Love the video Ralph! Great start to the morning. I’ve actually got that song on my workout playlist — it’s a great motivator! I know you’ve got to be psyched for the fight tonight — GSP is back!

I’m a huge GSP fan, though I will say I’m not as psyched as most about Silva-GSP. Just too much size differential. Don’t get me wrong — I’ll watch it, and the UFC would be fools not to put it on from a biz perspective. But competitively, I’d be more interested in Silva-Jones.

You’re dead on — every organization has to grow and evolve, and inevitably, some people won’t like the direction. Have I liked every move the UFC has made, or course not, but assuming they don’t screw it up (expand too fast, undercapitalize, etc.), what Dana White and the Fertitta brothers have accomplished is going to go down as one of the greatest business success stories of this century. I truly believe that.

Love the sport, and love the business story. So, I’m a double fan.

You are so right. I spent 10 years with my previous firm and went through the growth of small firm to big boys. What worked back then won’t necessarily work now. Growth is like that. If you want to live in the past, go ahead. We’ll be over here. Moving on. Now if Dana White “sells out” and changes the rules of these events or, heaven forbid, makes it anything like “professional” wrestling then we have an issue. No longer innovative. I suppose you need to weigh the desire for growth against potentially alienating your true fans as well. I am sure it’s a fine line.

Here’s that song you love. Me too! The intensity of that intro juices me up every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BoU_Eo6WhE4

I have to admit I haven’t seem much MMA recently but still love it.

Hey Tim, No doubt, mergers and takeovers can really be challenging for customers, especially when the brand they trust is replaced. It works in reverse too. There was a bank merger here in the States years ago where the bigger bank bought the smaller and took its name, because the bigger bank had such a terrible reputation.

I remember when I used to work in the pensions industry and the company I worked for had one of the best reputations in the industry. They were taken over by a US company that no-one had ever heard of in the UK and were renamed.

That really did cause some issues with customers. It was almost as if the reputation the company had built up vanished overnight and it took a good while for people to regain their trust in the company.