Newsmakers
Alumni in the News
All Aboard: David Gunn (MBA '64)
The World According to MTV: Bill Roedy (MBA '79) and Brian Graden (MBA '89)
Thinking Outside the Centerfold: Jeff Hicks (MBA '97)
People Watching: Ann Moore (MBA '78)
A Change of Life: Rob Waldron (MBA '92)
Railroad management used to be a hot topic at HBS, but that was a few decades before David Gunn (MBA '64) arrived at Soldiers Field. Too bad, because Gunn is a modern incarnation of the quintessential railroad man. These days, that usually means he has to be a turnaround artist, too. Recently lured out of retirement from his Nova Scotia farm, Gunn is working on another rescue, just as he did with the New York and Toronto transit systems. This time it's Amtrak, a challenge equal to any of his past assignments.
As befits a train buff, Gunn is a throwback kind of guy, a self-described “focused, no-nonsense manager.” “When I get called, it's generally because there's an operational or financial problem, and people have decided it's time to cease talking about it and do something,” he told the Associated Press (June 19, 2002).
Airlines and automobiles receive billions in subsidies, Gunn pointed out in the New York Times (June 16, 2002), noting that with the exception of one or two unusual cases, “no passenger operation in this country today covers capital costs.” While he argues that Amtrak should receive its fair share — and no more — of federal dollars, Gunn knows that better management is essential, too. Another key is public support.
“I think the public is way ahead of the politicians on this,” Gunn observed in the Toronto Star (July 7, 2002). “They drive, and they know what's happening out there. I think eventually saner heads will prevail. We shouldn't have money dumped on us, but we should be dealt with in a more effective way.”
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| Roedy Photo courtesy MTV Networks International |
Youth must be served, and few people do it on the scale of 54-year-old Bill Roedy (MBA '79), president of London-based MTV Networks International. According to a Business Week International cover story (February 18, 2002), MTV is the world's largest TV brand, with 38 channels reaching more than one billion viewers in 164 countries, earning it “membership in that tiny elite of such globally transcendent brands as Coke and Levi's.”
Eighty percent of MTV's global viewership is outside the United States, and all its channels feature local management and programming. Roedy has schmoozed with a number of world leaders — most recently, China's Jiang Zemin — in order to be granted access to their citizens' TV sets. “We've had little resistance once we explain that we're not in the business of exporting American culture,” said Roedy, who added that his favorite music is “the music of whatever country I've just been in.”
“Music is an irrevocable step toward democracy,” Roedy declared. And noting that the most popular singer in India is from Pakistan, he observed, “Music helps us forget conflict. It can be a vehicle that helps bring people together” (Boston Globe, July 10, 2002).
Meanwhile, back in the U.S.A., Brian Graden (MBA '89), already president of entertainment at MTV, took on the additional post of president of entertainment for VH1, another music channel, last May. (Both MTV and VH1 are properties of Viacom.) Hailed by the New York Times (May 20, 2002) as “a cable wunderkind known to have an uncanny eye for hit programs,” Graden is credited with bringing fare such as South Park and The Osbournes into America's living rooms. With their “raw, anything-goes humor,” these shows “ultimately pushed the barriers of taste for all television,” the Times declared. So, Western Civilization, whether you like it or not, you have to “respect Brian's authoritah,” as they might say on South Park.
“I believe in constantly being open and never thinking you know too much,” said Graden. “My job is to find that universal, emotional connection.” Asked what he'll do if his tastes one day mature beyond those of his youthful target audiences, Graden replied, “I'll program the AARP channel.”
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| Hicks: showcasing cars, marketing "Truth." Photo courtesy Jeff Hicks |
Thinking Outside the Centerfold
With a slumping economy and an increasing number of communications outlets competing for diminishing advertising dollars, media companies have had to give ground to attract advertisers. A case in point was graphically evident last spring in Playboy magazine, when Miss June deferred her coveted centerfold position to a car, the new Mini from BMW. Behind this coup was a hot new advertising agency, Miami-based Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CPB), whose president is Jeff Hicks (MBA '97). With a client list that includes IKEA, Bacardi, Molson Beer, and Coca-Cola, CPB was named Adweek magazine's Agency of the Year for the Southeast region in 2001. Calling it “a year of maturation,” Hicks explained his firm's success by saying, “We uncovered a depth in the agency that had not previously been acknowledged inside or outside the shop” (Adweek, January 28, 2002). With annual billings of $225 million and some 160 employees working in Miami and a new Los Angeles office, CPB is now garnering plenty of attention.
But CPB had shown indications a few years earlier that it might become a force to be reckoned with. Its antismoking “Truth” campaign, which began in Florida in 1997, played to teenagers' natural rebelliousness and got them to thinking about how tobacco companies exploit them. Experts consider the “Truth” campaign to be one of the most successful social marketing efforts of recent years. Said Hicks, “The things we're most noted for have nothing to do with advertising and everything to do with advertising. We're this hybrid company that creates and distributes creative content designed to make brands famous.”
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| Moore: a success story worth of People. Photo courtesy Time, Inc. |
In 1991, Ann Moore (MBA '78) saw an opportunity where others saw no chance — building a national magazine out of people's interest in celebrities and human-interest stories.
After graduating from HBS, Moore had started out in Time's finance department before moving to Sports Illustrated, where she spent ten years before accepting the top spot at People. At the time, the magazine was just a black-and-white “grocery store” publication. “Nobody else wanted the People job,” recalled Moore, who reinvented the magazine as a “women's newsmagazine,” made it more upscale, and built it into “a powerhouse brand,” according to the Los Angeles Times (July 20, 2002).
Moore's success at People has resulted in her elevation to chairwoman and CEO of Time Inc. The world's largest publishing company, with 140 magazines and nearly 300 million readers worldwide, Time Inc. has posted ten consecutive years of earnings growth and accounts for almost 10 percent of corporate profits for AOL Time Warner, where Moore is now the highest-ranking woman. “My goal is to continue to grow Time Inc.,” Moore said. “My only hard problem is finding and maintaining the best people in the magazine business.”
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| Waldron: helping kids get a jump. Photo by Michael Dwyer |
The New York Times, never afraid to tackle the Big Questions, recently looked into the matter of Rob Waldron (MBA '92) and pondered thusly: Does his career switch represent a societal change in America, or is it just Rob, doing his thing?
Waldron, formerly of Kaplan Educational Centers, turned that firm's tutoring company, Score, a $2 million acquisition in 1996, into a $50 million operation in five years, the Times reported (July 14, 2001). In so doing, he caught the eye of an executive search firm that tried to interest him in running Jumpstart, a program designed to boost the classroom performance of disadvantaged schoolkids. It would be a big change, said Waldron, who recalled, “I wondered whether I should run a big company and make a ton of money doing it. I felt it was one way you proved you were smart, accomplished, a success.”
Then came September 11, and the fears and uncertainties of the weeks that followed. “I had this terrible need to feel like I was fixing something,” Waldron revealed. Last March, he accepted the president and CEO position at Jumpstart, where he earns one-third of what he made at Kaplan. “I still want to win,” he noted, “and my whole life has been about solving problems.” But now, he said, his wife reminds him that “helping children read, that's solving a problem and winning, too.”
Is Waldron's move, the Times wondered, indicative of a growing interest on the part of private-sector executives in nonprofit management? Some observers quoted by the paper thought so, some disagreed, and still others said it was too soon to tell.
