Sinead Boucher is the group executive director in charge of journalists and editorial products for Fairfax Media Limited, the largest media company in New Zealand. With a potential merger on the horizon, she understands the need for smart strategy. She enrolled in Strategic IQ at Harvard Business School Executive Education to learn lessons and gain insights that will serve her and her organization for years to come. She shares her thoughts about her experience in the program.
The media industry is going through a profound change that requires bold, well-executed strategies. Our company is also in the midst of a potential merger, so we're at the stage of rethinking our future, developing a new strategy, and determining how to implement it quickly and effectively. I had wanted to attend Harvard Business School for a long time, and I thought this program matched my personal development goals and the needs of my company.
I wanted a learning experience that allowed me to step away from my day-to-day job in editorial journalism, and I thought that joining a global group of participants from different backgrounds and industries was an effective way to do that. In the end, I wanted to be able to return to my company with clear and valuable insights on how to develop a smart strategy and ensure success.
First, it validated the path we had already chosen as a company including the way we've structured and organized ourselves and developed strategy. It also provided useful insights regarding the danger points and commonalities for both success and failure. What I learned in the program will help me evaluate the potential success of the steps we take as a company.
They all resonated, but two in particular stand out. In the case involving Capital One and Providian, both credit card companies adopted strategies that seemed similar on the surface, but the ways in which the companies were organized was different. The Disney case was also instructive. Disney is a huge company, but at its heart, it exists to entertain people. This case examined where the company adhered to strategy and where it veered off and how that affected its success. The case on Facebook was also particularly relevant, as Facebook has disrupted so many businesses and other social platforms. Each individual case had something interesting to offer—and viewing them together, as a whole, revealed the themes, lessons, and commonalities that tie them together.
One thing that surprised me was the feeling that I was on equal footing with the other participants. The idea of coming to Harvard Business School can be a bit intimidating. My background is in journalism, and I'm not a CFO, so I was concerned that I might not have the financial expertise to keep pace. But that concern quickly disappeared when I realized that I actually had something to contribute. The way the classes were structured, with interactive lectures, made it easy to understand the subject matter and participate in the discussions.
I found this program to be extremely worthwhile, and I gained an extraordinary amount of value from it. When I reflected back at the end of each day, I noticed that the lessons were clear—I didn't have to weed through what I had learned to figure out what each session was about. I made a very good choice by attending this program, and I know that it will continue to offer value far into the future.
