Developing people: Nothing is more important

Executive stockholders meeting, April 1982

"More than anything else, Landmark's future will be determined by the caliber of our management and the performance of our employees."
I want to talk with you about something that I believe will have a more lasting impact on Landmark than today's depressed economy ... something that is within our control...something that bears on the kind of company that Landmark is now and is going to become.

That is the management, development and motivation of Landmark's people. This is the subject too long taken for granted by Landmark as well as a lot of other companies. My conviction is that we must build a comprehensive and continuing program for developing our people. I believe that our employees want such an effort, that they deserve it, and that we would be foolish and shortsighted not to provide it.

Under the pressure of change and competition in the marketplace, we often take people for granted. In the heat of doing business, there are natural temptations for all of us to assume that our organization is self-renewing - that because we have succeeded before, we will succeed again. It has often seemed easier to recruit new managers from outside than to grow them from within. It takes time and effort to identify people with potential, to see to their training and career planning, and to do all the things that create a work climate that encourages excellent performance. It is always tempting to wait until next year. The problem is that years slip away while our employees wonder about our policies and plans and what part they have in the future of the company.

If Landmark is to reach its potential, we must nourish our people. We must pay attention to them. We must communicate our attitude toward them through action.

What is Landmark's potential? Two things are clear. Our papers will never be as well-known as The New York Times. And Landmark will never be as big as CBS or Time-Life. Indeed, prestige and being big are not our aspirations. What we can be and what we should want to be is the best-managed, most innovative, most spirited organization in the publishing, broadcasting and cable business.

That is a worthy goal but one that's attainable only if it is shared by Landmark's people. Their attitudes, abilities and spirit ultimately will decide whether Landmark is just one of the crowd - or is set apart and noted for the quality of its performance.

I think of Landmark as a winning organization. Overall, I think our values and personnel policies are sound. But over the years, understanding of them has become uneven and the practice of them inconsistent. Policies not practiced and values not acted out are of little consequence; indeed, they can encourage mockery and cynicism. We can't afford that result, that waste and drag on the fortunes of our team. It is time for Landmark to commit to a serious, thoughtful, planned effort to develop people.

Nothing we can do is more important. More than anything else, Landmark's future will be determined by the caliber of our management and the performance of our employees.

Landmark people want to grow, to learn, to be productive. They want to be part of a company that evokes their pride and uses their energies. They want to serve well a company that serves the public well. That desire is Landmark's most precious asset, and we must nurture it.

People development and organization-building will require willpower and tenacity. There are no quick fixes or easy solutions. We must be prepared to sustain this effort permanently and make it a tradition in Landmark.

Copyright 1982 Frank Batten