

So Pat McGovern comes into a bar… - dsr_
http://www.cringely.com/2014/03/20/pat-mcgovern-comes-bar/

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ilamont
I worked for IDG for about 7 or 8 years. The Christmas visit was quite
amazing. Companies far smaller than IDG distribute annual bonuses via an
impersonal notice from payroll, and here we have a corporate leader of an
international publishing conglomerate who goes out of his way to personally
thank most of the people who work for him, chatting for a minute or so about
our jobs and how important the work is that we're doing, making a crack about
our supervisor or local CEO, and then finally giving the envelope with a card
and a check inside. If my company grows to that size, I will make a point of
following a similar practice -- or finding other opportunities to thank people
in some personal way.

One other thing about "Uncle Pat": People now see "billionaire publisher and
philanthropist" but at one time he was a scrappy startup founder, too. His
stories about founding Computerworld and running it out of a Harvard Square
walkup in the 1960s were hilarious. He disrupted the industry in a big way
(most tech publications before then were mouthpieces for advertising
departments of the companies they ostensibly covered) and when CW started with
a mission to be the voice of IT management, advertisers launched a boycott
that lasted for some months or maybe even a year. It's only when they realized
that their customers deeply wanted unbiased news about products and trends
that they gave in and started placing ads in CW (and later its sister
publications, Network World, InfoWorld, etc.). IDG grabbed huge market share
and expanded all over the world, and became the large company it is today.

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wpietri
People are rightly impressed by the personal connection aspect of this. It's
awesome.

But I also think there was something great in in for McGovern. One of the ways
companies go quickly to hell is for executives to stop thinking about the most
important part of any business, which is line workers directly creating value
for customers. Forcing himself to talk to every employee and know what good
things they were doing was a great way to keep in touch with what the business
was actually doing, rather than what his direct reports told him was going on.

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coldcode
Everyone's goal in life should be to be remembered as a good person who made a
difference like Mr. McGovern.

~~~
justin66
Being a good person who makes a difference seems like a worthwhile goal.
Fixating on how you're remembered is often quite a bit darker and I wouldn't
want to make it a life goal.

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jacquesm
Wow, that man can write. And what a nice example mr. McGovern set.

~~~
rbanffy
Indeed he can. I really miss his audio edition - it was much more commute-
friendly than the written one.

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mathattack
That's a very moving tribute to a great boss. It's too bad that he wasn't able
to stop the decline in his empire. Perhaps the personalization didn't scale.
In the end, he's remembered and respected more for the personal connections
than the professional heights.

