Newsmakers
A Roundup of Media Mentions
Gibson Hits a High Note: Henry Juszkiewicz (MBA ’79)
High Brow: Guy Cartwright (MBA ’00) and Heath Flock (MBA ’00)
He Loves New York: Bruce Wasserstein (MBA ’70)
Haven for the Homeless: Greg Harms (MBA ’89)
The Weather Channel Forecast: Challenges Ahead: Bill Burke (MBA ’92)
A Woman in the House: Kathy Davis (MBA ’82)
Liquid and Efficient: John Thain (MBA ’79)
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| Juszkiewicz JOHN RUSSELL/AP |
Juszkiewicz, chairman and CEO, credits the company’s turnaround in part to aging baby boomers who can afford to plunk down $1,000 or more for remakes of classic designs played by the world’s top professional musicians, including B.B. King and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. The company made an attempt to automate production a while back and discovered that nothing beats old-fashioned handcraftsmanship.
But there is nothing old-fashioned about the new digital guitar that Gibson recently launched. It’s the biggest change in guitar design in more than sixty years, when the first guitars went electric. A patented computer chip in the instrument detects and processes the sound, sending it to a digital amplifier. To purists who protest, Juszkiewicz stands firm: “The electronics of the guitar are actually pretty bad by today’s standards. It’s time for an update.”
You could be forgiven for not knowing it by the look of the average bloke on the street, but American men annually drop $19.5 billion on “hair services” and $5 billion on grooming products, the New York Times (December 25, 2003) reported. That’s a market that Guy Cartwright (MBA ’00) and Heath Flock (MBA ’00) decided to have a go at. The two Yanks have purchased the North American rights to Truefitt & Hill, a venerable British purveyor of grooming products and the operator of what’s believed to be the world’s oldest barbershop, opened in 1805. The company claims endorsements from Winston Churchill, Laurence Olivier, and Oscar Wilde, not to mention a slew of British royals.
“We figured that Truefitt & Hill was the luxury play in men’s grooming,” said Cartwright, whose Chicago-based company plans to open its first barbershops in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington this year. According to the Times, T&H patrons can expect “half-hour-long shaves that include three passes with a straight razor, nine hot towels, and a facial massage.” T&H grooming products are currently available from the company’s Web site and in North America at T&H shops in Toronto and Chicago and at a few select retailers.
Of T&H’s prospects, Cartwright observed, “We know there’s a big learning curve among consumers. But that means more of an opportunity, too.”
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| Wasserstein GRAHAM TROTT/BLOOMBERG NEWS/LANDOV |
“Whatever New York magazine lacks in profit and prospects, it makes up for in the social cachet it can bestow on the owner in the media and cultural capital of the United States,” opined the New York Times (December 17, 2003). Well, maybe so, but could it be that the new owner is really just an ink-stained wretch at heart? It turns out that Wasserstein, CEO of Lazard, had at one time pondered a career in journalism, been an editor at his college paper, and worked one summer at Forbes magazine while attending HBS, according to the Times. Even when he moved on and established himself as an investment banking whiz, Wasserstein was purchasing or founding other below-the-radar media properties, including the American Lawyer and the Deal.
Asked about New York’s storied history and its role in helping bring writers such as Tom Wolfe and Jimmy Breslin to national prominence, Wasserstein told the Times, “I am not a romantic. I know the past, but that was then, and this is now. We plan on moving the magazine more upscale and improving the business coverage of the city.”
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| Harms COURTESY BOULDER SHELTER FOR THE HOMELESS |
During the winter months, the shelter houses an average of one hundred people a night, and demand has grown in recent years. “When the economy went south, we saw an increase of 20 percent,” said Harms. He likens the shelter, with a staff of 35 and more than 2,000 volunteers, to a small business: “You’ve got to meet payroll, raise money, all those things other business-people do.”
The shelter is in the business of giving people hope, Harms explained. Many of the residents held entry-level positions that were among the first to be eliminated when the economy soured. The shelter helps get them back on their feet with new jobs and a place to live. Harms admits that not all of the shelter residents’ stories have happy endings, but the ones that do are what keep him going.
The Weather Channel Forecast: Challenges Ahead
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| Burke ERIK S. LESSER |
The network is so popular that it opted not to hang its corporate logo on its Atlanta headquarters for fear of being overrun by tourists. But audience doesn’t necessarily translate into growing profits, reported the New York Times (November 3, 2003). As a stand-alone cable network in an era of rapid cable network consolidation, The Weather Channel faces “a very challenging time,” Burke acknowledged.
Perhaps Burke’s biggest challenge is growing revenue, reported at $238 million in 2002. The network has avoided asking cable operators for higher subscriber fees, currently about nine cents per household per month. Instead, it is looking to boost advertising revenue. Early this year, it began rolling out new computerized ad targeting technology that displays products tailored to local weather forecasts — for example, snowblowers for blizzards or air conditioners for heat waves. If it proves successful, company officials forecast sunny revenue growth ahead.
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| Davis COURTESY LT. GOV. KATHY DAVIS |
“Congratulations, senators. You just made history,” said Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, according to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette (October 21, 2003). The swearing-in ceremony included an audience of eight hundred enthusiastic supporters, a high-school band, and a heartfelt rendition of the national anthem. “The bipartisan crowd was liberal with its applause and standing ovations,” said the Journal Gazette.
While Davis, a Democrat, has never held public office, she is not new to state governance, having led the state’s budget and family and social services agencies. “I accept my new responsibilities gladly and wholeheartedly,” said Davis, who moved to Indiana after earning her MBA to work for Cummins Engine Company. With a nod to the historic significance of the day, Davis, a working mom, expressed her appreciation to the senate: “The women of Indiana thank you.”
In January, John Thain (MBA ’79) assumed his new position as CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, a move that prompted interim NYSE head John Reed to declare, “We have an exceptional person at a time when, frankly, we require an exceptional person,” USA Today (December 18, 2003) reported.
Formerly president and COO of Goldman Sachs, with a background in both trading and investment banking as well as an electrical engineering degree from MIT, Thain is known for his understanding of markets and technology. At a press conference in December, he said, “My goal is to ensure that the exchange remains the world’s most liquid and most efficient marketplace. That may involve a greater degree of electronic trading, but that remains to be seen. I have a very open mind about this — we’ll see over the next couple of months what is the best structure for the exchange going forward.”
Of his overall focus, Thain observed, “It’s very important that we restore investor confidence, ensure that the reputation of the exchange is built on being a great, liquid, efficient market, and that the marketplace is viewed as having a very high degree of integrity and excellence in its execution capabilities.”
