PBS President Paula Kerger gave the keynote address Thursday (Oct. 27) at the Public Broadcasting International meeting, going on this week in Singapore. Kerger told the audience that she recently read the book Great by Choice, by Jim Collins, which examines why some companies thrive in uncertain times and others simply get by. “His findings were surprising, but absolutely relevant to all of us in this room,” she told the representatives from 20 noncommercial broadcast entities.
Collins found “that the best leaders did not take more risks or have grander ambitions,” Kerger said. “Instead, the companies that succeeded were led by people who were more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid. And the companies that succeeded did not adapt more dramatically to their new circumstances. In fact, they changed less in reaction to a radically changing world than their cohorts because they built on their areas of expertise. That’s why I feel confident that by focusing on content, innovation and sustainability we can re-create public media for the digital age.”