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The Headliners' and Legends' 20 Secrets for SuccessAt last week's CEO Roundtable in New York City, four successful industry executives shared their insights on entrepreneurship and the factors most critical to their prosperity. Coming from four very different backgrounds, the panel members touched on a wide variety of topics including product development; employee recruitment and retention; and partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions. While the recurring themes throughout the presentation underscored the similarities of the speakers' experiences, their diverse perspectives provided attendees with more individualized advice. Leading off the day was David Coleman, founder of assessment company The Grow Network/McGraw-Hill. Coleman began The Grow Network in 2000--it was acquired by McGraw-Hill in 2004--with the goal of transforming assessment reporting into a valuable and useful tool. Prior to Grow, said Coleman, these reports were extremely unclear and inaccessible, and therefore parents and teachers were not using them effectively. The ability to recognize this truth was part of Coleman's first piece of advice: "Witness, not Visionary." 1. Witness, not Visionary - "When people talk about vision, they have a very bad tendency to think of words like 'dream' or 'creativity.' They presume the kind of person who has new ideas is a person who sees things that others can't see," said Coleman. "But great ideas often come from telling the truth about a situation, or bearing witness, rather than envisioning something completely new." 2. Is it a Drug or a Gift? - Coleman recommends assessing whether your product is something someone must pay for - a "drug" - or something people would love to have, but would like to take from you without a price - a "gift." "People in the education industry are cursed with a kindness that betrays them. They think if something is useful, people will buy it. The forces that drive decision-making are far more ugly and complicated than that." 3. David Needed a Slingshot - "As a small player sandwiched between enormous companies that are highly durable, you need to think about the very small thing you do - the 'slingshot' - that creates a force in this large environment." For Grow, it was the assessment market, a very important part of today's education system, but small enough that it allowed Grow to take on a very large industry as a small player. 4. Distrust Technology - "We're rarely honest about how often technology either doesn't work or betrays us. Especially in the education community, we must be very careful not to conflate innovation with technology." 5. Distrust the Self-Love of Entrepreneurs - Entrepreneurs are often seen as brave for daring to go out on their own, said Coleman, but the reality is failure is not such a big deal. Following Coleman was Martin Maleska, Senior Adviser for Court Square Securities, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage communications, information technology, and media companies. 6. Build upon facts, not impressions - "The idea of 'build it and they will come' only works in the movies. There needs to be an in-depth focus on where you fit into the industry and what unique value you bring to the customer." 7. Understand the competitive environment - "Look at the peripherals - people providing similar services - but also keep an eye out for companies with the capability to break into the marketplace. Don't get caught by surprise by fledgling companies." 8. Don't be afraid to partner - Maleska pointed out that being successful doesn't always mean creating the best product; it also depends upon service after the sale, after-sale training, packaging - things companies won't always be able to do in-house. "It's better to have 50 percent of the market share with a partner than not have any at all." 9. Focus on people - Maleska had a number of recommendations for hiring employees, including building a people-friendly organization and looking for people beyond yourself. "Many people tend to hire clones, but the changes that are taking place within the publishing industry may be akin to the greatest changes that have taken place in any industry. Dealing with that is going to require different skill sets and interesting new ideas." Maleska also recommended flattening your organization, or eliminating layers between top management and the customer; promulgating open communication; and carefully examining incentive programs - "People do what you pay them to do." 10. Have enough capital to run with your winners - While it is common practice to build a financial plan that will keep your company afloat during tough times, not many companies include plans for running with successful products. "If a product is seeing success, you should capitalize on that marketplace before there's competition. Not many people provide for this in their financial plans." Margery Mayer, President of Scholastic Education, was the third panelist. She prefaced her presentation with this caveat: "It is good to have rules, but it is also good to break them." 11. Find the pain point - Tying in with Coleman's "Drug" or "Gift" point, Mayer said finding the place where people will actually act is key to the success of your products - "'Nice to have' just will not sell." "The good news is with NCLB, it's more possible than ever to find the pain point." 12. Align with the money - "There is a lot of money in the marketplace for materials that work - IDEA, bilingual money, grant money. It's a really good idea when your product meets more than one funding source. For example, a lot of the purchasing of Read 180 is done with blended funds, and we have a lot of materials out there for our customers to help steer them to these different sources." 13. Employ technology - "Not everything has to be technology, but I do think every kid will have a computer or computer-type device in the near future. Only about one-third of our kids are proficient or above, and the remainder of those kids are running out of time. The only way to help them catch up is personalized educational experiences and one-to-one learning, which is best achieved with computers and assessment products." 14. Make sure that it works and that you can prove it - "We spend a lot of time looking for promising learning research, and it's hard to find. Much of it is not scalable - brilliant teachers in small group settings that just can't be brought to the market. But it does exist." Investing in research that proves the efficacy of your product is key, said Mayer, as well as choosing ideas and creating products that can be measured. 15. Keep it simple - Mayer said simplicity works for you in two ways: one, when you hand your product over to your sales force, the easier it is to explain the better; and two, your customer will not use it if it's too difficult to implement - "You want your customers to love your product more than you do." Rounding out the panel was Barbara Russell, founder, president, and CEO of Options Publishing. Founded in 1992, Options was acquired by Haights Cross Communications in December 2004. 16. Recruit the right people - Russell said the best way to recruit and retain quality employees is to make them feel like they own part of the company. She recruited her early employees by offering phantom stock and insists that made all the difference. 17. Focus on product development - "When you're first starting out, concentrate on the quality of the product and don't spend so much time on the design. Listen to what the customers want; there's no substitute for being out there in the marketplace talking to people." 18. "Open book" publishing - This is what Russell likes to call Options' policy toward employees. When you don't have a lot of people working for you, everyone wears more than one hat, she said, so it's important for everyone to know what's going on in other departments and at all levels of the company. 19. Customers are number one ALWAYS - "Public education is changing so rapidly that if you don't go out into the field and see what's going on regularly, it's very easy to lose touch. I talk to customers on an everyday basis and keep myself in tune with their wants and needs." 20. Relationships, relationships, relationships - Develop relationships with as many people as you can, said Russell. During tough times, it's those relationships - with printers, with the bank, with other service providers - that will help pull you through.
Questions, ideas, or in need of more information? Please contact Stacey Pusey at 302-295-8349. |
Click here for more on AEP's annual CEO Roundtable |
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© 2011 The Association of Educational
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