Renovation
NOTE: This column first appeared min’s b2b this past week.
Renovation of a home, product portfolio or oneself is never easy. It requires painstaking attention to detail, with little margin for error. It became clear to both Mary Claire and me about two years ago that we needed to undertake a significant renovation of our home.
While Mary Claire has overseen this project and made all the key decisions (her taste and sense of style are impeccable), I was allocated one small piece, the development of a wine cellar off our kitchen. I quickly learned that building underground in California, with its regular small and sometimes large earthquakes, is not for the faint of heart. We needed to reinforce the stairs above the wine cellar by running a 12-foot steel beam that was twisted and bolted to the outside of the steps to reinforce the steps and to insure that they could withstand the day-to-day usage, meet strict building codes, and withstand the force of a strong earthquake. Once the excavation went down four feet below the foundation of the house, we found that we needed to reinforce the foundation of the wine cellar with 10 inches of concrete.
Most things we own, even products in our portfolios, age at different rates and need to be constantly monitored and updated in response to changes in the world around us. Today in B2B media, our focus on our customers’ needs will be met by online information products, both live and online events, and finally by print products. This is a dramatic change in order, and one that requires our full attention and the appropriate resources to ensure that the transition is a success. We should not view the Internet as a disruptive force, but as a positive force for change that will allow us to build stronger franchises and to extend our businesses down new paths. This will lead to true renovation and renewal. And while renovation can be in itself a disruptive force, it is a necessary undertaking and one that, if done correctly, will leave the properties it effects better off than before.
With one’s career the same level of attention to detail is needed. As we in the baby boom generation look further out, we are beginning to realize that 60 is the new 40 and that our careers need to stretch out well into our ’60s and ’70s. During my tenure as CEO of Reed Business Information, the portfolio included Variety and Broadcasting & Cable and I had the good fortune to meet and spend some personal time on several occasions with Jack Valenti, then CEO and president of the Motion Picture Association of America. Jack was in his early ’80s, but had lost none of his zest for life or his ability to fascinate with stories from his past. I am currently reading his autobiography, “This Time, This Place: My Life in War, the White House, and Hollywood.” Jack started out his working life with an advertising career, which was interrupted by World War II. He flew 51 missions in the European Theater and remained a great patriot throughout his life. He came back from the war and built a strong ad agency in Houston and was involved in a number of successful political campaigns. Through his agency he met Lyndon Baines Johnson, and when an assassin’s gun thrust Vice President Johnson into the Presidency on that fateful day in November of 1963, he asked Jack, who was in the motorcade, to join him. He went on to a remarkable 3rd act in Hollywood and finally retired in his early ’80s and passed away this past April at the age of 85.
We ended our trip west with a return visit to The French Laundry in Yountville. The French Laundry has been owned and operated by Thomas Keller since 1994. As always, we were not disappointed and it confirmed for me that Keller is a national treasure. That The French Laundry has been regularly sited as one of the best restaurants in the U.S. and the world for 13 years speaks volumes about the value of attention to detail.