, "Hey, I'm gonna be a major league general manager." That was growing up in middle school, high school. I was one of those kids that practiced my autograph or my signature because I thought I might play someday. I had those dreams and aspirations. You learn pretty quickly when you're in college that that's probably not going to happen from an athletic standpoint. But from a business perspective, I thought major league general manager. But when I started to work for the Indianapolis Indians, you learn real quick that the game and watching the game and being a part of the game, you're so far from that, yet you're so close to it, if that makes sense. We're behind the scenes. And I think that's something that I ultimately ended up thriving with, that mindset that nobody in the front office anywhere on the business side, whether it's major league or minor league, is going to be out front when the game is being played. We're behind the scenes making things happen and putting on an event. And that's ultimately what I realized and what got me excited and wanted to continue. When I started with the Indians, I mean, everyone thinks they want to get to the top and work their way through the ranks of the organization. But early on, it was just learning what it was like and being able to handle the grind of a baseball season. A baseball season is unlike any other. We've vacillated anywhere during my 30 years of '70 to what we currently now play a '75 game home season. That means we play '70 or '75 on the road. So it's 140 to 142 days or 150 days with off days squeezed in and an all-star break. But it's from April one and now we're even starting in late March through the middle of September. So you just have to learn how to manage that. But for me to get started, I think that was, I thought major leagues, but when I sell in with the Indians and just got excited about putting on events. And to me, people ask me, why do I still do it 30 years later? I still get excited when we open our gates. That's, it's about putting on an event. And whether that's an Indians game on the 4th of July and we know we're gonna sell out or in April when we might have four or 5,000 people there and everything in between and all the other events that we host from the high school state championships, the Savannah bananas and everything else that we do in between. And it's about then welcoming them into our place. And we'll get into that and how we feel about victory field and what that means we think to the city and to our fan base and everything else. But that's really what it was. And so when I was young, it was trying to be a sponge and learn as much as I could. And back then, we had seven full-time employees. And there were two or three or four of us that got hired to help get through the season, as I mentioned earlier. And you're just a sponge to learn as much as you could and you helped out in every area possible and you were more of a generalist. That has evolved, that has changed over the years. And, but I'm glad I grew up in that time to learn what I did, how I did, and to work my way through that. - Yeah, absolutely. There is nothing like working your way up the ranks. I talked with Halston Maverick, who talked about being a manager at Cheesecake Factory and how in that position you had to like do every position from the janitor to the dish handler to the whatever. And it makes you appreciate a team and why and how everyone is necessary to make this event that you're talking about actually go off without a hitch. And that's actually what it is. I mean, there is more to it than just the baseball, right? There's so much more to it. And so I can appreciate how that excitement around putting on events really keeps you in organization for 30 years. So let's talk about those 30 years. You mentioned it briefly and I won't go into it in too much detail, but what I do want to ask you is about a long that trek from first internship to second internship to what came after that. What transferable skills did you learn during that tenure that equipped you and prepared you for your current role? When did you ever realize that your current role was even a real opportunity? And what are two of the biggest lessons you've learned about dealing with people and business that you utilize regularly as an executive leader of the Indian organization? - That's a lot to unpack, but transferable skills, I think for me, I've always been big on attention to detail. And I'd started in the ticket office and you're dealing with money and customers orders and you've got to make sure that you're thorough and accurate. My opportunity really came not from in the ticket department. I thought I'd be in tickets for my entire career. It's where I cut my teeth, it's where I got started. But it was, we were at Victory Field for just about a year and I got an opportunity to go into stadium operations. Angela, I knew nothing about stadium operations. I didn't even know how to fully find my way around the entire facility. And I was asked, would you be interested? And well, I said, yes, because again, we had very small staff and you start to think about, well, how do I make inroads and work my way up? There was already a guy in tickets that had been there for 10 years and I immediately thought, well, I'm blocked. So I'm gonna take this opportunity, young, dumb and naive, but it was probably the one thing where then it was an open canvas for me. So attention to detail, I think helps me a lot on the ticket side of things, but it really helped me on the operational side of things. I think we take such great pride in Victory Field and that attention to detail. I think being able to solve problems when you're opening gates and you're dealing with people and you're dealing with the public, you've got to be a team and you've got to be reliable. All those things I think are the transferable skills that they're general, but for me, they played a big part when I transitioned from tickets to stadium ops and then to other roles of ops in total and then managing people. All of those things, as my career progressed, I think made a lot of sense and I could always lean on those and go back to those and rely on those. And I think some of those all came from probably being an athlete growing up. Your son probably died. There are habits that you form. Do you do drills all the way through? Do you see things to completion? Do you get along with your teammates? 'Cause not everybody's coming from the same background and I really learned that in college especially. And how do you relate with one another and work together to pull it off? So what we do every day with the Indians at Victory Field is very similar to the team on the field to try to win that game. We're trying to win that event by putting on a flawless event with no hiccups, there are gonna be hiccups, but then how well do we react to them and solve those problems that are inevitably gonna come up when you're bringing thousands or tens of thousands of not like people either to one place. So you learn all those things over the years and it's the school of hard knocks. You learn the hard way of being thrown into that fire and being able to rely on those skills, I think are super important. Couple particular lessons. Boy, did I learn a big one in the early 2010s? We felt like we needed to diversify and do things other than baseball. To generate additional revenues, expose other people to the ballpark and to the facility. And I mostly and a couple other folks got this hairbrained idea that we could do this little rock and roll barbecue thing out in our parking lot. And while I was very good operationally, I'm not a great marketer. I'm not a sales person. And that's what we lacked. The setup was great. Everything flowed perfectly, but unfortunately Angela, many people didn't know about what we were doing. But more than any, you learned from failure. - Yeah, absolutely. - And to not get into all those details. And it's stuck in the craw of some of our executives that yeah, we lost quite a bit of money and that wasn't sitting well. And I'll never forget being in a board meeting and it came up again. And one of our board members finally said, "Well, you know Randy, you don't know if you don't try "and to use a baseball metaphor. "You gotta step up to the plate and take a swing sometimes." The fact that I had that support meant a lot to me at that time because yeah, it was a big swing and a miss. But we did attempt to try. I learned from what we didn't do well and how we didn't market it very well and why it didn't go well. We can't be afraid to take chances. It's essentially what it came down to. And since then, we've been a little more aggressive in doing some of those things. So I think that was probably one of the biggest things that I learned is that it's okay to fail. Provided you don't repeat that mistake over and over and over. So I think that was probably one of the biggest things. And then really, I think from a people perspective over the years, when people come to work, they're always gonna have selfish motives, right? I've talked about it already about how I'm gonna move my way up through the ranks and up the totem pole and up the ladder and everything else. And I think that knowing that moving into a leadership position, I try to look back to when I was younger. And I've been in everybody's shoes that is currently starting with the Indians. And I've been in a couple of different roles and to think about what is going through their minds at the various stages of their career but also over their lives. And that's something that's taken a lot for me to become wiser and older and learn a lot of those things, which maybe we'll get into a little bit later. But just having that empathy for people and trying to understand what they're going through at the various stages of their lives and their careers and to know that I looked up and at one point thought, I'm not going anywhere. And then I got a knock on the door and said, hey, here's stadium ops and I jumped at it. Are we providing those kinds of opportunities for others on our staff? And those are some of the things I think that I've been able to learn over the years and take some of those skills and some of those other things and apply them. - That's what those experiences of being at some of the ground levels and having some of those experiences can inform when you're in a position to actually make some things happen and make some changes. So that's really awesome. I want to begin to talk about your leadership style, being a leader generally. Some of the things you've already touched on some of these with regard to mentorship and sponsorship. You just talked about the gentleman in the board meeting who said, you know what, you wouldn't have never known if you didn't at least attempt to try and what that meant to you to have that support. So let's talk about some of those things, particularly as I speak to women executives and leaders all the time, we talk a lot about the importance of mentorship and sponsorship as being necessary for business advancement. And I'm sure that's the same for men also, but I want to ask you how important has mentorship been to your career success? What have been some of the most unique or off the wall pieces of advice that you've been given that you actually found to really be helpful? And what's some of your best mentorship advice that you give to emerging leaders, young leaders and particularly diverse leaders who may be looking to advance in a sports organization like yours? - When it comes to mentorship, I think when I look back on that, I would say there's one person that jumps to mind that I'll get to in a second, but I think what made it so effective is that it wasn't necessarily called out that way. I wasn't told, "Hey, I'm gonna be your mentor." It just evolved over time within our relationship. And I had it when I was younger with coaches. I mean, I think again, when you play sports and I'm a big believer in sports, males, females, whomever, what that teaches you, the life lessons, it teaches you just through the games that you play because the games are what you practice for, but it's the time, the effort and all of that that goes into it. And I've had so many coaches that had an impact on my life that I actually still stay in touch with 30, 40 years later that have had an impact on me. And then I think that's why athletics and sports can be such a springboard to leadership and success and other things within careers that aren't sports related. So I harken back to those coaches, but specifically, it would have been my immediate boss, Cal Burleson, who passed away a couple of years ago, unfortunately, but Cal, he'd been with the Indians, a similar career, he started in the early '70s, retired in 2019, was still around on our board. I'm a couple of years thereafter before he passed away, but he was thrust into a leadership position as the general manager in 1998. And I later found out probably more by my own discovery 'cause he never talked about it much, but he felt the weight of the world on his shoulder. So if I can go back and talk about the history of the Indians, I mean, we talked about seven full-time employees, but really Max Schumacher is synonymous with the Indianapolis Indians from 1957 until 2016, he was active and in the office every day. And from there, you had Cal Burleson from 1973 or 4 to 2019. So we have this long legacy leadership and there's not a lot of movement. And in 1998, Cal has made the general manager and he used to be just in PR and sponsorship sales and doing those kinds of things, and then it's, hey, lead this group. And I think he learned a lot of lessons and for whatever reason, he took me under the wing. That knock on the door that I mentioned earlier about Stadium Ops was Cal and he said, "Hey, I've been asking around here. You might be a good fit for this. Might you be interested?" And I said, "Yes." Now, he didn't know a lot about Stadium Operations and neither did I, but he had enough trust and faith in me to give me a lot of rope. And with that rope became trust and became what I would consider to be one of my more special relationships from a business perspective and a mentorship perspective because he let me grow, he let me make mistakes. He didn't like that event that I was talking about in the parking lot and he gave me a wary eye, but he let me run with it. But through all of those years, and then more importantly, to see how he changed as a leader and as a person from when that burden and of running the Indians day to day, I would say I essentially took over a good chunk of managing the staff in 2006 and then Cal was able to work on bigger and better things for us instead of the grind and the day to day. But he just had such an impact not only on me, but there are many others that work for us and have moved on to other areas of their lives that Cal had an impact on. And I don't know that he ever set out to do that, but he had a genuine care for people. He was a quirky guy. There's no doubt about that. And once you got past the quirks and he brought you in, you knew he was going to care for you and give you those opportunities. But more than anything, he just, he pumped me up. He spoke highly of me to others. So that mentorship means a lot and meant a lot. And I think probably is the most significant thing in my career growth is because he trusted, he allowed and more than anything, he supported. And sometimes it was from out front, but a lot of times it was from behind and just given gentle pushes and nudges and just giving me more and more and more. And for that, I'm forever grateful for that. So to where I am now, I often think, am I doing a good enough job with that? Well, Cal's transformation probably started to happen about where I am now in my career. So it's something now that I can look back on, but really look forward to. So that's something that as you bring up mentorship, that's where my head space goes because of what Cal meant to me and so many others with the Indians. So, but as far as advice, I mean, Cal always had a thing. He said, you're either getting better or worse, you're not gonna stay the same and I used to roll my eyes at him, but it's so true. Because if we just think we're gonna get comfortable and just tread water or coast, you're gonna get past. And probably as we're gonna get into some of the DEI stuff that we haven't gotten into yet, that was an area. Cal was the one that got us started down that road 10 or 15 years ago, but we do wanna grow, we do wanna get better. And that's, I think, we have high expectations of ourselves. He asked me about a leadership style. I've done a little bit of look on this as I'm starting to think about what this next phase of my career is going to be. I have what is called a pace setter style. I will work alongside anybody and everybody, but boy, I am gonna expect that you're gonna be right there along with me and it's gonna be an excellent work product, a strong work product. And that's an expectation. And I'm probably not as great at pumping people up because I expect that. And that's where I need to get better from that perspective. But we do have high expectations. We do wanna continue to grow. And I think that's probably as far as piece of advice that we just wanna make sure that we continue to push ourselves forward. As far as advice, again, I think you use the word exposure a lot, and that is for any young person, diverse, not diverse, to be exposed. I didn't know anything about what pro sports meant. I was lucky enough that I interviewed, I got an internship, and that was my exposure. There weren't a lot of volunteer opportunities. There weren't a lot of other things. The opportunities are there. It's still very competitive to get involved, but that exposure, that networking, those connections in any way, shape, or form are what are so vital to all the young people to get started in sports. Getting that proverbial foot in the door is the hardest thing to do. Because, Angela, we still hire what we call full-time interns. They work February through September, 14 or 15 of those a year. We'll get 400 or 500 applications. So it's still challenging just to get in. And that's just with us, let alone all the other sports organizations in town and across the country and everything else that we have going on. But being able to find your way, and then really, when you do get that opportunity, you get in front of somebody, you've just got to be yourself. And again, you still have to have, you've talked about the relatable skills. You have to have the skills. You've got to be able to work hard. And at the end of the day, every work product is going to matter. And you need to be able to excel or show that you can be relatable and work well with others. And that's what we're looking for in our interns and for any young people. It's not so, we got caught up years ago where we got hung up on focusing on so many technical skills. We've come around to, we'll teach you the technical skills because first of all, we're not rocket scientists either. We're not molecular biologists and we're not attorneys. We just put on sporting events. And we will teach you those technical skills, but it's going to be about how you fit. And do you match the culture with what we have within the workplace? Can you be a good teammate? And all those other things that are, hopefully in tangibles that young employees can bring to our organization and that's what we're after and would be my advice to anybody young trying to break in anywhere is those are the things to focus on. - Yeah, you mentioned with that some of your advice is be yourself. And I appreciate and I think you also do too, that there are many diverse leaders in particular, women and diverse leaders who describe how challenging it is some time in corporate spaces for them to be their authentic selves or be themselves. However, I appreciate that in some cases that may just be a shared human experience, right? That it's not always simply related to not feeling or feeling different in your skin or like another or the other, but in some cases just maybe related to what we call imposter syndrome. You just don't feel educated enough or credentialed enough or experienced enough, et cetera. But I want to ask you because we hear this a lot again from diverse leaders, diverse men and women, but not clearly not often from white or Caucasian males. So I just want to ask because I've never asked this of anyone, have you ever experienced a time in business where you didn't feel like you could be your authentic or true or whole self? And if so, tell us about that and what you learned from it, specifically how you navigated your personal authenticity in leadership in ways that allows your peers and colleagues and employees to also have that same freedom and still feel valued by your organization. - I would say probably that I don't know that I've ever felt that I can't be my true authentic self. I think, I don't know that it's because I'm a white male. I think it's, I have a self-confidence that I've developed within myself from playing sports and being used to having people watch me and all those other things. There are times being the minor league baseball team in a major league city. Sometimes you feel that way in a room with certain people. But I guess I'm fortunate that I guess I haven't necessarily experienced that, but it makes me appreciate for those that have had to feel that way or do feel that way. And so I don't have a great answer for you on that one, other than I don't know that I have felt that way and I'm fortunate for that. But I do have empathy for those that feel they can't and that's where we continue to get better and make sure that everyone does feel welcome when they do get a seat at that table. - Yeah, I appreciate that. And that's just the honest answer and that's the freedom for them. That's what I ask of you is to tell us. That's why I ask because I don't take it for granted that you may have had that experience or not, right? I assume not, but that doesn't mean that's actually the truth, right? Or the reality. Now let me ask you another question kind of along that same vein. How have you and your team? We talked about diversity equity, including a bit ago. You mentioned that cow had kind of got you all started down that road and you've had an opportunity to kind of continue to implement that. But how have you and your team personally experienced the calls for D&I diversity equity inclusion in Indiana business over the last several years, certainly over COVID and 2020 and all the things that happened there? And how have you gotten actionable in that regard? And then I want you to tell us of some of the wins. Some of the things that you're proud of, that you have been able to effectuate, that you think's having real influence and impact at your organization in that regard. When I think about that, there's an internal perspective and an external perspective on that. Internally, we've talked about Cal getting us going. That was mostly from a hiring perspective. You can't run from the fact that I mentioned that the first seven people that I talked about that were full-time were full-time white males. And then the next seven, when we moved to Victory Field, we were all white males too. So we're starting from in the mid to late 90s, a basis of 14 white males. And the progress that we've made in that realm since then, I think it's something that we can be proud of. There weren't many females breaking into sports. We're now 35% female on our full-time staff. I mean, from an overall diverse perspective, we've still struggled in that area, but we continue to get better. And I think we've had to learn a lot of lessons in that. We used to be able to sit back and say, well, we'd go to a big job fair. Baseball has this big trade show and they used to have a big massive job fair. And you'd walk through the room and well, you wouldn't see many diverse candidates. So we'd say, well, how are we supposed to do anything about that? And as we became more intentional about things, well, then we or our hiring managers or who was gonna be involved in that process, well, what tended to happen is there would be work tables and the diverse candidates would kind of go sit together. Well, then we had to be intentional and we would go sit at that table and introduce ourselves. And maybe there wasn't a great fit from a skill perspective or a position perspective, but we're being more intentional. I think that's the biggest thing is we've had to be more intentional in how we go about seeking employees that wanna come work for the Indianapolis Indians. And we've evolved and we've done different things, but I think over the last 10 years, we've done a much, much better job of that. And I think that's something that we feel really good about and we continue to get better with. I think in regards to externally and some of those calls, I mean, we're the Indianapolis Indians. And there's been a lot more conversation about our team name than there had been in the past. And what we've had to do and what we've done is our board. We had a committee. And what do you do when you're in a situation like that? You go out and you listen and you learn. And there was a big long process in 2020, 2021, 22 to listen and learn and not focus so much on place but people. And I think we've gotten to a good spot in what I'll get to in some of our external wins in this space is that we always wanted to be genuine and authentic. We are not a group, no matter what we're gonna do, there just wants to check a box. People will see through that and it just doesn't get you very far anyhow. And if we want to do something because we have high expectations anyway, we want to make sure it's genuine and authentic. So it's creating partnerships. And we've done that with the Miami Nation of Indians of Indiana in regards to the team name. We've done this with our Negro Leagues Night promotion. We partnered with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission. That's the one that we've done for the longest period of time because of Indianapolis' wonderful Negro League history which we can talk more about in detail. And we've highlighted that on particular weekends or weeks each year. And now we line that around Juneteenth. So it all ties in and to do those things. We're doing a Jewish community night, pride night. Most minor league teams have done a pride night over the last five, eight or 10 years. We had not ever done one. And we didn't have an authentic relationship with anybody. So when we started to look at how do we get involved? Well, in 2023, we joined the parade. We started a relationship with Stonewall Sports. We want to be doing it for the right reason. So then we can also not just say, hey, we're doing this. It's giving back and then partnering. And whether that's monetarily walking in that parade or supporting for the Negro League's week. We've done a couple of things where our staff went to the Historical Society. They have an amazing collection of some of the Negro League history that Indianapolis is right at the forefront of. We did a walking tour with Samson Livingston. I mean, eye opening, Indiana Avenue. But we're using those opportunities, I think, externally and to use our platform to educate on all of those things. And those we call them community nights and how we bring that in. And those are some of, I think, of our external wins and what we really have leaned into and have done a really good job of highlighting and bringing them to the forefront. And we have to program 75 different home games. And to be able to find ways to do that one per homestand or one a month where we can dive in and spend the necessary time and energy so that it is done well. I think we've done a really, really good job with that. - I did not appreciate all those different opportunities, particularly around the Negro League. I really like that you are utilizing so many local resources to educate your staff, your employees, your organization. I think that's awesome because Indiana does have some very rich history around not just the Negro League, which I'm learning, but Indiana Avenue and jazz and so many different things. So I think that's really great. And it just continues to tie you to the city and the city to you, right? It all makes all that more fluent and more effective. And that's phenomenal. Now it's time for a break. - Get caught up on the state's top business news every business day with the Inside Indiana Business Radio On Demand podcast, available now at InsideIndianaBusiness.com, Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. - We're back with Randy Lewandowski, president and CEO of the Indianapolis Indians on this episode of the Freedom Forum with Angela B. Freeman. So one question and you've kind of already answered this around intentionality and how you all have been intentional. I also wanna ask you around this concept of allyship. So, you know, we talked about sponsorship where the gentleman supported you in the board meeting. That would be a great example, I think of just sponsorship and showing up for people. But I wanna also talk about allyship because particularly as you talk about how the Indians started from kind of a white male, and that's every organization, that's not just the Indians, that's every place. And how you've evolved and diversified over time and become more aware and more intentional about making sure that, you know, you have better representation of all the people that may have stakes in the Indians. I wanna talk about that allyship piece or how men in particular can be allies for women leaders. You mentioned that your staff, maybe it's your staff or your leadership, it's 35% women, I think I heard that right, which is exceptional coming from the beginning. But what has been some of your intentional ways that you have helped diversify your staff? So to get to 35% women. What did you do? What were their particular programs you implemented? Were their particular recruiting mechanisms or organizations that you recruited from? Because I think all of that, when you talked about Kyle started with hiring, I think that's where most people start, right? How can we diversify our workforce and where are the organizations or resources that we haven't been tapping into historically to allow us access to them and exposure of our organization to those folks? - From a female perspective, I mean, we're super supportive. Currently we have four female directors. If you'd have said that 15, 20 years ago, we tend to promote from within. I've just mentioned how I'm the same way. And that's how we've had our best success is to promote from within. We talked earlier before we went on about just the grind of a baseball season. It's unique. And when we've tried to bring people from the outside, we still do. And when I say the outside meaning non-baseball specific and sometimes non-sports specific, they've not lasted very long within our culture. There's always exceptions to those rules, but we've always grown from within. So to be able to promote four females up to a director level, there's certainly a ton of allyship there. There's always someone that is saying, "Hey, so-and-so is doing a great job." And we look at it from, we're results oriented. And if folks are doing a good job, that's how they're going to get looked at. I mean, here recently, women in sports and entertainment, we're hosting an event tomorrow night at the ballpark. We're a big sponsor of that. We want, and most of the females on our staff have gotten involved in that. Indianapolis has such a great sports ecosystem. And then to carve this out, and you've got people like Mel Raines and Allison Malankton leading the way, I mean, they are superstars, not just in Indianapolis, but throughout all of sports and entertainment. And what great resources that we can then support and sponsor our females to attend those events and be engaged get board seats on-wise. They seem simple, but they mean a lot that will support that both. There's a sponsorship fee, but it's also take the time to do it, whatever else it needs to be to support that. And I think that's a big part of what we want to continue to do. We're always supportive of our employees. But to be more intentional about that with our female employees, for sure, that's a perfect example of that. - And that's really interesting. And it just continues to invest in their own career growth, right? And exposure opportunities and all the things that come with it. That are, we know are particularly important for women to advance. So that's phenomenal. So you had mentioned empathy before, and I want to touch back on that. I really would like to get your thoughts on the importance of empathy. You touched on it earlier, but I want to just touch on it a bit more. Particularly with regard to how important empathy is to successfully and impactfully be in relationship with someone else. Oftentimes, we talk about empathy, particularly as related to D&I. We're talking about the non-diverse supervisor having empathy for their diverse employee. But in reality, empathy is required for any relationship you have, whether it's supervisor and employee, colleagues, peers, customers, clients, mentors, sponsors. There's always a requirement to kind of understand that's what negotiation and partnerships are all built on, trusting the ability to kind of understand what the other person's dealing with. Assume good intent, right? And that you're working toward a collective goal. And so I want to ask you just about that. How important, I think you mentioned that you've gotten better at this as you've gotten a bit older and wiser. A lot of things get easier as you get a bit older and wiser. I'm learning. But tell us about empathy and your experience with empathy as a leader. - Yeah, I wish I could bottle up what I know now and I'm going to be able to do in the next five or 10 years in my career and have gone backwards. But we can't go backwards. We can always just learn from our past experiences and you're exactly right. And it can be diverse, non-diverse. It's young, old, it's with more females. We have more working mothers. And to have the empathy that you don't know what somebody's going through when they walk in through that door each day. And when I was young, it was nose to the grindstone. It's like, we gotta go, let's go, let's go. And this is what's most important. But what I've learned is the work will get done. And there's some days when I need to carry a bigger load or so-and-so needs to carry a bigger load because of what they may have going on. It's a perspective. And it takes a while and to truly understand that, but this was a really cool experience for our staff. We did a five-part DEI training series this past off season. We have our own committee. And I don't know, in minor league baseball, I don't know how many front offices have an active and engaged DEI committee. We do. And they're at the forefront of most of how we're reacting and moving forward and making things better in this realm within our organization. And when we went through this five-part series, empathy was right there at the forefront of it all to understand that we just don't know what somebody's going through. It put everybody on the same level and that's what's important. And I think those are things that are so important within an organization to be successful, is that how relatable is everybody? Do you understand what they might be going through or not going through? And they may not be comfortable enough to come up and talk to you about it. But if you can read that or understand it or just know, my wife and I have raised two kids. I know what it's like to try to work a baseball season when you've got a five-year-old and a three-year-old or whatever else it might be. But there's that time in between when I forgot about that. But now I can think back to that. So, but anyway, all of those things with the empathy and more than anything that I think what we learned is during that training series is that we're all getting to a point and it's a shared journey, but we're all learning together and we're all at different spots in our lives. And then to me, that still goes back to empathy because you just don't know on this particular topic or anything else that's going on, everybody's in a different spot in their life. And some people are gonna buy into it. Others don't seem to care about it, but we're bringing it to the forefront. We're talking about it. And I think those are some of the biggest things that we can be doing as an organization to tell further. - I agree with you so much. Empathy really just humanizes everyone, right? It kind of puts everybody back on that human level. I don't know where you come from or what you're experiencing, but I do appreciate that you may be having some challenges or just going through some tough times. So, I appreciate that. I think it's so necessary. So, I appreciate you speaking on that. Now, as we begin to wrap up, I wanna get back to the Indians' organization just briefly and ask you what gets you excited about the future of the Indians and its contribution to this amazing Indiana sportscape that you've talked about from the Colts to the Pacers and all the things, the Speedway and you all having this niche role in all of that where you really can have influence and effectuate things on, you said maybe not international, but certainly you contribute to our local and statewide sportscape. So, tell us about what gets you excited, what's on the horizon, what are some things you want the central Indiana community to be looking forward to? - There's a couple of constants and one is victory field. We continue to invest in victory field and most people, I'll say this and I think some people that are listening ago, oh really, victory field this year is now older than market square arena and/or the RCA Dome. - Wow. - That's the reaction we get a lot. And when people walk into that building, they're amazed at what great shape it's in. Now, it's not an overly complicated building, but we have taken great care of it because it is our community gathering place for Indianapolis is how we look at that, especially in the summertime, where the outdoor sports entertainment option that has been around for 120 years and we don't take that lightly. And the building that we occupy and that we utilize, we consider it our greatest asset and it is a community gathering place. And that is something that in general, our building, we're so proud of that. And victory field is known within the state, within the city and we wanna continue that. We're always trying to make some improvements and there's nothing big or colossal that we have on the horizon, but there's always small improvements we're trying to make with the facility itself. What excites me most is our staff because to put on 75 events, if you don't have a great staff, you don't have much of anything. It is, as I've mentioned multiple times, the baseball season's a grind, we're nearing the end of that grind. We're like a family. When we do surveys, whether it's for best places to work or whatever else it might be, the one common theme we get is family. Now, Angela, if your family's in and like mine, there's always gonna be a little bit of dysfunction one way or another and you're not always gonna get along. But it goes back to that empathy that we've talked about in understanding one another and working your way through all of those things. But we do come together when we need to come together and that's most if not all of the time. And our staff is what really propels us forward. It's a reason why it's unique that in our market, we are that minor league baseball team. We punch above our weight. We've been around a long time. We do a great job. We put on a great experience within our industry. We might be considered one of the big guys, the big fish in the pond, because the size of our market and related from a minor league perspective. However, you've already mentioned it. We've got the Pacers, we've got the Colts, we've got the Speedway, the Fever, the 11, and maybe Major League Soccer, we've got the zoo, anything and everything else, it is an ultra-competitive market that we're in. So, for us to fire on all cylinders with our facility and with our staff, that's really what we're about. And why we think we can compete and why we can try to be and continue to be a leader in attendance. That's really how we gauge ourselves and our industries by our attendance. Wins and losses while we want to win. Most people aren't coming to an Indians game. They root for us, they want us to win when we hit a home run or we strike somebody out. They cheer, they get excited. But if we lose, it's not like they're walking out of Lucas Oil Stadium if the Colts happen to have a bad Sunday. Yeah. That took me a long time to get used to that from being a competitive athlete. We still want to win, our players still want to win, all the other stuff that goes with it. But we're really, we're gauge on attendance. And then that's really, we are positioned this year to lead minor league baseball and average attendance. And that's an awesome, awesome accomplishment for us. But on the short run, I think one thing this should air before it happens is Razor shines. He is the most famous Indianapolis Indian player of all time. I still get asked, he played for us in the late 80s. And I still get asked all the time, hey, do you still talk to Razor? Is Razor still around? What's going on with Razor? Are you familiar with Razor shines? I'm not. Okay. So Razor played for the Indianapolis Indians during the greatest period of on field success in the late 80s. He's black. And he was arguably the most famous and popular athlete in Indianapolis during the late 80s. That's for a minor league baseball team. He had his own Pepsi commercial where he was doing the Ray Charles, Mantra and everything else. And we're bringing him back September 13, 14 and 15 and we're retiring his number. The only other number that's retired at victory field is number 42, which is Jackie Robinson. And that is ubiquitous across all of professional baseball. Razor shines as number three is going to be retired. September 14 is the actual ceremony. We've got a bunch of other stuff planned for that weekend, but that's the day. And that's something that's super special for our organization for him. Because again, he was back in the late 80s, the most popular athlete in Indianapolis. We can't say that about some of the other great players. We've had Andrew McCutchen come through and Garrett Cole. We just had Paul Skeens, a lot of great baseball players. Razor shines is the most famous Indianapolis Indians baseball players. So we're super excited about that and what that's going to mean and how that's our last regular season weekend and how we can cap off. But it has been a great 2024. - That sounds absolutely phenomenal. And I'm going to have to look at my calendar because I'm going to have to come check out Razor shines. I'm intrigued at this point. - You can be our guest. - Yes, I would love to be. Okay, so Randy, as we wrap up, this has really been phenomenal. I really want to thank you again for coming over here and spending your time with me to have this conversation. I want to wrap up with the same question I asked all my guests, which is in an opportunity or a way to continue to educate others and continue to inspire others to do better and increase diversity, equity, inclusion in our Indiana companies. What do you believe is one of the greatest advances some of our Indiana companies have made with regard to catalyzing more diverse and inclusive workplaces? It sounds like you are doing a phenomenal job in that regard. And what are two or three tips or tools or resources that you suggest to any Indiana corporate leader who is serious about continuing to make their work environment and their leadership ranks more diverse, equitable and inclusive of all people? - Well, I don't know if I'm well-versed enough to give advice to other corporate leaders, but I know what's worked for us. And the fact that we've elevated it, we've talked about it, we've educated and have worked hard with our staff to do those things, I think, have been tremendous tries for our organization. And the fact that we're having this conversation, Angela, and that you have this wonderful podcast, I mean, I think we can all appreciate what you're doing and how you're bringing DEI to the forefront and that we talk about it in public spaces. It used to not be talked about. And that elevation of that, I think, just highlights how we can all continue to grow and get better and continue to make improvements as we continue to do those things. And it can be uncomfortable during our training. I mean, that was the first thing. We're gonna have some uncomfortable conversations. And it didn't matter whether it was me who, it was the president or anybody else in the organization. You talk about equal ground 'cause we're all in a different place on that journey. And it didn't matter who you were, what you were, what you look like or anything else, it was, you look like everybody got uncomfortable. - Everybody got uncomfortable. - Everybody did, and, but when you get vulnerable, like that, that's how you grow. - That's right. - And to, that's the one thing is that, again, you always hear, oh, to grow, you need to be uncomfortable. Nobody wants to be uncomfortable, but boy, those are moments when you grow. And everybody, you just make your own mental checklist to know where you are. And as long as you commit yourself to being better every day, 'cause I'm never gonna say that I'm great or good at it, but I'm cognizant of it, try to get better at it, improve each and every day. And that's all that you can ask for everybody on your staff and your workforce and how you portray the organization. And that's what we've tried to do with the Indians and think we've been successful, but it's still a journey and a journey means that there's much more categories and ground to cover. - I thank you for that transparency because that's the truth. Every person, every individual is on their own little journey. Every organization is on their own journey. And we as employees, as customers, as clients, kind of interact with those companies and organizations at a specific date and time on that journey. And if you see that company 10 years later, Lord willing, they have evolved and grown. You know, I think almost everyone would agree, any organization they were dealing with back in the 80s and 90s has changed tremendously if they're still around in 2024, right? - If they haven't, they're probably not around. - Exactly, that's exactly right. Thank you so much for your time today and thank you for being on the Freedom Forum. - Thank you, Angela. Appreciate it very much. - Thank you again to Randy Lewandowski and thanks to you for joining us on this 37th episode of IBJ's The Freedom Forum with Angela B. Friedman. Please come back next month for another conversation about diversity, equity and inclusion in the Central Indiana business community. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
