Case Blog

The historic collapse of the New York Mets in September started me thinking about the responsibility coaches in sports and managers in business have for both winning and losing teams. Willie Randolph, the manager of the Mets, was a winner both as a player with the Yankees and as a coach on Joe Torre’s staff prior to taking the manager’s position with the Mets. Willie clearly learned early how to win, but unfortunately could not teach this to the very talented team he had this past season.

When I first moved into advertising sales in the early ’80s, I took over as an advertising director on a consumer electronics enthusiast publication that was suffering through a recession. It was the #2 publication based on rate base or audience size and the market was buying around it, buying #1 and #3. Ad lineage was at an all-time low. It was dead last. I remember even today watching the ad sales team walk by my office each morning as they came to work. They looked like they had lost the game, even prior to starting their day contacting potential advertisers. Several weeks later when we held our first sales meeting together at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I gave them a “locker room speech” about winners and losers and what separated them. I told them that I was willing to work with each one of them, giving them the tools they did not have and a game plan to follow to turn around this title. Most of them did not believe in themselves or the game plan I was preparing. Within the first quarter, I turned over 60% of the sales team and assembled a new team. We quickly introduced editorial sections that presented new advertising opportunities for our prospects and existing customers. Within the first year we moved from last place to first place and held that position for the next 2 years.

I knew as a manager that I had to teach the team how to win before we could be successful. Unfortunately, today I see too many managers and coaches blaming the owners and the players/employees without taking the time to communicate to their teams what they must do to be successful. On several occasions since then I have found myself taking over companies that were defeated and did not know how to win and have implemented the same approach on a much larger scale. Cahners, now Reed Business Information, is a recent example of a company where this approach was successful.

Another former Yankee, Lou Piniella, had very different results with the Cubs this past season than Willie Randolph had with the Mets. Lou is a fierce competitor. He builds teams that win. As a manager, I love to combine the battle-scarred veterans that know how to win with the talent and speed of youth that are hungry to win. The late football coach George Allen, who had very successful teams with the Washington Redskins, used to say, “The future is now.” When you have this point of view, you will start to understand how to put together a team that can win.

Building winning teams is what outstanding managers do in business. The media business offers tremendous excitement and opportunity for managers that understand the need to take responsibility for coaching their team to results that exceed everyone’s expectations but their own.

If you have an interest in learning more about how to win, I strongly recommend Jim Citrin’s new book, “The Dynamic Path: Access the Secrets of Champions to Achieve Greatness through Mental Toughness, Inspired Leadership and Personal Transformation.” It was just published by Rodale Press and is available online and in your local bookstores.

NOTE: This column first appeared min’s b2b.

During my last two years at Reed Business, I made 10 trips to China. I was very fortunate during this time to have an excellent partner in Hugo Shong, the Managing Director of IDG China and a general partner in IDG’s burgeoning venture capital business. If you want to do business in China, I strongly recommend the partnership approach–choosing the right partner is the key to success.

During my tenure at IDG in the ’90s, Hugo and I were both colleagues and friends. I had come to admire his intelligence, work ethic and the outstanding results he produced. Pat McGovern, IDG’s chairman and founder, had personally recruited Hugo to IDG. Pat understood that to be successful in China he needed a trusted person who could help him find the right partners to grow his brands in the Asia-Pacific region. Pat had launched Computerworld China in the early ’80s, and as the tech sector exploded in the early ’90s CW was well positioned to chronicle the growth, both globally and in China. With Hugo Shong’s arrival, IDG soon became the unrivaled tech media giant in China. The profits made in the tech sector led to a joint venture in the consumer market with Hearst, initially with Cosmopolitan China, which today is China’s largest consumer magazine (by measuring ad pages). The tech success also allowed IDG Ventures China to become the major force in venture capital investing in China. Hugo Shong and his very able colleague Quan Zhou, who drives the day-to-day investments, have never looked back, and their results are formidable. One of their early investments that had a significant return last year was the Chinese search engine, Baidu (BIDU), which trades on the NASDAQ.

While most companies think of China’s large population in terms of providing a tremendous consumer marketing opportunity, the B2B information services opportunities are equally as attractive and could yield even greater results over time.

For years, many venture capitalists from outside China approached IDG’s team about partnering, and two years ago IDG decided to partner with Accel Partners and Jim Breyer. Their first fund is doing very well and they are in the process of raising a second fund. Even strong U.S.-based venture firms need Chinese partners.

Reed Business was very fortunate to have Hugo’s guidance and partnership as we launched our joint venture company in China. I have learned over the years that even fierce competitors can become partners when each is able to contribute unique assets to a venture. In our case, Reed had some very strong brands with the potential to be global, and IDG had the benefit of doing business in China for more than 20 years, which gave them a significant infrastructure. Partnerships and joint ventures are never easy, but they are often worth the investment of time and nurturing because of their potential to yield very real dividends.

Leaders need to provide the vision and the pioneering spirit to open new markets. Sometimes this means that they must wander for years in the wilderness, believing in their vision while others struggle to understand it, and forging ahead until the results of their work demonstrate to everyone that their vision provided a clear path to growth. Pat McGovern clearly had the vision of China’s growing importance on the world stage long before almost anyone.

While I am writing about a Boston-headquartered company, IDG, I need to take this opportunity to point out that my alma mater, Boston College is 5-0 in the ACC, sixth in the country, and has a strong partner it couldn’t do without in Matt Ryan, the team’s first real Heisman Trophy contender since Doug Flutie. Couldn’t resist: Go Eagles!