Case Study 2.1
2
Mini Case 1
MICHAEL PHELPS, NICKNAMED MP, is the most decorated Olympian of all time.
Competing in four Olympic Games, 1 the American swimmer won 22 Olympic medals,
including 18 gold! In 2000 at the Sydney Olympics, Phelps at the age of 15 was the youngest
U.S. athlete in almost seven decades. In 2008 at the Beijing Olympics, Phelps won an
unprecedented eight gold medals, and while doing so set seven world records. Eight short days
changed Olympic history and Phelps’ life forever, making MP one of the greatest athletes of all
time. Immediately after the event, The Wall Street Journal reported that Phelps would be likely
to turn the eight gold medals into a cash-flow stream of more than $100 million through several
product and service endorsements.
Phelps did not rest on his laurels, however. In 2012 at the London Summer Olympics,
Michael Phelps added another four gold and two silver medals, elevating him to superstardom.
Phelps became an Olympic superhero against long odds. How was he so successful?
Strategy Formulation
In his youth, MP was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Doctors prescribed swimming to help him release his energy. It worked! Between 2004 and
2008, Michael Phelps attended the University of Michigan, studying marketing and management.
He had already competed quite successfully in the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, where he
won eight medals: six gold and two bronze. Right after the Athens Games, the then-19-year-old
sat down with his manager, Peter Carlisle, and his longtime swim coach, Bob Bowman, to map
out a detailed strategy for the next four years. The explicit goal was to win nothing less than a
gold medal in each of the events in which he would compete in Beijing. Bowman was
