Media leader Kim Williams hits out at 'soft' management

 

CRITICISM is a vital business tool, make sure ‘plan A’ works and forget about ‘plan B’ … and no genuine business leader can afford to have a glass jaw.  

The messages came loud and clear from Kim Williams, a man who has led Australia’s largest communication company: News Corp. 

The former News Corporation Australia and arts leader laid it all on the line at the recent QUT Business School’s Business Leaders Forum.

Mr Williams explained to an enthralled audience of about 600 how his early career in music performance prepared him for the rigours of high-level management, which for the past 43 years has spanned film, television, newspapers and arts organisations.

He said in the music industry, criticism was an essential part of improving performance. However, he said he had found in his “unusual executive leadership journey” that criticism was frequently poorly given and received.

“There was a frankness about providing criticism that ... can only be described as unusually direct. I suppose that represents one of the great life lessons for me, the degree of professional accountability for one’s work,” Mr Wlliams said.

“I have always been open to professional criticism and feedback and similarly have never been fearful to provide it.

“It has always been my view that Australians generally do not receive criticism well and that our inability to receive criticism is matched only by our inability to give criticism in ways that are thoughtful, caring, constructive and nourishing.

“All too often we are the land of the glass jaw. And I believe we will never realise our real national potential until we learn the value of thoughtful critical review and the thoughtful and discipline that requires.”

He also described how mistakes and challenges were an important part of building personal resilience.

In this day and age of digital technology impacts, it was more important than ever to adapt – and quickly.

“What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger,” he said of the considerable challenges bringing technology and process change to the early Australian arts and film industries.

“It was in the Arts that I learned to never give up,” Mr Williams said. “To approach a problem from a variety of angles until a solution is found. That sense of resilience and perseverance has served me well.”

 

MEDIA INDUSTRY BROKEN?

Mr Williams spoke about the media industry, describing how historic business practices were no longer working.

“It is not changing, it has changed,” he said.

“The evidence is everywhere. The old paradigms are breaking down or are broken . . . Consumers are now in charge . . . It is time to reinvent.”

He said businesses should embrace “big data”, or the awesome array of data analysis that was available thanks to modern technology. He said this data was increasingly replacing the often unreliable tool of intuition, and therefore producing better outcomes.

He also said the best leaders today were collaborative, as it was only via teamwork that businesses could keep abreast of the dynamic environment that was modern commerce.

“Leadership today is a sophisticated team sport,” Mr Williams said. “The Lone Ranger style of leadership of a highly hierarchical model simply does not work with large educated workforces.”

And, there was no room for ‘plan Bs’, he said, as the best leaders were too busy to formulate one because they were channelling all their effort into achieving ‘plan A’.

“People who talk about having a plan B have never run anything,” Mr Williams said.

Perhaps with that statement in mind, Mr Williams’ comment on his former boss, head of the News Corporation empire Rupert Murdoch, is telling:

“A pretty dynamic and impressive individual . . . a remarkable human being.”

The QUT Business Leaders Forums will continue in 2014.

Ian Narev, managing director and chief executive officer of the Commonwealth Bank Group will be the first speaker for the 2014 QUT Business Leaders Forum on March 3.

 

www.qut.edu.au

 

 

 

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