Dow Jones CEO Lewis on setting subscription goals

William Lewis, the CEO of Dow Jones & Co. and the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, was interviewed by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop of the International New York Times about his operating strategy.

Here is an excerpt:

Q. How else do you agitate?

A. You constantly think about the next iteration of the model and structure. I need to antagonize the organization to gain some points by saying, “I can’t help thinking we’re not set up the right way for this next journey we need to go on. I need you to do X, help get us to that.” I try to get the balance right between providing stability and certainty, while continuing to privately angst and query if we have it right. As it’s working out, probably about every 12 months we have a conversation about how we’re set up, and if we’re set up correctly for the next phase of consumer change.

As an agitator-in-chief I also think you’ve got to set somewhat challenging targets for the organization. So, for example, we set a three million-subscribers-in-three-years goal about two years ago. At the time we had about around 1.8 million. So it was a big ask for the organization. People thought I’d lost the plot and I’d gone nuts. But we were recovering from a kerfuffle in one of our businesses, where we had stuffed it up and the company was not in the best of forms from a morale point of view. We wanted to find an objective that would galvanize the company and get its mojo back, and although it was greeted slightly with an “Are you crazy?” kind of response, over time it has helped really galvanize the organization and get people working in a much more joined up way.

That stretched visionary goal, I think, is very important. Sometimes I think you also do need to lead from the front, and so we’re talking about me probably antagonizing the organization by moving to simply working on my mobile phone so that when people send me something that’s not set up for mobile phone, I will not open or read it. It’s quite a big step, but I think it’s this type of device, not gimmicks, that enable me to agitate the organization and effect changes.