100 years of Media Power Play

I met him on February 20, 2004 when he started as a temp at the Wall Street Journal Europe in my department. A young man, still a student, heavy bearded, Davy Drieghe. Quite unexpectedly he became a full time employee and strongholder of the department. He stuck his teeth in the distribution operations of our newspaper with an appetite and lust I had rarely seen. Then, as all good things in life, he left his first job to be able to grow beyond our means. He left us for... our competitor The International Herald Tribune based in Paris. Only free spirits and adventurers are able to part from their comfort zone for an uncertain future abroad. But his gamble is paying off, this week he was allowed to follow a management training in the US and to visit the mother house of The International Herald Tribune, the New York Times. If you're interested in media power play, enjoy below account of his walk through newspaper history.

Walking through newspaper history by Davy Drieghe

... On my way from the hotel to The New York Times I suddenly found myself on Herald Square. The square is named after the New York Herald, established in 1835 and originally headquartered there. The little park in the middle of the square is named Horace Greeley Square, after the New York Tribune publisher, the NY Heralds biggest competitor which was founded in 1841. The New York Herald obtained its rival the New York Tribune in 1924 and changed its name into New York Herald Tribune.

In 1966 the New York Herald Tribune closes down. The Paris branch, founded in 1887 under the name Paris Herald as an international outpost of the NY Herald, continues in joined ownership of New York Times and the Washington Post and is renamed the International Herald Tribune. In 2003 the New York Times takes over the Washington Post shares and becomes the sole owner of IHT. [As a countermove the Washington Post will join the Wall Street Journal in a loose partnership.]
Picture 1 to the right: New York Herald Building anno 1895, demolished in 1921 (photo: Wikipedia). Note the owls on the roof top; one remaining owl still can be found in the lobby of IHT in Paris.

Picture 2: Herald Square (photo: Davy Drieghe) , in the back “Macy’s”.

The New York Times itself used to be located on Times Square, famous for the annual New Years Eve countdown, and gave the square its current name. The NYT offices however moved almost 1 century ago to a less visible location on 43rd , a side street of Times Square. Later this year the NYT will move to a brand new and more visible office tower on the corner of 8th Avenue and Times Square, reclaiming its presence in New York.

Picture 3 to the right : NYT office on 43rd street.

Picture 4: New NYT building on 8th Avenue and Times Square, to be inaugurated in 2007.

The New York Times currently is the 3rd largest US newspaper in circulation, after USA Today and Wall Street Journal and is most renowned for its meaty Sunday editions. The International Herald Tribune remains one of the most influential newspapers available around the globe.

Picture 5 to the right: Sunday edition NYT

(Pictures 2-5: Davy Drieghe)

Difference Between Leaders and Managers (11): Answers Self Test

The answers and ideas offered come from experience with assessments involving hundreds of leaders and managers over time by A.J. Schuler, but yesterday's test is not a standardized test. I hope you find the discussion below interesting and educational.
Remember, most managerial jobs require some leadership practice, and executives need both strong management and leadership skills. The idea that real people are either “leaders” or “managers” is false - different jobs require different balances of each.

Self Test Answers and Discussion

1. TRUE or FALSE:
I think more about immediate results than I do about mentoring others.
Managers focus on the process and immediate efficiency more than leaders do. Leaders think about how they invest their time to develop the strongest talent so that those people can grow and do more and more over time. Leaders figure if they do that, those people will do a better job of watching and improving processes than they themselves will. “True” is more of a manager’s response, and “False” is more of a leader’s response.

2. TRUE or FALSE:
People will be motivated if you pay them enough.
Leaders understand that pay is a satisfier, not a true motivator. Once the satisfier is in place at an acceptable level, people are motivated by the nature of the work and challenges, opportunities to learn and grow, and based on whether or not they feel their bosses support or care about them. “True” is more of a manager’s answer, and “False” is more of a leader’s answer.

3. TRUE or FALSE:
It’s nice to know about people’s long-term goals, but not necessary to get the job done.
Someone once said that managers get “work done through people,” but leaders get “people done through work.” Since leaders need to know what makes individual people tick, they want to know long-term goals and aspirations, so they can craft ways to combine personal goals with the work at hand, or even the organization’s goals. For a given project, it may be less important to know people’s long-term goals, but for organizational success and growth, it is necessary. “True” is more of a manager’s answer, and “False” is more of a leader’s answer.

4. TRUE or FALSE:
If you have a consistent recognition system that rewards everyone in the same way, then that is enough.
Leaders’ recognize that everyone is motivated a little differently, and so consistency is not an absolute virtue in recognizing people. Some people may like public praise, and others may emphasize more the opportunity to have flexible family time, for example. Since managers emphasize systems more than they do people or personalities, “True” is more of a manager’s response, and “False” is more of a leader’s response.

5. TRUE or FALSE:
The best way to build a team is to set a group goal that is highly challenging, maybe even “crazy.”
Manager’s tend to think more in terms of what has been done before and try to make more incremental improvements, while leaders like to challenge people to bring out their best in ways they themselves may not have imagined possible. The best way to build team coherence is to take people through a shared, difficult challenge – something any military platoon leader can tell you. “True” is more of a leader’s response, and “False” is more of a manager’s response.

6. TRUE or FALSE:
My greatest pleasure in my job comes from making the work process more effective.
This is a classic manager’s priority, deriving most pleasure from process and efficiency. Leaders enjoy that a lot too, but they tend to enjoy most when they can help people and organizations grow. “True” is more of a manager’s response, and “False” is more of a leader’s response.

7. TRUE or FALSE:
I spend more of my time and attention on my weaker performers than I do on my top performers, who basically take care of themselves.
Leaders use their time as a reward, and seek to invest their attention where it can have the most upside impact. Generally speaking, people have the most opportunity to grow and become truly great where they already demonstrate strong performance, and so leaders tend to avoid remedial projects or the constant oversight of weaker performers. Instead, they spend more of their attention on the people who are the best at what they do, since those are the people who will bring the greatest process and performance improvements in the future. Managers tend to focus more on problems to solve than they do on opportunities to boost people toward previously unachieved levels of excellence. “True” is more of a manager’s response, and “False” is more of a leader’s response.

8. TRUE or FALSE:
It’s better not to know anything about the personal lives and interests of the people who report to me.
Leaders try to learn what makes each person tick, so that means knowing getting to understand them in a more personal way, without being invasive or inappropriate. Managers tend to be more cut-and-dried in their work relations. “True” is more of a manager’s response, while “False” is more of a leader’s response.

9. TRUE or FALSE:
Sometimes, it’s almost as if I’m a “collector of people” because I’m always recruiting and getting to know new people.
Some of the best managers are very good at studying best practices – ways to “build a better mousetrap” to improve performance and efficiency. Leaders tend to look more for the “Einsteins” and star performers of the world who are more likely to invent those better mousetraps in the first place. Leaders think about people and their talents as if they were investment opportunities, and so “True” is more of a leader’s response, and “False” is more of a manager’s response.

10. TRUE or FALSE:
I like to surround myself with people who are better at what they do than I am.
This is a classic leadership statement, since leaders are all about finding and cultivating talent, and are not threatened by it. Managers may tend to want to feel more in control of their surroundings – not least of all because highly talented people can be very independent and difficult to “manage!” Since leaders tend to have stronger social skills than managers do, and so are better prepared to deal with other strong egos, “True” is more of a leader’s response, and “False” is more of a manager’s response.

11. TRUE or FALSE:
I am a lifelong student of what makes other people tick.
“True” is more of a leader’s response, and “False” is more of a manager’s response, for reasons already discussed.

12. TRUE or FALSE:
People talk about “mission” too much – it’s best just to let people do their work and not try to bring values into the conversation.
While it’s true that “mission” and “vision” are concepts that have become watered down by careless misuse, leaders still understand that it is best to connect daily work and projects into a larger framework that gives work a sense of purpose and meaning. People would rather feel that their work has some purpose and meaning in order to do their work well and care about results. “True” is more of a manager’s response, and “False” is more a leader’s response.

13. TRUE or FALSE:
It’s my job to know everything that goes on in my area.
Since leaders focus more on knowing the people who know what is going on, rather than on the details of everything that is going on, “True” is more of a manager’s response, and “False” is more of a leader’s response.

14. TRUE or FALSE:
I pay close attention to how and where I spend my time, because the priorities I put into action are the ones that other people will observe and follow.
Leaders realize that the little things they do ripple out in wider and wider ways, and that their actual priorities will be mimicked throughout an organization. As a result, they make their choices wisely, knowing that people, and other managers or supervisors, do imitate the “boss,” who sets the ultimate tone. “True” is more of a leader’s response, and “false” is more of a manager’s response.

15. TRUE or FALSE:
I’ve worked hard to get along with or understand people who are very different from me.
As headstrong as many leaders can be, they know from experience that being so headstrong can be a liability, and they have learned to work hard at accepting and listening to other points of view. Managers may be more focused on what they believe to be the “right way” to do some job or work process, and may be less open to widely divergent views. Leaders may not always enjoy hearing other views, but they often have learned the critical importance of the saying, “Let the best idea win!” “True” is more of a leader’s response, and “False” is more of a manager’s response.

Copyright (c) 2003 by Dr. A. J. Schuler. Schuler is an expert in leadership and organizational change.

To find out more about his programs and services, visit www.SchulerSolutions.com or call (703) 370-6545.

Difference Between Leaders and Managers (10): Leadership Self Test

1. TRUE or FALSE:
I think more about immediate results than I do about mentoring others.

2. TRUE or FALSE:
People will be motivated if you pay them enough.

3. TRUE or FALSE:
It’s nice to know about people’s long-term goals, but not necessary to get the job done.

4. TRUE or FALSE:
If you have a consistent recognition system that rewards everyone in the same way, then that is enough.

5. TRUE or FALSE:
The best way to build a team is to set a group goal that is highly challenging, maybe even “crazy.”

6. TRUE or FALSE:
My greatest pleasure in my job comes from making the work process more effective.

7. TRUE or FALSE:
I spend more of my time and attention on my weaker performers than I do on my top performers, who basically take care of themselves.

8. TRUE or FALSE:
It’s better not to know anything about the personal lives and interests of the people who report to me.

9. TRUE or FALSE:
Sometimes, it’s almost as if I’m a “collector of people” because I’m always recruiting and getting to know new people.

10. TRUE or FALSE:
I like to surround myself with people who are better at what they do than I am.

11. TRUE or FALSE:
I am a lifelong student of what makes other people tick.

12. TRUE or FALSE:
People talk about “mission” too much – it’s best just to let people do their work and not try to bring values into the conversation.

13. TRUE or FALSE:
It’s my job to know everything that goes on in my area.

14. TRUE or FALSE:
I pay close attention to how and where I spend my time, because the priorities I put into action are the ones that other people will observe and follow.

15. TRUE or FALSE:
I’ve worked hard to get along with or understand people who are very different from me.


Answer key to this questionnaire will be posted tomorrow.

Copyright (c) 2003 by Dr. A. J. Schuler. Schuler is an expert in leadership and organizational change.

To find out more about his programs and services, visit www.SchulerSolutions.com or call (703) 370-6545.

Difference Between Leaders and Managers (9)

It is often difficult to understand the difference between managers and leaders. Do managers lead? Do leaders manage? To understand how these two concepts are distinct yet different, here are 7 ways to understand them.

1. Course and Steering. The word "leadership" comes from the Old English word "lad" for a "course". The word "management" comes from the Latin word "manus", the hand, from which we also get "maintenance" and "mainstay". Leadership guides by setting a ship's course. Management keeps a hand on the tiller.

2. Growth and Survival. Organisations are no different from any other living organism: they need both to survive and grow. Survival is necessary in order to meet the basic requirements of life: in individuals, food, water and shelter; in organisations, a profit, customers, premises, and work. Growth is also necessary so that, like the individual person, an organisation can make the most of what it is capable of. The maintenance of the organisation is essentially a management function: measuring, looking back, assessing, taking stock, taking careful decisions. Taking the organisation into areas of growth, change and development, to make the most of it, is what leadership is all about.

3. Resources and Potential. Management measures what it can count and see. A person in the enterprise is described by their name and title, measured by their output, listed in the database according to their skills and added in the accounts under the heading "manpower resources". Management deals with the past and how people performed to date. Leadership,on the other hand, sees people as capable of things you cannot measure and doing things they never thought possible. It deals with the future and how people could perform if their potential were realised.

4. Left and Right Brains. The left hemisphere of the brain is the seat of our logical and rational thinking. The right brain is the seat of our imaginative, creative and emotional thinking. While these two sides are distinct, they also work best when whole. The left brain is an analogy for management. It deals with what can be counted; detail; control; domination; worldly interests; action; analysis; measurement; and order. The right brain is an analogy for leadership. It deals with what cannot be counted; seeing things as a whole; synthesis; possibilities; belief; vision; artistry; intuition; and imagination.

5. The Seven S’s. Richard Pascale says that the processes that take place in organisations fall under seven "S" headings: strategy, structure, systems, shared values, staff, skills and style. The functions of strategy, structure, and systems are the hard S’s and the proper concern of managers because they deal with things or technology. The functions of staff, skills, style, and shared values are the soft S’s and the proper concern of leaders because they deal with people.

6. Art and Science. John Adair in his book "Leadership" compares management and leadership to the old dichotomy of Art and Science. Managers are of the mind, accurate, calculated, routine, statistical, methodical. Management is a science. Leaders are of the spirit, compounded of personality and vision. Leadership is an art. Managers are necessary; leaders are essential.

7. Short-Term and Long-Term. When an organisation thinks about now and the nearfuture, it thinks of itself as a production unit. It sees the problems it might face as technical problems needing technical answers. When an organisation thinks about the distant future, it thinks about building, learning and growing. It seeks to identify and develop its opportunities. It defines itself by what it is, not by what it does. The difference between short-term and long-term thinking is the difference between an organisation that holds on tight to what it has and an organisation that stays loose and lets things grow. Organisations that need quick fixes rely on managers. Organisations that want to grow rely on leaders.

Conclusion: The difference between management and leadership is like the difference between male and female, sun and moon, night and day, fat and thin, hot and cold, coming and going, and so on. They are two sides to the same coin. In being the one, we see the other. While different and distinct, they are parts of the whole: essential contrasts, that in contrasting, make clearer the other.

(thx to Shiyata D. and www.ontargetmag.com)

Why We Want You to be Rich

I admit I enjoyed some of Donald Trump's books when I was younger. I admit to have deliberately looked for and visited Trump tower in NY when I went to Wall Street last time. I even admit watching the nightly re-runs of The Apprentice on an obscure television channel, a program no serious TV channel in the Benelux wants to air.

So when I saw this book on the shelves in the UK a few months ago, with the following words of Steve Forbes on the back cover "In these uncertain economic times, these two titans of business have joined forces on a book that underscores the pressing need for financial literacy." I thought, what the heck, you never know what I could learn.

That is probably what thousands of other people thought a split second before they bought the book (for about 22 Euros, already an indication how the authors are getting rich).

Another element that made me buy the book was the co-author of Donald Trump, Robert T.Kiyosaki. I admit, I had never heard about him before.

The set up of the book is actually interesting. The two authors constantly switch 'views'. Each author uses another font to illustrate his 'view' (Font of Donald big, too big, with a lot of white border space, Kiyosaki small thoughtful page filling). Apparently Kiyosaki made fortune as an entrepreneur and author of the 'Rich Dad' book series, most well known title being "Rich Dad, Poor Dad".

The book has 340 pages, and after reading them I had the feeling having eaten too much air. Apart from an overview of some management techniques that were quoted I didn't learn anything, except for the fact that Trump knows his classical business quotes. It is amazing to see how he lives by quotes of others. I might even jump to the conclusion he uses their thoughts of wisdom to make him look more intellectual. Too much quotes equals a bad professor in my opinion.

Kiyosaki struck me as a successful businessman but he doesn't deliver when it comes to share the stuff we are all looking for. It all stays superficial and except for a few graphs for 3th graders no secrets are revealed that would have helped me become as rich as they claim to be.

Hotels for Managers and Why Concierges are Lobby-Kings

To follow up on a certain action of The Wall Street Journal in 10 top hotels in Brussels, I visited the hotels 'incognito' between 05 and 10 AM. In the hotels where the action was not executed properly, I had to cue, with all the guests checking out, to be able to speak to the concierge.

For those not familiar with hotel management: concierges are lobby-kings. Whatever the hotel management decides during day-time, the concierge exercises his right to do whatever he pleases when it pleases him, as long as it is during the mysterious hours between 4 and 8 AM when the world awakens. During break of dawn a concierge reigns over the lobby as if it were his kingdom. That is why concierges have business cards that look smarter than the cards of their hotel managers. If you ever want to organize a high profile event in a 4 or 5 star hotel, first become good friends with the concierge.

(from top left to bottom right: Newspaper selection at Crowne Plaza Brussels-Europa , Hotel Astoria Brussels, Thon Hotel Brussels City Centre, Rocco Forte Amigo Hotel , Brussels Marriott Hotel, Crowne Plaza Brussels-Europa )

Difference Between Leaders and Managers (8)

I find it amusing to see how much authors are trying to make a point in concentrating on the differences between leaders and managers. There is a difference, off course, but there is also a vast grey zone between the two opposite styles where everything becomes blurry, where there seems no difference at all between managers and leaders. I always compare it with a balance. On the one end of the balance, there is the extreme leader who could be considered a despot. On the other end resides the absolute manager, to be considered a bureaucrat, in the worst sense imaginable.

The more management qualities the extreme leader possesses the more he slides towards the middle of the scale. The more leadership qualities a manager demonstrates the more he moves towards the middle. I do not necessarily believe that the best possible leader/manager is to be found in the middle of the balance where the two extremes converge. It is the context that requires a certain kind of leader or manager. In a healthy multinational we probably like our leaders/managers to come from the middle of the scale. We like our leaders to demonstrate excellent management skills, as much as we like our managers to perform as capable leaders. In a war situation however it is more likely you'll need an extreme leader who is able to 'move' his soldiers so they'll engage into battle.

Paris - About Event Management

Once a year I meet most of the European Wall Street Journal distributors in Paris. Typically we'll see each other at the 'Journees de la Presse', an organization of NMPP, the most important French press wholesaler-retailer, a mammoth company impregnated with a French chauvinism bigger than the Eiffel tower. It is this chauvinism I guess that caused them to coldly refuse the international publishers the access to their yearly convention this year. Apparently the international publishers were taking too much time from the French publishers and distributors. So this year only the French press distributors could meet with the French publishers in the comfortable super size conference room of the Meridien hotel in Montmartre.


We - an international publisher, ie. DowJones-
were left to organize our meetings in the lobby of the hotel, outside the conference room. I have never ever participated in a more inconvenient conference than the one this year. Imagine 150 managers, directors and supervisors improvising a conference in the lobby of a hotel, ultimately all of them wanting to individually set up or participate in 12 meetings of 30 minutes between two different parties per day. Imagine the dance with chairs, tables and half full cups of coffee every 30 minutes when parties change party and thus table. Reality beats imagination.

On top of that, imagine all sorts of hotel guests looking to sit down at the same tables and chairs while waiting for friends, taxi's, check-in or check-out.
Fellini could have made a film here.


See also post about this event: Speeddating for Managers:
IMPACTROOM for managers, marketeers and mothers*: Speeddating for Managers

Difference Between Leaders and Managers (7)

In addition to the underlying ability to develop and achieve commitment to a clear vision studies identified 2 basic characteristics for leaders who had successfully achieved significant business transformations:

1. Humility: the ability to behave in a way which engages others, due to the leader's compelling modesty
2. Will: An unrelenting will to achieve the transformation, even when faced with significant challenges and obstacles.

Collins (2001)

Difference Between Leaders and Managers (6)

Some belief there are 5 types of behavior to be associated with sustained success in an organization. Most of the time these behaviors are allocated to 'leaders':

1. Challenging processes - Willing to challenge the way things are done; including the way in which they do things themselves.
2. Inspiring a shared vision. Not only stating a vision, but also building peoples' understanding of, and commitment to, the vision.
3. Enabling others. Ensuring that people are not only empowered to act, but creating an environment which releases their potential.
4. Modelling the way. Acting as a consistent role model, demonstrating the behaviours others are being asked to display.
5. Encouraging the Heart. Taking every opportunity to recognise and encourage others.

(Kouznes and Posner, 1998)

Cambridge - Judge Business School MBA

Unexpected encounter at King's College (°1441 by Henry VI) in Cambridge.

A group of young boys moves hastily over the courtyard and crosses my path. It was as if time stood still. (I think Howards End, Remains of the Day.)(I recognise the scarf. I had exactly the same scarf when I was 10. In my case it was the scarf of Beerschot, a Belgian football club). The boys take off their top hats when entering King's College Church. They must be the choir boys attending the 5.30PM 'Choral Evensong'.

One of the more famous alumni of King's College was John Maynard Keynes.

Corpus Christi College (°1352)
The university of Cambridge originated in 1209, when scholars fleeing from hostile
townsmen in Oxford migrated to Cambridge to settle there.


Clare College (°1326)
Clare College is the second oldest of Cambridge’s thirty-one colleges.
A College is the place where students live, eat and socialise. It is also the place where they receive small group teaching sessions, known as supervisions, individualised academic support through Directors of Studies and individualised pastoral support through College Tutors.




View from St John's College (°1511) - Punting on the Cam
A punt is a flat-bottomed boat which does not have a keel. It is propelled by means of a long pole. Punts were introduced as pleasure craft in Edwardian times, since then punting has become one of the most popular ways to see the famous bridges and colleges along the River Cam.

The Judge Business School is the international business school of Cambridge University in England. Formerly known as The Institute of Management Studies the school was renamed after Britisch businessman Paul Judge, who donated 8 million Pounds in 1990. Each year approximately 110 students will follow the 12 month MBA program. Admission standards are known to be very strict. Most of the MBA students, about 90 %, come from abroad. The MBA program was ranked 15th worldwide by the Financial Times Global MBA Rankings 2007.

Operations Management - Follow up of insert of StyleJournal Magazine in The Wall Street Journal newspaper in the UK

People versus Machine

Picture: The luxurious quarterly, StyleJournal magazine, as an 'on-sert', meaning it is being put on the cover of the newspaper, after which the combination is pollywrapped (sealed in plastic). The package as pictered here is designed to be sold in the UK newsstands.

Globally the magazine will be 'in'serted and 'on'serted in all 10 European Wall Street Journal printplants.

From an operational standpoint it is always a question how the project will be carried out: because of the format and weight of the magazine it sometimes makes sense to use a machine to do the inserting job, sometimes it is better to do the inserting by hand.

In the UK we already experimented with both set ups. On two occasions a group of Nigerian women inserted all the UK magazines by hand, fighting time, paper, ink, cold, and unstable bundles. It means work for an extra group of 10 women who can come in during the night. Today we experiment for the second time with an automatic inserting procedure, leaving all the work to an inserting machine. It is clear after todays project that if the machine is prepapered the correct way, and when there is a nice 'heavy' newspaper available to insert the magazine into, the machine has an advantage over the women. Much to the dislike of the women who see the machine as a living competitor. What also doesn't help in such somewhat darker and gloomy mailrooms is that all machines are operated by men. I have the impression that if a woman would be the operator of the machine she could help 'sell' the machine solution to her fellow female colleagues.

Saw this billboard at UK station. I am in UK to follow up on the insert of the StyleJournal Magazine in all UK printed Wall Street Journal newspapers. The slogan on the billboard

took me by surprise. I am preparing a series of posts about the transfer of coaching techniques from the world of sports to the genuine business world. To be put on this blog in a couple of months.