Business Gems
Published by Danzig Insight Services, Inc.
Copyright © 2012 Robert J. Danzig.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any form, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review or article, without written permission from the publisher or author.
First Edition eBook
ISBN 978-0-9858039-2-6
Author Website
http://www.bobdanzig.com
http://www.youareworthwhile.com
This eBook was compiled from a series of interviews. For this reason, it is written the way one would speak. You will also notice sections where it says “Interviewer” and “Bob.” This was purposely left in to increase readability.
As I reflect on my own path, many people would say I have reached a pinnacle of influence and success. What I call the “softer values” were key to that path.
It seems a surprise when I speak to audiences. They expect me to convey a more traditional, hard-edged approach to business and life in general. They often say, “That is not what we expected to hear from you. We know you ran this multi-billion dollar company, and here you are saying that the cobblestones of your success are all these softer values.”
Yes, that is my core truth. In the following pages, I will share these softer values and encourage you to integrate them into your daily life. When you personally hug and nurture these values, you are on your way to business mastery.
Introduction
Part I: Quantum Leap Wisdom
Part II: Mindset
Part III: Win-Win Negotiating
Part IV: Satisfying Selling
Part V: The Softer Values of Success
Keys to Success
Bob’s Visionary Dictionary
About The Author
More Titles by Bob Danzig
Visit Bob Online
Quantum Leap Wisdom: Unbounded possibilities fueled by enlivening humanity in the work place.
•••
Interviewer: The focus of this interview is “Breakthrough Innovation,” where executives take their companies outside the traditions of the company, outside the performance levels, and in new directions. Sometimes they change the very nature of the enterprise, their leadership actions, and behaviors that support it.
Bob: I call that “Quantum Leap” thinking.
Interviewer: Let’s focus the conversation in the area of your experience at Hearst Newspapers. Take a moment to reflect on a time when you were out to produce a quantum leap accomplishment at Hearst.
Bob: This breakthrough innovation or quantum leap re-direction begins with the way you objectively assess the reality of your business. When I was publisher of a Hearst newspaper in upstate New York, we had losing newspapers all over the country. Big city after big city, we had highly unionized newspapers, mostly in the afternoon field, which were fading. They drifted along existing on whatever talent they had, and by benign neglect, fed off the profits of Hearst magazines and television stations. When I was asked to take over of Hearst Newspapers, my view was that it would be uninteresting to administer a group of continuing losers.
We had to become destiny architects of quantum leap thinking. We did not discard what we had, but rediscovered what we had. The number one thing was to find the very best talent, those who could be destiny architects. They might already be in your own organization. Step one is to identify, assess and engage the very best talent.
Interviewer: What is the second step?
Bob: The second step is to become strategic rather than just operational. There is a certain comfort in operating. There is a corridor of cushioning that comes with knowing how to operate a given business. When you become strategic, it implies you are willing to embrace that which is discomforting, that which is uncomfortable.
In redirecting the destiny of these very large newspapers around the country, it was essential to have our individual new talent teams sit down and develop strategic objectives, as contrasted with operational comforts. Strategic does not mean a guaranteed success. It means a game plan for how you are going to conduct yourself. The game plan can include the termination of a business, if it isn’t going to satisfy the minimal requirements you put in place.
Interviewer: What did you do next?
Bob: The next thing we did was to sit back and talk about how we grow this enterprise; how we grow these core businesses that were “corporate welfare” victims to breathe new life into them. We had not acquired a new newspaper property in fifty years. No one thought of Hearst when thinking of selling a newspaper property because we were never in the game. We developed a list of the fifty most attractive targets in the country for acquisition. We built a shadow silhouette of every one of those operations without ever going near them. We assessed their probable market position, probable revenues, and probable cost of acquisition. We had a complete library that represented a brand new destiny for our company, a brand new breakthrough thinking. Indeed, when the first of those properties became available, we went after it like we were visiting our sister-in-law. We knew everything about it. We acquired that first property; then we acquired $3 billion in additional properties.
We had a complete inventory of every property we might go after before it ever got on the radar screen. That could have been a waste of time, but we didn’t think so. We thought it was exciting for our people to be part of destiny architecture. That is my view of how you go about reframing a business, whether through external acquisition or internal rediscovery.
Interviewer: What was your strategic imperative for existing properties?
Bob: Our strategic imperative for existing properties included discarding some that we could not make work. This demonstrates how breakthrough thinking can be layered upon existing businesses.
Interviewer: Can you sum up what occurred when you redirected the destiny of your company?
Bob: