That’s the advice from Tracy De Groose, the newish CEO of William Reed. She was speaking at last week’s PPA Independent Publisher Conference, in a new five-minute between sessions slot called ‘Business Leader Spotlight’. I did wonder if these spotlights would be a ‘how-I-got-where-I-am-today’ type filler, but they weren’t! They turned out to be neat and insightful content packages with someone senior giving valuable insight into their thinking and approach.
Tracy spoke about what she saw as the main achievement of her first twelve months in charge, namely, shaking off the shackles of a finite mindset and producing an empowering new vision statement.
At the root of this was changing the way the company saw itself and how it defined itself as a business.
Most publishers, including William Reed, have tended to define themselves by sector or by type: “We serve the food and drink industry”, “We serve the fashion industry”, “We are a publisher”, “We are a podcaster” etc etc etc.
The problem with that approach is that it is inherently limiting. It draws the parameters within which you work, where the only possible goal is a fight for market share with other businesses in the same sector, or of the same type.
Inspired by the work of Simon Sinek, author of ‘Start with why’ and ‘Find your why’, William Reed set out to find their “category of one”, the thing that makes it unique, because therein lies the opportunity.
After many months of internal debate and external consultations, they arrived at a new vision for the company: “We exist to power the business of food globally”.
No walls, no ceiling, no defined ways of doing things, just a raison d'être, which can be realised in any number of exciting ways.
The opportunity is limitless.
“For me,” said Tracy, “it’s the game changer of my first year.”
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