Being Passionate About Business
Interviewed by Olivia Wolak

Interview with Glenn Gottfried, Interim CEO		 Date Interview: 07/22/2009
Date of Credentialing:
Credential expiration:
 

You were brought in to lead a radical transformation at Thomson TFP.

Thomson TFP’s core business was print directories and advertising related to print directories.  My job was to lead the transformation of an old line print directory publisher into the new world.  I was able to produce company growth in a situation where there were significant declines going on in other core parts of the business.

How did you do that?

I went through a process of reevaluating the market place, looking at our core capabilities, and going out and listening to the customers to identify from them the unmet needs that they were experiencing.  I then asked if there were things that we could do to fill the gaps.  Can we save them money?  Can we make them more efficient or effective than they are?  Can we help them improve how their customer perceives the service experience they get?  Those are the things that we identify, and then look at how they match up with our core competencies.

"Generally the single biggest issue is incorrect pricing."



Gimme an example of that.

Take the payment space - international wire transfer.  The chain went from this bank, to this bank, to this bank, to this bank. We went out and started collecting, amassing, more and more of this payment data and we created a global payment file. Massive impact on the industry.  Efficiency gains all over the place and an improved customer experience for the consumer.

How does a CEO get blind-sided?

When most companies or CEOs “diversify” a lot of times their diversification puts them in an area that is a combination of new markets and new products.  That is the reason why most diversification acquisitions fail.  They have nothing to do with the markets or products that they’ve served in the past.  They are not extensions and the management team doesn’t know a damn thing about those markets nor the products.  It’s gone outside of their core competency. If you’re going to do acquisitions you want to either keep the current product line and extend to new markets or keep the existing market and bring in new products.

 

Being Passionate About Business. -- Glenn Gottfried, Interim CEO

Glenn Gottfried is CEO of CCS-Adplus, an information services company, and former president of Thomson TFP (formerly Thomson Financial Publishing). Since Gottfried joined CCS-Adplus in February 2007, the company has nearly triple its client base.

What was one of the big challenges at Thomson TFP?

When I joined the firm, my risk data product line included both software and data.  The software was typically sold for a flat mid-five figure license and maintenance fee.  The data files were sold for roughly $6,000 a year.  I questioned whether we were trying to make our money off the software or off the data.   Are we the razor or the razor blade in essence?  We were fundamentally a data company, not a software company, so we had this backwards.  

What did you do?

I went to the CFO and said that I wanted to change the model.  Within two months of making the price change we sold one for $25,000.  Soon it became a competition between the Americas and Europe.  A couple months later we had a $50,000 data sale in the US. Europe then came in with a $75,000 sale and then we finally broke the $100,000 mark in the US.

With the same data?

Same data file, just the value equation was portrayed differently.  People bought it.

Can you expand on this notion of a value equation?

When I’ve come into a board meeting, when I’ve advised other companies, or the first time I’ve come into a business, the single biggest issue that they face is incorrect pricing.  Generally they are suboptimal.  They are either leaving money on the table or they are charging too much and losing deals in other parts.  They are not segmenting their market place and determining the price accordingly.  A lot of it is based upon value, not on cost.

What do you do better than anyone else?

I am fast, I pick up very rapidly, I can hone into the key issues that an organization is facing, and I can work with a team to develop an appropriate response and action plan to get it executed. One of my key strengths is being able to establish with a team a strategy and an execution capability. I can identify how to grow the business and not be myopic to it.

That is an ability to be strategic.

It’s intriguing to see how so many times companies and CEOs will tell everybody to “think strategically”. Excuse my language, but that’s bullshit. In dealing with lots of people over the years I have to say that the majority of people who work do not have strategic thought leadership.

What should leaders be telling their teams?

The team should be hearing where we are going; this is the strategy that we’ve developed based upon our core competencies; this is where we sit in the marketplace; and this is where we can go. How do we execute toward this strategy? A team should be focusing on how to maximize the likelihood that we will be successful. You don’t want them thinking strategically. What you want them to be thinking is tactical execution.

What’s the secret sauce for how you lead?

Being able to recognize what people are good at and then modifying work responsibilities of an organization so that people get to do what they perform best at— what makes them more passionate about their job. I want people to say that they achieved some things that they wouldn’t have otherwise accomplished without the support of Glenn. I’m a very big believer in life’s passion.

"A team should be focusing on how to maximize the likelihood that we will be successful. You don't want them thinking strategically, you want tactical execution."

How did you find your passion?

I am fortunate that what I love to do are all attributes that you typically ascribe to a CEO – business development, passion for people, creativity, innovation, teamwork, leadership, execution, attention to detail, and broad picture. I get a charge out of all these things.