On great publishing leadership . . .
With this issue, Kathy Doyle takes over as the top officer at PURCHASING magazine, replacing Jack O'Connor. Go to page 22 for a quick retrospective on Jack's career.
Kathy Doyle, Publisher, Purchasing magazine -- Purchasing, 1/15/2004 2:00:00 AM
Jack O'Connor often said that the most important job of a leader is the care and feeding of stars. As a result, PURCHASING magazine thrived under Jack's leadership with one of the most talented publishing staffs in the world of business-to-business publishing today. He dedicated a good part of his career to teaching the talent pool how to play to their strengths. Demanding of the best and the brightest in the quest for excellence, he raised the bar.
In a fast-moving career world, where employee loyalty lasts, on average, three years, a large majority of the PURCHASING magazine staff have been writing or selling for the magazine for no fewer than 15 years, it's a sure tribute to any leader when business professionals stay the course with you—on a mission through good times and bad.
A journalist by trade, Jack built PURCHASING magazine on the editorial premise that good reporting practices, careful, constant researching of audience needs, and fulfilling those needs would, indeed, build a loyal reader base. He strongly believed that if you never cheated the readers, you could in turn gain advertising support to build a healthy product.
Most great business leaders have an affinity with their customers. And Jack is no exception. He has delivered hundreds of successful speeches around the globe and assumed a strong identity with the people in the world. Over the years, Jack hob-nobbed with some of the biggest players in procurement—people who changed history in the way that U.S. corporations embrace supply chain management. His appreciation for customers goes far and wide. Great marketers spent lots of good times with Jack and his many friendships were a reflection of the honest respect he garnered. Jack always shared the knowledge of buyers and suppliers with communities of people —he did his part to help shape the trends.
As Jack brings his career to a close, most of us on the staff are grateful for Jack's leadership. It has been an honor and a privilege to work for such a great leader.
His shoes will be hard to fill and the challenge lies ahead to live up to the legacy of this magazine. As traditional ways of doing business continue to change, look for new Internet-driven and other innovative products from PURCHASING magazine aimed at helping further improve the delivery of information.
In addition to our regularly scheduled publishing dates, the editors this year will present our 2nd annual Global Procurement Conference on April 20-21. And due to popular demand, we will present a second GPC on October 20-21. As the purchasing and the supply chain functions continue to be counted among the most important functions in business today, we'll work hard to continue to be important to you.
"Me Time" Won't Fly in the SCM Organization
09/29/2009O'Connor's best lines
01/14/2004Global Procurement Conference Sessions
03/05/2003
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