Warren Bennis, business professor at USC, once wrote that leadership includes the following ingredients: Integrity, Trustworthiness, Curiosity and Daring. Anyone who’s ever held a position of leadership will tell you it isn’t easy. It requires discipline that means delaying personal gratification to advance the organization’s goals. Everyone on the team must cross the finish line or nobody finishes. And to create a winning culture, you must hold yourself and those around you to a high standard. You must embrace a definiteness of purpose that says you want your organization’s purpose(s) actualized and your people to succeed. Leaders say what success looks like. In many ways that means doing things that constitutes the company mission. Peter Drucker, former business professor and writer, gave us an idea what that may be:
A sprawling company such as "News Corporation" with a portfolio of assets in movies, television, cable, internet, magazines and newspapers strung across the globe, is a daunting operation to manage. Although certainly in touch with the executives of his various companies on a regular basis, Murdoch attends to his companies’ daily operations at an arm’s length distance. He is certainly enabled by modern communication and transportation technologies but limited by the distances that comprise his empire. So, he delegates to his management staff.
Could “The News of the World” have been saved? Based on Murdoch’s testimony, the company was financially solvent and judging by the pool of talent employed by their companies, they may have been able to ride the storm. The future would have been daunting. It would have certainly included a distracting mix of bad press, a contentious public, criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits costing his company a considerable amount of money. Many companies have survived far worse crises than what the paper would have experienced - Tylenol during the Chicago deaths by tainting; Firestone and Ford during the rash of highway deaths and Jack-In-the Box during the E Coli tainting episodes are just a few examples. They all suffered a significant downturn in their businesses but survived the crisis and thrived - winning the admiration of their patrons.
A proven success formula for newspapers of that type is controversy - the dirtier and more salacious, the more compelling for readers. What would have been better than being able to write about the real inside scoop? For a tough competitor like Murdoch, it was an interesting display of tactical retreat, if not surrender. Why did he make that decision? My guess is, in the end, he had much to protect, a lifetime of work and many employees who depended on his leadership and wisdom. Also, his companies are engaged in relationships that require nurturing - the communities where his local stations are located, the bankers and financiers, the business partners, the viewers who watch their programming and others. He wasn’t going to allow a single asset bring down the others. In a manner of speaking, "The News of the World" was the bad apple that would have spoiled the whole barrel.
NEWS CORPORATION
THE NEWS OF THE WORLD (WIKI)
Doing the right things is more important than doing things right. It’s the difference between being efficient and being effective.I was watching the recent inquiry by members of the British Parliament into the business practices of Rupert Murdoch and his company. In the middle of very tough questioning I had to put everything aside so I can write down something he said that I found not only striking but also revealing of his character.
We were ashamed by what happened. We broke the trust of our readers.With those words, “The News of the World”, a 168-year-old newspaper, became a footnote in the annals of print history. It was shut down amidst allegations of eavesdropping that snowballed into a a frenzy of public animosity. At the hearings Murdoch got pied in the face by one of the spectators in the gallery.
A sprawling company such as "News Corporation" with a portfolio of assets in movies, television, cable, internet, magazines and newspapers strung across the globe, is a daunting operation to manage. Although certainly in touch with the executives of his various companies on a regular basis, Murdoch attends to his companies’ daily operations at an arm’s length distance. He is certainly enabled by modern communication and transportation technologies but limited by the distances that comprise his empire. So, he delegates to his management staff.
Could “The News of the World” have been saved? Based on Murdoch’s testimony, the company was financially solvent and judging by the pool of talent employed by their companies, they may have been able to ride the storm. The future would have been daunting. It would have certainly included a distracting mix of bad press, a contentious public, criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits costing his company a considerable amount of money. Many companies have survived far worse crises than what the paper would have experienced - Tylenol during the Chicago deaths by tainting; Firestone and Ford during the rash of highway deaths and Jack-In-the Box during the E Coli tainting episodes are just a few examples. They all suffered a significant downturn in their businesses but survived the crisis and thrived - winning the admiration of their patrons.
A proven success formula for newspapers of that type is controversy - the dirtier and more salacious, the more compelling for readers. What would have been better than being able to write about the real inside scoop? For a tough competitor like Murdoch, it was an interesting display of tactical retreat, if not surrender. Why did he make that decision? My guess is, in the end, he had much to protect, a lifetime of work and many employees who depended on his leadership and wisdom. Also, his companies are engaged in relationships that require nurturing - the communities where his local stations are located, the bankers and financiers, the business partners, the viewers who watch their programming and others. He wasn’t going to allow a single asset bring down the others. In a manner of speaking, "The News of the World" was the bad apple that would have spoiled the whole barrel.
NEWS CORPORATION
THE NEWS OF THE WORLD (WIKI)
