The Wright Stuff by Diane Mermigas

Author:Diane Mermigas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RosettaBooks
Published: 2016-03-08T19:46:46+00:00

Wright to the Point

Things often happen for a reason, even though at the time we question the timing and circumstances. What we expect to happen sometimes doesn’t, and we’re disappointed—even devastated. And later, something else happens instead that is more meaningful and right. You just couldn’t see it coming. So you have to go through the difficult emotions.

That’s what happened at the end of my time at NBCU and GE. You expect someone to acknowledge the difference you made and what you helped accomplish. Whether they do or not, you still head out the door wondering what hit you, where the years went, and how what you did will stand up to the test of time. It happens even to the biggest executives; maybe especially the CEOs who are in charge for so long, only to come to the realization that companies and organizations go on. They go on differently, but they go on.

I wasn’t sure what life held for me after NBC and GE. Autism Speaks was created out of a need and quickly consumed us. It’s turned out to be a lot more work than either I or Suzanne expected. And that’s left me little time to sit and wonder what NBCU would be today if we had succeeded with those last few deals—with private equity and DreamWorks.

When organizations change or die there isn’t much anyone can say about it. People either embrace the change or leave the cause. That’s when you realize it is all about the doing while you are there—while you can still make a difference with your vision and passion. There’s no looking back, only forward.

We have the advantage of telling a story that has a beginning and an end that match up with public events. This is a 30-year media adventure for GE that has an end. And I’m the one that had control of the staff and sheep during most of that time. That is the uniqueness of it. I shepherded the flock and a company, and nurtured and executed on a vision for a longer time than anyone in my position in media. But I didn’t make things happen—the people I gathered around me did, so this is their story. This is their achievement. There’s even credit there for GE, even though it felt like they were working against us most of the time.

Everything has its place in this story. GE’s merger of its broadcast and cable holdings with Cox fell through back in 1980, but it gave me my media education. My time heading GE Capital taught me a lot about negotiating and structuring deals that I could not have otherwise appreciated, even with my legal background. GE’s acquisition of RCA landed me at NBC. And from then on I was hooked—hooked on what a broadcaster could become in the evolving age of cable, and then hooked on what a broadcast-cable company could become in the Internet era with digital interactivity.

The highlight of all my time at NBC was the Universal acquisition.

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