INC.: How does this report card affect your assessment of the manager's performance?
McGOVERN: It would set a base line against which to measure his rate of improvement. I think management is a trainable skill. So the guy sits down with his people and says, "Look here, I've got this terrible meeting score, why is that?" And they will say, "Well, you're a half-hour late for every meeting; you talk all the time, so no one else can get a word in edgewise; and then you leave and there's never any follow up.'
That way, this manager learns what everyone sees as wrong with his performance, and perhaps how to correct it, and meanwhile everybody else gets to ventilate anger and frustration, which is also good.
INC.: What about reader surveys?
McGOVERN: Sure, they help evaluate an editor's work. They're also a leading indicator of what's going to happen a year from now. Suppose readers rate the publication "best quality," "most useful," "want to pick up first." Well, you can count on that publication doing much better in the year to come. By the same token, if there's any falling off in enthusiasm, we know it's heading for trouble.
INC.: Let's talk about your enthusiasm for a moment. Everyone in the company talks about how infectious it is. How do you make use of it?
McGOVERN: For one thing, I try to read all our publications. Grant you, we publish 1.6 million words a day in 18 different languages, so that's a bit of a challenge. When I see a story I like I send writers and editors a little note, a cartoon note, telling them to keep up the good work. Also, at the time of the Christmas-bonus distribution, I try to see every U.S. employee in the company who earned a bonus. I go around and personally give each one a card and a check.
INC.: Every U.S. employee?
McGOVERN: Yes. You can learn almost everything there is to know about an organization by walking through its offices -- the structure of the place, its style, the attitude and morale of the people. It's also the best way of keeping everyone informed. At least once a year, I visit our non-U.S. operations (sometimes a surprise visit), and give them a report on how well the company is doing worldwide, where we're going, and what our goals and values are.
INC.: Did you have to learn this personal style, or did it come naturally?
McGOVERN: It's simply the golden rule. How would I like to be treated if I worked for this company? I would want to be made to feel that I was doing something important. I would want to be recognized and appreciated. And I would want to be fairly treated.
INC.: Do you really think you can make people feel appreciated and fairly treated without sharing your profits with them?
McGOVERN: Well, in terms of economic fairness, I don't think financial rewards are that important in themselves. More important is a belief in the mission of the company, that it is doing something important for mankind, and the sense that their part in carrying out this mission is being recognized and appreciated. That's the point of the ESOP program.
INC.: What do you mean?
McGOVERN: Twenty percent of the company is owned by its employees in an employee stock ownership plan, and we're aiming for that to be 51% by 1990. One of the ESOP program's goals is to provide some incentive for the units -- like Australia and Japan -- to share information among themselves.
But the other is to shift ownership to the people who have given their blood, sweat, and tears to develop a successful business. There are too many instances in which the founder of a company dies in a plane crash, or wants to go live on a yacht somewhere, and the company passes into the hands of outsiders. I wanted to make sure that the future control and direction of the company would be in the hands of the people who built it, the current employees.
INC.: What if they quit? Can they carry their shares with them?
McGOVERN: No, all shares are retained in the ESOP trust. When someone leaves, he or she gets paid the fair market value for shares at the time, so the majority control of the company is -- or will be by 1990 -- in the hands of the current employees at all times.
INC.: What about risky new ventures? Don't you find people getting more and more conservative, frightened that the proven earners like Computerworld will be dragged down by the unproven ones?
McGOVERN: No, not really. Most people seem to agree that it's good for the company to grow. Growth is what provides opportunities, after all, and so senior management always tries to balance commitments to new products with the profitability achieved by the mature products.
INC.: You yourself are said to have a great sense of the market. Where do you get it?
McGOVERN: In IDG, we have the largest market-research group in the world, in our field, so I read all the reports. But I also get a firsthand sense of the facts from going to most of the trade shows and from talking to customers.
INC.: How much time do you spend doing that?
McGOVERN: About 30%. In fact, I'd like to see everyone in the company spend at least 10% of their time with customers, even the accountants.
INC.: What do you do with the other 70% of your time?
McGOVERN: Twenty percent goes to visiting our various offices, here and abroad; maybe another 20% reviewing goals and plans versus results; then 30% looking for new opportunities, reviewing possible new commitments.
INC.: I've heard that some of those commitments get made, on local initiative, without your even being aware of them.
McGOVERN: That's true. When I was in Sweden last year, I was handed four magazines that I didn't even know we published. They had been started in the last three months or so. Now, obviously, if these people had needed $2 million or whatever to get those publications going, I'd have heard about it. Their idea was to do a couple of issues as an experiment. If it's a winner, then they will go ahead and put it down in their plans for the coming year; if not, they can write it off as a pilot project or something. I have no problem with that. It's what they should be doing. How can I tell a manager in Scandinavia whether there's a need for a CAD/CAM magazine there? He's got 50% of his compensation riding on decisions like that, so he's not going to make them lightly. You assume he's done his homework because he's sharing the risk with you.
