Investor's Business Daily, September 21st, 2007
Leaders across all industries could learn from ABC-TV executive Leonard Goldenson, International Data Group founder Pat McGovern and former Honeywell Chairman Larry Bossidy. All succeeded by thinking unconventionally.
The lessons they offer? Think differently about:
Your approach. After taking the reins at ABC in 1953, Goldenson (1905-99) staffed his programming department with risk takers. He knew that counterprogramming was the best way to challenge CBS and NBC, so he ensured that rolling the dice was part of the network's game plan.
To reach young audiences in the 1950s, he formed an alliance with Warner Bros. to produce demographic gold mines such as "77 Sunset Strip" and "Hawaiian Eye," and young-adult Westerns ranging from "Cheyenne" to "Sugarfoot."
In the '60s, the network scored big with innovative shows such as "Peyton Place" (TV's first prime-time soap opera), "Batman," "The Untouchables" and "The Fugitive."
By the late 1970s, ABC was No. 1 in the ratings.
Goldenson retired in 1986.
Your business model. Pat McGovern has grown International Data Group into a media powerhouse spanning over 85 countries. Among its mainstays: newspapers and magazines such as Computerworld, PC World and Macworld.
IDG has thrived -- while rivals have disappeared -- because McGovern has stuck to a dual approach. He has boosted the business while thinking small -- staying close to customers.
The privately held firm umbrellas more than 100 independent companies, each with its own CEO and board of directors. Though IDG has roughly 14,000 employees worldwide, the average number of workers per unit is 140. The units work more efficiently than IDG would as a unified whole, McGovern says.
When a company grows to between 300 and 500 workers, he splits it into two or three businesses. In the U.S., each firm focuses on a single magazine. In smaller foreign markets, units typically produce three or four publications.
Because they zero in on a smaller number of products, the units more effectively target customer needs, McGovern says. Loyalty levels are high as a result; 100 million people read IDG publications monthly.
Though splitting up a firm duplicates some back-office costs, "it's not the costs that count. It's the bottom line," McGovern told IBD. Productivity levels rise in smaller units because workers feel they have a greater impact on the product.
Your future. To make quantum leaps, audit your organization -- your strategy, work force, technology and customer base, says Larry Bossidy.
"Anytime I see an industry growing 5%, and I see a company saying it's going to grow 10%, I ask the question, 'What will you do that's so different that you'll double your industry's rate of growth?' And a lot of times there's nothing," he told IBD.
"So what happens is they don't achieve those goals. One shortfall leads to another, and it becomes a continuum."
His message? Think big, but plan to the letter.
