This week, I am speaking with Raju Narisetti, Global Publishing Leader at McKinsey & Company, about his colorful personal journey on becoming a leader. We address the changes in work culture among the younger generations and what it means to think about work as an assignment role. Finally, we work out what it means to fail as a leader and how, often, success as a leader is more than a good bottom line.
About Our Guest:
Raju Narisetti’s current role as Leader, Global Publishing at McKinsey & Company, is the latest in a 33-year global career in media and publishing, during which he has created, reimagined and managed major media organizations in North America, Europe and Asia, as well as led from the front in the digital transformation challenges and new ventures in publishing. Raju began as a journalist at The Wall Street Journal where, over 14 years, he went from a Reporting Intern to be the Editor of WSJ Europe, and later Managing Editor — Digital, of the global WSJ, and part of a team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News for 9/11 coverage. At The Washington Post, Raju was the Managing Editor who helped start and shape the newspaper's print/digital transformation. At both WSJ and Washington Post, Raju was the youngest and first person of color in a leadership role.
Raju is also the founder of Mint, a national business newspaper and website in India. After his journalism stint, as a media business executive, he was Senior Vice President of Strategy for News Corp, and later CEO of the Gizmodo Media Group, which then encompassed a group of digital journalism sites that included Gizmodo, The Onion, Jezebel, DeadSpin, Lifehacker, and The Root. Prior to joining McKinsey in January 2020, he was a journalism educator, leading the Knight Bagehot Fellowships in Economics and Business Journalism at Columbia University, where he also was a Professor of Professional Practice at the School of Journalism.
About Your Host:
Anita Zielina is the CEO and founder of Better Leaders Lab. She's also an Executive in Residence at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, where she spent the last few years leading all continuing and executive education initiatives. Anita serves as the inaugural Board Chair of News Product Alliance (NPA) and is a member of the board of directors at the Austrian Public Broadcaster ORF.
For the past 15 years, Anita held senior executive positions focused on product, strategy and innovation in various media and education organizations as Chief Product Officer, Managing Editor Digital, Editor-in-Chief and Director Strategic Initiatives. She has worked with around 500 managers, leaders and entrepreneurs as a consultant, coach and educator.
She holds a Master in Law from Vienna University and an Executive MBA from INSEAD. Anita is an alumna of the Stanford Knight Journalism Fellowship and the Oxford Reuters Institute Fellowship.
About Better Leaders Lab:
Better Leaders Lab is a Do and Think Tank for good leadership and smart management in media and beyond and a boutique strategic advisory firm. BLL specializes in organizational change, strategy and scenario planning, leadership development and executive recruiting research. Its goal is to empower managers, leaders and organizations in the broader media, digital & innovation space to build successful, sustainable, modern and healthy businesses.
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