AEGIS and Ascend–This is a People Business

I hear this all the time…I say it all the time: Magazine publishing is a people business. The products don’t exist in a vacuum, like an iPod (although, considering the durability of my own defunct iPod, I doubt it would exist for long in a vacuum either). You need personalities to develop, market, and sell the products, and you need personalities to consume them. Yet, so often, top level managers forget this. First, I will point you to the example that came to light today: Company lets top talent go; top talent forms rival company; rival company thrives; rival company buys assets from original company less than three years later.

As a young person in a workplace, I hear that “everyone is replaceable” all the time. Clearly, this isn’t always true. Dan Perkins (CEO of AEGIS…click on the above link to catch up) was not replaceable. In fact, I would argue that his leaving the company was a dual tipping point for the dental division’s descent and eventual sale (his departure both began the business’s slide, and the formation of his new company accelerated that slide). If Perkins was not replaceable, then, logically, not everyone is.

Let’s take this one step further. If a mid-level editor leaves a medium-sized magazine. Maybe a lower-level editor steps up and fills that role, and maybe another young person is hired to pick up the slack and assume his/her rightful place at the bottom of the totem pole. Voila! The mid-level editor has been replaced, right? Wrong. Certainly, if all goes well with the internal reorg (and it often does not), and if all goes well hiring a new editor (and it often does not), and if everyone continues to perform at or above the level of the previous incarnation of the staff, then the magazine should continue to function without a hiccup. But, it will be different. Why? Again, this is a people business. The products we produce are the manifestations of our personalities. That mid-level editor’s stamp will no longer be on the pub. And what if–and this has been known to happen–what if the magazine isn’t as good as it was? Well, then that person was not entirely replaceable.

Maybe everyone is replaceable if you want to run some goofy, sub-par business. But if you want to dominate the market, best your competition, and build something–a company, a product, a trajectory toward success–that you can be proud of, then not everyone is replaceable. There are people that you cannot afford to lose–that is, if you want to win.