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The Conference Board Review® Article
The Board's New Boss
Jonathan Spector looks to tap the wisdom of the world’s top executives.
By A.J. Vogl
As many of you already know, The Conference Board, the publisher of TCB Review, has a new leader. His name is Jonathan Spector, and he comes to us directly from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, where he was vice dean and director of executive education.
Spector, 50, hardly fits the traditional picture of an academic. He has very much of an entrepreneurial mind. Prior to Wharton, he served as CEO of two venture-backed corporations, a wireless Internet service provider, and a consultancy engaged in precision marketing services. Before that, he spent two decades with McKinsey & Company, where many of his clients were in the IT and communications industries.
His appointment took effect April 16, and since then he's been all over the Board, talking to executives and staff, getting a feel for the place and its people. We figured it was about time to hear, if only in a preliminary way, his plans for the Board. TCB Review editor A.J. Vogl interviewed him in the Board's New York offices.
After a few months on the job, what are your impressions of The Conference Board and its people, and what changes do you envision?
Let me begin by talking about the things that don't need to be changed because they form a foundation for the future. First, I think we have a tremendous network of executives who participate in one way or another with the Board -- who join our councils, who speak at our conferences, who attend them, who participate in our research groups. They come from the best companies from around the world and are very intellectually engaged in the issues important to them. I can't imagine that we could improve much upon that.
Second, we are seen as being neutral and independent and trustworthy in terms of doing business. When people share information with us and we say we're going to keep it confidential, they know we will. That gives us access to sources of information that other people don't have -- for example, in China, where Gail Fosler and her team have led the development of a strategic relationship with the National Bureau of Statistics. We're the only organization that has that relationship, and I can't tell you how valuable that is -- to be able to analyze information directly from the Chinese government about the economy.
We also have a staff and culture that is incredibly dedicated to our members. The people who work here really care about The Conference Board; they're passionate about the organization. That comes through in the way people approach their jobs. So our network, our access to information and to companies, and the passion and commitment and longevity of the staff are all real strengths that we can build on.
All that is a starting point. But I think there are some areas where we can improve and expand our scope and our impact. First, we need to engage more substantively with the top executives of the world's biggest companies. Do we already have relationships with these executives? Absolutely. Do they have an awareness of the Board? Yes. Do they have a fondness -- if I can use that word in a corporate setting -- for us? Yes. They want us to do well; they're prepared to listen to us; they're willing to help out. But for most of those top people -- the top ten or fifteen executives of what I'll call the Global 500 -- our relationships are more about membership than they are about the substantive workings of the Board.
Why aren't the relationships more substantive?
Because our service offerings don't really target those top ten or fifteen people. If you look at all the work we do, the reports we write and so forth, most of what we produce and convene relates to the next group of two hundred to three hundred executives.
Comments? Write a letter to the editor.
Return to the September/October 2007 The Conference Board Review® issue.
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