Archived Content

Around the Olympics, U.S. companies

Aug 9, 2012

Business Roundtable-associated companies are major sponsors of the 2012 London Olympics, and at the risk of overlooking someone, here's a few reports worthy of note.

General Electric, "GE Surpasses $1 Billion in Infrastructure Sales from Olympic Games Host Cities since 2006":

“GE partners closely with host cities to deliver a variety of critical healthcare, energy, power, water, lighting and transportation solutions for the Olympic Games,” said Jeff Immelt, chairman & CEO, GE. “Hosting the Games is a transformational opportunity for every city and we are committed to work with the IOC and local Organizing Committees in Russia, Brazil and Korea to deliver advanced infrastructure solutions to help create a sustainable Olympic legacy for future generations.”  

More here. The health-care programs are impressive, including the electronic medical records.

Fox News' Liz Claman interviews Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, on the company's role in the 2012 Games' infrastructure. And MarketWatch interviewed George Hamilton, the Dow executive in charge of company's presence at the Olympics:

Branding from other top sponsors like Coke and Visa is ubiquitous throughout London, yet, while Dow’s products are also everywhere, the Dow name is not. What’s the thinking behind that?

We are not a business-to-consumer company, we are business-to-business. Chemistry is all around you. Our polymers are in the hockey pitch. Our plastic is in the pipes. The wrap you see on the BBC right now is from us. But the Olympics don’t allow advertising at their venues. Athletes can’t do it, either. It’s the “clean venue” rule. We knew that when we took the project.

So how do you leverage your work here in London to help boost your global chemical business?

One of the reasons we’re here, of course, is to sell, but we are also here to help the Games continue to deliver more sustainable, higher-performing venues. To build a lasting legacy after the Games. With that, we can use the Olympics as a proof point for what Dow is capable of doing. And it’s absolutely delivering at a higher level than we had anticipated.

Sports Business Daily, "Comcast's Brian Roberts: ‘We see these Olympics as a real laboratory’," an interview with the CEO:  

Is this the future of the Olympic Games that we’re seeing?

ROBERTS: We see these Olympics as a real laboratory. If you subscribe to cable or satellite, you can watch a lot more than what’s on linear TV. When we were bidding in Lausanne for the future Games, and we got the rights through 2020, we were looking at some statistics. In the year 2000, there was virtually no broadband technology, and in the year 2010, broadband has become such a huge thing. So what is coming in 2020 that doesn’t exist today? We don’t know. But we have the rights to broadcast on any new technology that may be developed. That’s one of the great things about the rights we have.

A previously linked-to Fox Business interview with John T. Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems. More at http://www.ciscolondon2012.co.uk/learn/cisco-at-the-games , with some numbers:

• 2,200 switches

• 7,000 cable TV sockets

• 30,000 connections available across 94 locations

• 65,000 active network ports or active connections

• 1,800 wireless access points (APs)

• 16,500 telephone connections

A Bloomberg TV interview with Joseph Tripodi, executive vice president and chief marketing and commercial officer at Coca-Cola Co.,sponsoring the London Olympics and sales strategy. 

Verizon news release, "Verizon FiOS Brings Customers NBCUniversal's Coverage of 2012 London Summer Olympic Games"

 

• 40GB of data per second 

We use cookies to give you the best experience when using our website. You can click “Accept” if you agree to allow us to place cookies. For more information, please see our Cookie Notice.