A Global Conversation on Leadership, Diversity and Success with Thomson Reuters

With Susan Taylor Martin, President, Reuters Media, London and Deirdre Stanley, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Thomson Reuters, New York

By: Lisa Heidman, LLB, Senior Client Partner, The Bedford Consulting Group, North American Director of Bedford Legal

Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. Thomson Reuters combines industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial and risk, legal, tax and accounting, intellectual property and science and media markets, powered by the world’s most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in Minnesota and London, England including Reuters Media, Thomson Reuters employs approximately 60,000 people and operates in over 100 countries. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges.  

Susan Taylor Martin, President, Reuters Media

Appointed in July 2011. Susan joined Reuters in 1993 in Business Development and has held a number of different management roles in the company, including running the global news product group and the global equities business.

Prior to her current appointment, Susan was President of Global Investment Focus Accounts. Previously, she was Managing Director, UKI Sales & Service, first for Reuters in 2007, and then for Thomson Reuters following the acquisition of Reuters by Thomson Corporation in 2008. Prior to this role, Susan was Global Head of Corporate Strategy for Reuters. Before joining Reuters, Susan worked in corporate finance, specializing in mergers and acquisitions. She has an MA in Chinese and History of Art from St. John’s College Cambridge and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Ms. Taylor Martin is a Non-Executive Director of Whitbread, UK’s leading hospitality company and is Chairman of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) London Regional Council. She is also a Trustee of the Powerlist Foundation, a charity promoting the development of young people to achieve their full potential.

Deirdre Stanley, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Thomson Reuters

Deirdre joined Thomson Reuters as General Counsel in 2002. In this capacity, she oversees all aspects of the company’s legal affairs and leads the day-to-day operations of the global legal department. Ms. Stanley is also responsible for the company’s government and regulatory affairs function and is a member of the Thomson Reuters Executive Committee.

Prior to joining The Thomson Corporation, Deirdre held various legal and senior executive positions, including Deputy General Counsel, at IAC (previously, USA Networks, Inc.). From 1997 to 1999, Ms. Stanley served as Associate General Counsel for GTE Corporation (a predecessor company to Verizon), where she headed the mergers and acquisitions practice group. She began her career as a corporate associate with the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York.

Deirdre is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), and is a member of the Executive Leadership Council.  She holds a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and a JD from Harvard Law School, where she was a member of the Harvard Law Review. In addition, Ms. Stanley serves on the Board of Trustees for the Hospital for Special Surgery and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Executive Leadership Council.

Ms. Stanley’s awards and recognitions include Inside Counsel’s Transformative Leadership Award (2011); National Law Journal’s 20 Most Influential General Counsel recognition (2009); and Ethisphere’s list of “Attorneys Who Matter” (2009).  In addition, Ms. Stanley was honored by the Girl Scouts of New York City in 2009, for her leadership and commitment to the community and advancement of women and girls.

LISA: WE AT WOMEN OF INFLUENCE BELIEVE PASSIONATELY IN SHARING THE CAREER PATHS AND JOURNEYS OF SUCCESSFUL EXECUTIVE LEADERS FOR INSPIRATION, INSIGHT AND ADVICE. SUSAN AND DEIRDRE, WHEN YOU LOOK BACK TO YOUR OWN BEGINNINGS, HOW DID YOU MAKE THE TRANSITION FROM WHERE YOU BEGAN TO WHERE YOU ARE IN YOUR CAREER TODAY?

Susan: I started professionally as a banker out of college and ended up doing an internship at a merchant bank in London, which was a great training ground from my perspective. That experience persuaded me to go to business school and do an MBA which I really enjoyed, and encourage others to do. The broad exposure to all elements of business is a great starting point. I must admit I went to business school thinking that everyone would be figuring out what they wanted to do next. I quickly realized that I was completely on my own in this, as most of my colleagues had a very clear idea where they wanted to take their careers.

By the time I graduated I knew that I was seeking a corporate role, which was surprisingly unfashionable at the time, so my first job was a very individual search process for me. Reuters was positioned in an incredibly future-forward space of digital information and that was very attractive. I joined Reuters right after my MBA and have been here ever since. I do appreciate that a single company career path is unusual today but some of the many reasons I have stayed so long are the company’s culture and values, combined with our talented people, and the tremendous opportunity Thomson Reuters provided me to stretch and always try new things in the business.

Early on in my career, I didn’t have the credentials or proven experience to take on these senior roles but the opportunities presented themselves and I was fortunate to be chosen. The broad range of leadership, strategy and operational roles I was exposed to and the relationships I was able to build across the company, set me up well for understanding our business and our customers from a variety of perspectives, all of which prepared me well to excel in my role today.

Deirdre: I vividly remember sitting down with my best friend from college and deciding to go to law school because we thought it was the most likely path for us to keep all of our options open. Initially, I joined a law firm in New York as a summer associate and during that time I was exposed to corporate transactional work. Like many young lawyers, I really had no idea of different law practice areas or potential career paths. When I joined Cravath as an associate they had a terrific rotation system where you worked with a different set of partners every 18 months. It was this exposure that allowed me to target where I wanted to practice. I did a mergers and acquisitions rotation and thought, this is getting really interesting, as that work exposed me to a broad range of practice areas and attorneys in the firm. More importantly, it provided direct access to our clients, their businesses and what in-house General Counsels actually do. M&A provided me the opportunity to understand business, not just law, and to see the potential to implement the strategy behind the deal. It became really clear to me that I was more interested in being part of a team that wanted to build and implement a longer term vision and strategy for a company and participate and see its success, rather then advising on the side lines.

Soon thereafter, I targeted in-house counsel roles in media and telecommunications industries as they were undergoing significant consolidation. My first role in-house counsel role was for GTE, a predecessor for Verizon based in Stanford, Connecticut. I was there for two years when the company was going through tremendous change which provided me the opportunity to just go and do a lot more than I ever would have in been able to do in a more structured or stable environment.

When I sought out my next job, at USA Networks, now IAC, I went into a Deputy General Counsel role that was much broader than solely leading M&A and I gained a greater visibility and exposure to the business. In 2002, it was an industry that was moving from pure print to online and they had a department of excellent lawyers but they were not organized in a way that allowed them to deliver the most important strategic services to the corporation. I rolled up my sleeves as I have done at Thomson Reuters to really focus on how we as a legal department could add proactive strategic business advice to our Executive Team and our Board, with the objective to truly become strategic partners to the business. My mandate was and is about our mission and focus, organizational structure and business strategy. As we moved into the new structure, the reputation of the legal department grew with our senior executives. My experience at USA Networks really enabled me to also do this effectively at Thomson Reuters, and I am incredibly proud of the team I work with and lead today.

LISA: IN HINDSIGHT, WHAT CAREER OPPORTUNITIES WERE CRITICAL FOR YOUR SUCCESS? WHAT WERE YOUR KEY LEARNINGS ALONG THE WAY?

Susan: I’ve had a wonderful career and have done a number of things, not because they were on a path that I was carefully planning but because they were interesting and challenging and I do love a challenge. In hindsight, I wish that I had been a little bit more directed and clearer with myself about what I was good at, and what I actually love to do. It’s been a journey, a good journey, and I have enjoyed the world of strategy. I ended up heading up strategy prior to the acquisition and that suited a lot of the core strengths I have around analysis. Then I did something radical. Probably a year before the Reuters acquisition, I decided I really wanted to try an operational role that required moving down a few rungs in the hierarchy, however I ended up running our UK business. In this role, I learned that having the right strategy is less important that having the right people at the table making the decisions, as ultimately the right people will come to the right decisions. I also learned that the sooner one can get their hands on operational and commercial roles, the better.

Throughout my career I have made risky moves and these stretches haven’t always been pleasant or easy. But there is something exhilarating in learning and I do believe that you have to take risks and get out of your comfort zone to be successful. In taking those risks I’ve really been helped along the way by some fantastic mentors and sponsors. When I made that first operational move as Managing Director, UK & Ireland, I had Niall FitzGerald, the Chairman at the time and Tom Glocer, the CEO, both of whom actively supported my move into that role. I had no senior operational experience to point to at the time, so the risk taking was on my part, but equally I had some of our key leaders prepared to take a risk on me. From a sponsorship point of view, it is unbelievably important that leaders see your potential. Their belief in my abilities was essential to where I am today.  Jan – insert Susan’s picture around here. Tagline: Susan Taylor Martin, President, Reuters Media, London, England

Deirdre: One of my key learnings was how important it is to be clear about where you want to go and to actively seek opportunities and experiences that will provide you the best opportunity to use your skill set and abilities to help build the business. I was proactive in my career path, in large part, because I had to be. It’s critically important to have role models and the truth is there simply weren’t a lot of them early on in my career, so it required me to be self-directed and clear on where I wanted to go and what I liked to do. I understand now, how valuable having role models are today and I spend a lot of time mentoring talent both within and external to our business, because of it. Identifying which industries were growing and most interesting to me, and understanding where I could add the most value to the business was also really important. This allowed me to communicate clearly to executive search firms which opportunities were good matches for me, and which would not be, and that indeed is how several of my early in-house counsel opportunities came about.
LISA: WHEN YOU LOOK BACK, WHAT WAS THE DEFINING MOMENT OF YOUR CAREER?

Susan: The defining moment for me was when I became head of Corporate Strategy for Reuters because that was a big step and there were a number of inflexion points. It was a job with enormous responsibility and it was the first executive level role that I had. The second moment was when I became Managing Director of the UK business because again it was that first operational role and that was absolutely critical. Heading strategy really gave me the confidence to see that I could have a positive impact on the business. That second role also helped me understand what I loved doing and how much pleasure there was in terms of delivering exceptional operational performance.

Deirdre: The defining moment for me was becoming General Counsel of Thomson Reuters. What influenced my ability to get that job was that I was the General Counsel at Thomson prior to the acquisition and was doing well in the role. I have learned to appreciate over time, that in addition to hard work and delivering results, and the very best planning, there is also serendipity and luck in business too and I’m grateful for that serendipity and the opportunities provided.

LISA: HOW DO YOU DEFINE GREAT LEADERSHIP? WHAT OTHER KEY COMPETENCIES DO YOU THINK ARE REQUIRED FOR SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP?

Deirdre: Critical to leadership is having a vision for where you’re going. Leadership requires the ability to effectively identify priorities and to set an inspirational direction. People have to see where you’re going and have to believe you will get there. Also important for leadership is a certain awareness and intellectual honesty. It’s self-awareness, as well as a 360-degree awareness of your environment, your business leaders, product and services, as well as the competitive and economic environments that affect your customers. Without that, your leadership will be relatively narrow. In my own role, it’s really about having an understanding about the bigger mission and vision and how that impacts what my team and I have to accomplish. I think that articulation of the vision is really critical for a leader and goes beyond having great communications people and consistent messaging. Equally core to this vision there must be sincerity, a passion to it, because it is that honesty, credibility and clarity that people will understand and believe. Another key leadership competency is developing your ability to influence people and to be able to get buy-in from others, even when you’re not the designated leader.

Susan: The importance of integrity, honesty, authenticity, passion for the business and for your customers is unbelievably important to leadership. You have to tie everything back to what the customer needs and what adds value from the customer perspective. That’s something leaders can lose the more successful they are. The best leaders I have worked with have wonderful creative visions, but they are always firmly rooted in their customers and their changing values and needs. Teamwork is also very important and I have observed this view of leadership change over time. It’s a much more a collaborative effort now than it was in the past. The reality is that it’s always about how to pick fantastically good people and how to get the best out of them. It’s about building an extremely engaged and motivated team.

As for other key qualities, there is nothing more important than an exceptional work ethic. There is no doubt it’s important to work very hard and if you are going to put in those hours, it’s critical to find out what your passion is early on and to enjoy what you’re doing. I’ve found increasingly as I’ve progressed, that I’m able to focus on my real strengths. As you develop self-awareness in your career it’s important to understand what you do well and what you love to do. The other piece that is essential is a combination of honesty, integrity and authenticity. You have to find your authentic voice as a leader. That’s a process over many years but it’s very dangerous to lose that, and it’s incredibly important to keep.

LISA: HOW DO YOU DEFINE SUCCESS? WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE SUCCESSFUL?

Susan: I think one’s measure of success is feeling that you have had a positive impact, in whichever sphere you’ve chosen. It’s a combination of feeling that you have delivered on your own potential, made a difference and that you have enabled others to do the same.

Deirdre: Success is the ability to choose. It’s really about maximizing your choices and engaging in life, in business and in the world, in the way that you want to, and it’s also the ability to enjoy the choices you have made.

LISA: AS LEADERS, WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON DIVERSITY?

Susan: We are living and operating in a very complicated, dynamic, fast moving world. Regardless of industry, the only way that you can deal with these competitive conditions is to have as diverse a team as possible. You want ideas and answers coming from a wide variety of people. So I think diversity in all its forms, is incredibly important.

That said, it’s very difficult and challenging to manage and lead diverse teams. You can understand why people don’t see the importance in doing it, as it is much more time consuming working with people that don’t think like you, than with like-minded individuals. It requires a lot of hard work, real communication skills and patience to work with, and get the most out of, a diverse team. However, the quality and caliber of innovative solutions that come out of a diverse team make it more than worthwhile. Given the volatility of the market, it is absolutely critical to both business and financial success. I think it’s also important to create an environment that enables people to be different and to celebrate their differences of viewpoints and experiences, and to enable and work effectively with those differences. Those organizations that do this well are really exceptional organizations in my mind. Thomson Reuters intends to be leaders in this field, and it speaks to our culture and our values that we are dedicated to doing so. We also understand that diverse teams are simply smart business.

And of course, diversity is hugely important on the talent agenda. We are actively focused on ensuring that we continue to attract and retain the very best talent, at all levels of our business. That is the only sure-fire way that you can continue to remain successful as an organization. Bottom line we know that diversity at the top leads to better functioning teams and that leads to better business and financial results.

Deirdre: I agree that we’ve reached the point where diverse teams at all levels of the business clearly makes good business sense. If you are in the business to consumer business, you just have to look at your customer base in North America. For example, if you do not understand women’s purchasing power and decision-making within a household you will lose opportunities as a company. Even if you’re in a B2B relationship it’s becoming increasingly important from a business aspect and from a talent management perspective. More women graduate from many professional programs than men do now, so if companies want to attract the best talent they have to make sure that their workplaces are welcoming, and reflective of that talent pool. Jan insert photo of Deirdre and Lisa and Lord Thomson somewhere around here. Photo tag line: Deirdre Stanley, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Thomson Reuters, Lisa Heidman, Senior Client Partner, The Bedford Consulting Group, with portrait of Lord Thomson of Fleet, Founder of The Thomson Corporation, in Thomson Reuters corporate offices, New York.

Within Thomson Reuters, Jim Smith, our new CEO, is setting the tone from the top that diversity matters and he is leading the way. For this to cascade effectively down throughout the organization, we have to ensure that the business case for diversity is understood and known first and foremost, and that it’s key to our values and culture as a business. Jim is dedicated to ensuring a truly customer centric culture with a strong focus on execution and an emphasis on the quality and diversity of our talent pool. Our CEO understands that diversity is a business issue and is critical to our continued success, and our ability to remain leaders in our industry globally.

LISA: BOTH CATALYST AND WOMEN OF INFLUENCE HAVE CONSISTENTLY RECOGNIZED THE CRITICAL ROLE THAT MENTORING AND SPONSORSHIP PLAYS IN OPENING DOORS AND PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR SENIOR EXECUTIVE WOMEN. HOW CRITICAL WERE MENTORS AND SPONSORS IN YOUR OWN CAREER DEVELOPMENT?

Susan: Both mentors and sponsors have been absolutely fundamental in terms of my career progression as they saw my potential, sometimes even before I did. A sponsor is someone with influence and therefore power, that is willing to go out on a limb to advocate and recommend you for roles that you may not yet have experienced. One of the big generalizations when discussing these issues is that as women we sometimes fail to put ourselves forward until we believe we’re perfectly equipped to tick all of the boxes required in advance, whereas it’s been perceived that men sometimes put themselves forward as they believe they can get hired on potential. Women should be hired on potential too and what they can contribute in the future. Sponsors and mentors that have believed in my own potential, combined with my own willingness to stretch, to grow, and to then to go and do the work, build exceptional teams and deliver results have all been essential elements to my career success.

For the last 15 years and throughout my working career, I have like all of us, often been the only woman in the room. It’s so refreshing now that this isn’t the case. My mentors have largely been men and each has been incredibly important to me. One of my very early sponsors was Mike Sayers, Chief of Technology. He was a very well respected leader in the organization and the fact that he picked me for critical roles based on his view of my potential was very helpful. Without his sponsorship so early in my career I don’t think I would have progressed as far. Early on mentors were important to me for learning how to navigate the organization and later on, they were helpful guiding my career development. Individually, their advice and guidance has been invaluable. I think for women at the senior executive level however, it takes more than one voice to help you move forward. As your career progresses, collective sponsorship becomes even more essential.

Deirdre: What has been invaluable to me is the importance of peer mentoring. As you get more and more senior, there are seasoned women in business and across industries who have actually had experiences comparable to yours and their insights can be tremendously helpful. The Women of Influence Senior Executive Dinner Series that Thomson Reuters actively supports is an important example of an initiative that is establishing these important Board, CEO and senior executive networks, across industry sectors and US and Canadian borders. Providing a forum for building these senior executive relationships and the sharing of experiences where we can learn from each other and share best practices outside of our own sectors and at this senior level is very valuable to our business and to business globally. Jan add photo of dinner event here. Photo tag line: Women of Influence’s 2011 Senior Executive Dinner at Thomson Reuters, New York.

Susan: I’ve mentored many women over the years and I think it’s an absolutely critical thing that I do, and something I spend a lot of time on. I also think as senior women across the industry we need to be doing more within our organizations and across organizations because we understand the collective challenges and have key learnings to share. In addition, we get visibility together by not just mentoring but sponsoring and championing other women going forward. So I think it’s incredibly important to do, but I do think we could do better, especially from a broader UK context. Our North American sisterhood is good at explicitly demonstrating the importance of women supporting other women in business and across industries. We can and should help each other, and we should be doing so globally.

LISA: IT’S BEEN WELL ESTABLISHED THAT HAVING MORE WOMEN AT THE SENIOR EXECUTIVE AND BOARD TABLES IS JUST SMART FINANCIAL BUSINESS FOR CORPORATIONS WORLD WIDE. IN ADDITION TO THE BOTTOM LINE, WHY DO YOU THINK IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE TO HAVE MORE WOMEN ON CORPORATE BOARDS?

Deirdre: I think it’s very important to have women on Boards, but equally important that women have the opportunity to participate at all levels of every corporation or organization, if you really want to see change. It matters that we are at the table and that we are not alone at the table. I have experienced the difference. The comfort and willingness to speak up and feel supported is very different when you’re one of three women versus the only woman in the room. When there is more than one woman at the Senior Executive or Board table it changes the conversation and enables the discussion in a new way. There is also critical strategy and decision-making that happens at the Board level and having women involved makes it more likely that the work environment is going to consider relevant issues with insight into their diverse employee base.

Susan: It’s important that people in an organization look up to women in leadership roles and recognize themselves in some shape or form and this is true at both the Executive and Board level. When the former Chairman of Reuters appointed two women to the Board it made a huge impression on me. I was an executive on the strategy side then and it was the first time I presented to a Board with two women members. I’m an ambitious and educated woman and I remember leaving that Board presentation thinking that’s a job I could do someday but I hadn’t thought that before, because I hadn’t seen them in that context. It really made a difference to see someone like you in that way and that was very impactful. I understand now and have experienced how powerful it is when the senior leadership team and the Board reflect the diversity of the company and the customers we serve.

LISA: WHAT IS YOUR BEST ADVICE FOR UP AND COMING TALENT? WHAT KEY LEARNINGS WOULD YOU SHARE WITH YOUNG WOMEN OF INFLUENCE WHO ARE STILL DEVELOPING THEIR CAREER PATHS? WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU KNEW THEN, THAT YOU HAVE LEARNED NOW?

Susan: I wish earlier on I’d focused more on what I was naturally very good at and what gave me energy. The sooner you can discover your strengths, the more impact you will have because you can focus on them. This self-discovery is very important. The employee review process in companies often focuses on what you’re not so good at and the areas you need to improve. But unless you have a fatal flaw, you’re much better to figure out what you’re actually great at from a career perspective. Focus on your strengths and don’t get too hung up on your weaknesses. It’s so much easier to be working at something that you are good at and that you love to do. Also it’s important to find an organization whose culture and values align with your own. Seek mentors and sponsors throughout the business and don’t be afraid to take risks, and to grow. Build exceptional teams. Give back and take the time to invest in others and mentor up-and-coming talent, as it will meaningfully open future doors for many other women leaders.

Deirdre: I know now that doing good work is simply the price of admission. Business is about getting the work done but it’s also fundamentally about building relationships both inside and outside of the business. It’s more than ok to get outside your comfort zone and to develop relationships within the company and even the industry broader. In fact this is a critical skill that all leaders over time must learn how to do. Those who develop these effective networking and relationship building skills early on, combined with the ability to clearly articulate their interests and abilities, at all levels, are more often than not, provided growth and new business opportunities. Work hard, build relationships and be clear on where you want to go and how you can add value to the business, and enjoy the journey. There is much to do and tremendous opportunity ahead for all of us.

—
Lisa Heidman, LLB, Senior Client Partner, The Bedford Consulting Group, North American Director of Bedford Legal, brings over 15 years of Legal, Board and Executive Search Experience working with Boards and their Senior Leadership Teams, placing Board, CEO and C-Suite Executives across functions. Appointed to the Board of Directors of Women of Influence in 2009. Lisa can be reached at lheidman@bedfordgroup.com.